Description

It's only just 2005 and already a major new prog album hits the stores. This latest by Arena follows up 2003's ambitious and highly regarded "Contagion" album. For some reason I was not completely convinced by it. There was no denying it had some killer tracks, but I found the format of lots of shorter tracks hard to digest and the album didn't seem to flow easily. Unlike "Immortal?", where the expansiveness of lengthier tracks allowed the band to stretch out and made for a much more exciting and satisfying album. Like that album, there are seven tracks which make up "Pepper's Ghost" and I havemore… to say for me this is the best Arena album yet. The album is subtitled "7 stories of Mystery and Imagination" on the front sleeve and therein lies the concept behind the album, drawn out in cartoon strip within the CD booklet. The members of the band are portrayed as Victorian superheroes which inhabit each story. The songs themselves are quite excellent, tightly structured, highly melodic and full of power, but showcasing subtly detailed arrangements. The band has never sounded so confident and impress as a complete, integrated performing unit. Arena are now reaping the benefits of working with a settled line-up at last. Musically, this is Arena's most powerful album. The guitars of John Mitchell are much to the fore on this, with Clive Nolan's keyboards adding the necessary symphonic colourings, especially on the closing 13 minute "Opera Fanatica". Here, swirling synths evoke a mad, carnivalesque atmosphere, just the right mood needed for this epic piece. I like Rob Sowden's voice, which always reminds me of Peter Hammill and is quite refreshing. Not the usual vocal histrionics normally associated with heavy rock music. It has a deep, theatrical edge to it which is quite distinctive and especially suits the material here. It would have been so easy to make everything sound overwrought, but Rob just adds that right amount of drama to the proceedings without making it all sound too over the top.It's difficult to pick highlights as the quality of the songwriting and performances are consistently high throughout. The closer "Opera Fanatica" stands out because of it's length and the use of the operatic opening leading to a heavy rock assault is quite effective. My particular favourite is "Purgatory Road" which has an excellent chorus and superbly rousing finale and the opening "Bedlam Fayre". "The Eyes of Lara Moon" may owe a small debt to the film "Eyes of Laura Mars" and contains a gorgeous Hackettesque guitar solo from Mitchell . The cartoon strip format of the cover and booklet is entertaining. The artwork for this is attributed to Tim Bisley. A nom de plume I suspect as the name was a character from the Channel 4 series "Spaced" who was also a cartoonist. In any event, the artwork is exquisite and good fun, though the limited size of the CD booklet format somewhat limits the overall effectiveness of the cartoon strip. Though Arena are often tagged as a neo-prog outfit, whatever that means nowadays, on this evidence they are out on their own, producing a distinctive heavy symphonic rock. This is an excellent way to start the year and has already garnered high praise from many quarters. Even though this is only January, this should be on many peoples end of year best of lists.

Tracks

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Info:

Category:

Music > Albums

Case Type:

CD

Release Type:

Retail

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Cover Info:

Title:

Arena - Pepper's Ghost (2005) Retail CD

Part:

Front

Dimensions:

953 x 953 px

Size:

221 KB

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13/12/07 by musicworld

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