CONTAGION

Arena

Neo-Prog

4.15 | 740 ratings

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Easy Livin
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

It's definitely catching

More like a follow up to "The visitor" than "Immortal?", Contagion is a concept piece made up of interwoven tracks and recurring themes. It has all the Arena trademarks, but Nolan and Mitchell find more space to display their keyboards and guitar prowess than on previous albums.

It's hard to identify the best tracks as such, with album flowing so well, but "Painted man" and "Spectre at the feast" do stand up as excellent individual pieces. The former has a strong back beat which complements one of Rob Sowden's finest vocal performances. As might be expected, "Spectre at the feast" has a more haunting tone with understated, but atmospheric vocals.

The various soft link tracks repeat a common theme with differing sounds which tie the album together superbly. The music is best described as slightly metallic neo-prog. While there are hints of bands such as Genesis and Marillion in the music, there is a refreshing sense of uniqueness in the style and output of the band.

Not having read Nolan's short story on which the album is based yet, I'm not really sure what the concept is(!), but this is a top quality album, which sits well with their previous releases. That in itself is high praise indeed. As with all Arena albums, and indeed most of the really great albums, those new to the band may find that it takes several listens to catch "Contagion", but rest assured, it is well worth the effort.

"Contagion" was followed by "two extended EPs, "Contagious" and "Contagium" which contained tracks omitted from the album. The band have indicated that an extended version of the album will be released at some stage which places those tracks in context.

Easy Livin | 5/5 | 2004-3-5

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