CONTAGION

This is one of the four Arena albums that I own, so it's safe to say that this is by far their greatest achievement among their highest rated releases! The obvious question would be: Why is this album so hard to surpass? Simple really, Contagion has a feel and look of an epic concept album. Since we know that what looks, feels and , most of all, sounds like an epic concept piece, is very likely to be just that.

Granted that the previous statement wasn't all that explanatory in conveying the true magnitude of the performance I'll try to put it more frankly. Since the release of Immortal? it foreshadowed that great performance and most of all the song writing that the band were capable of. All they really had to do here was to create the right atmosphere for their material to work and after the hard lesson of The Visitor there seemed to be no doubt as to how to undertake such a task.

There are quite a few memorable performances featured on this album but it's ultimately the overall flow of the material which wins me over even more than Immortal?. It's all about a nice one hour long journey that is great to undertake once I'm in a mood for some melodic rock compositions performed in a dramatic conceptual way with strong melodies and ultimately a strong overall pay-off.

To be completely honest, I still haven't figured out the album's whole concept for myself, but I heard that the two EPs Contagious and Contagium do clarify it quite a bit. Unfortunately I've never had a chance to listen to them. But that being said, I believe that this albums music stands very well on its own. So if you enjoy the Neo-Prog genre then check it out!

***** songs: Witch Hunt (4:17) Mea Culpa (3:46) Ascension (4:34)

**** songs: An Angel Falls (1:13) Painted Man (4:41) This Way Madness Lies (3:35) Spectre At The Feast (5:34) Never Ending Night (3:23) Skin Game (4:43) Salamander (3:59) On The Box (2:40) Tsunami (2:38) Bitter Harvest (2:52) The City Of Lanterns (1:22) Riding The Tide (4:28) Cutting The Cards (4:57)

Total Rating: 4,22