SONGS FROM THE LIONS CAGE

This fisrt Arena was wonderful! The only two members remaining now of this release are the keyboardist Clive Nolan and the ex-Marillion drummer Mick Pointer, but the feeling, the great compositions and good lyrics of all the later Arena´s albums are here yet. Even the Keith More guitar sounds a little similar to the Jon Mitchell´s one...

Maybe the singer John Carson is very similar to Fish sometimes, but it doesn´t matter, because he sang with a lot of feeling, and the most important fact, he sang great songs! I really like the work of every member of the group in this album, but it´s not a problem for me, because I like the members of the other albums too!!!

The only weak point I find in this album are two songs: Crying for Help III (a little bit repetitive...) and Midas Vision (not bad at all, bot doesn´t reach the great level of all the other songs of the album...)

Best songs: Out of The Wilderness (marvellous final choirs!), Valley of the Kings (very complete song with an epic ending!), Jericho (the perfect neo-progressive song, and the best of the album in my opinion), Crying for Help IV (just very beautiful, with a superb Steve Rothery´s guitar solo...) and Solomon (another epic, grandilocuent song, with a impressive instrumental section in the middle!).

Conclusion: A MUST FOR NEO-PROGRESSIVE FANS!!! In my opinion, very better than other bands like IQ or Pendragon...

My rating: ****1/2

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