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Arena - The Visitor

Artist:	Arena
Title:	The Visitor
Label:	Verglas Music VGCD 012
Length(s):	61 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1998
Month of review:	07/1998

Line up

Clive Nolan - keyboards
Mick Pointer - drums
Paul Wrightson - vocals
John Jowitt - bass
John Mitchell - guitars

Tracks

1)	A Crack In The Ice	7.25
2)	Pins And Needles	2.46
3)	Double Vision	4.25
4)	Elea	2.36
5)	The Hanging Tree	7.10
6)	A State Of Grace	3.26
7)	Blood Red Room	1.48
8)	In The Blink Of An Eye	5.29
9)	(Don't Forget To) Breathe	3.40
10)	Serenity	2.10
11)	Tears In The Rain	5.44
12)	Enemy Without	5.05
13)	Running From Damascus	3.45
14)	The Visitor	6.14

Summary

The long awaited concept album from Arena has already been released for some time and now finally I got my hands on a review copy. I heard that in the first two weeks of its release it already broke the sales of Pride their previous studio album. Quite an accomplishment.

The music

Opener A Crack In The Ice is directly the longest track on this hour-long concept album. The opening theme is very good. Alongside the rather straightforward chorus-verse part, that sounds rather like we are used to, there's also a dark part at the end and some strange rough edges in the middle. The last part of the track sounds downright eerie. Pins and Needles sees a departure from the Arena-style. This is a ballad with whistling keyboards and repetitive acoustic guitar. The voal harmonies return on the next one, Double Vision. The Haning Tree is a very peaceful track and can be likened to Pins and Needles and I guess these tracks, with the 12-string, are the ones that remind people of Genesis. A very nmice Floydian passage in this track, with soaring guitarc over a dense layer of keyboards. A state Of Grace is a pumping rock song with quite aggressive vocals. This can be contrasted with the cosmic and short Blood Red Room. In The Blink Of An Eye is build on a riff and sounds a bit familiar. The tempo is quite high on this track. After the singalong Breathe, which has a nice vocal melody, the instrumental Serentiy points again a finger at Pink Floyd. We move then right into Tears In The Rain, the opening of which reminds me a little of Silent Companion of the first Stranger On A Train. This track does contain vocals however and in this case it is a mid-tempo ballad, a bit thoughtful, with a nice clear guitarsolo. The Enemy Without has a painfully arousing opening melody, really something to not hold still by and thoroughly catchy. The chorus is more typical for Shadowland (singalong); the bridge is very well done. In the mellotron passage we move quickly into Running From Damascus, with quick and arousing drumming. The following guitarwork has little meaning, but fortunately A Crack In The Ice recurs here and the music shifts into higher gear with vocal harmonies and ever more energy. The title track closes the album. This is a track in the famous seventies Genesis style and is in fact a great track with a tremendous guitarsolo at the end.

The artwork is great.

Conclusion

When I heard people telling me of this album it seemed like the band had departed larhgely from its style, but it seems to me that instead of sounding like Arena all the time on their previous albums (and I'm ignoring the interludes on those albums now), they have incorporated some more ingredients into their music. Most notable are the acoustic pieces that might remind some of Genesis (and in some cases certainly also myself, i.e., the title track). The music is more thematic then otherwise and less songdirected and there is even some space for soundexperiments. The larger part of the music is still Arena though, it's just become a large one.