PEPPER'S GHOST

The latest of Arena's albums proves to be truly awesome. Not quite 5 stars, but at the top end of 4. The general sound is a heavy Arena, much like their more recent albums, but with the usual neo-prog keyboard solos, the artful guitar work, appealing drum sequences and subtle bass riffs. Down to the tracks.

1. Bedlam Fayre (6:08) - A booming track to begin with - a lot like Witch Hunt from Contagion. Sadly there's no real solos but the vocals are excellent (save 2 sections with a few may disagree with). The end has a great build up.

2. Smoke and Mirrors (4:42) - Almost the shortest track, but not a moment wasted. It remains epic in its short length, with solos, choruses, the works you'd expect from a track. With single potential, too. Very pleasing riffs here.

3. The Shattered Room (9:45) - The first 'epic' on the album - and what a track this one is. The first 5 minutes are pretty good, but soon the song heats up and builds to an epic finale. The centre piece is the guitar solo towards the end - very fast, instantly catching, if a little too short.

4. The Eyes Of Lara Moon (4:30) - Shortest track - but not by much. This is generally acoustic and is quite good, but nothing exceptional.

5. Tantalus (6:51) - Another epic. The start opens with some nice piano but some fairly odd lyrics (Standing in water/But dying of thirst). This heats up further on, saving to a monumental finale, featuring awesome guitar. Sadly it fades out, which brings the ending down, but the rest of the song is still great.

6. Purgatory Road (7:25) - Starting with a very odd, screaming guitar sound, this one opens up to be a good song. Based mainly around vocals with a instrumental section in the middle, the choruses are excellent, as well as the riff.

7. Opera Fanatica (13:06) - The finale to the album. Not as good as I had hoped. Opening with opera singing, it bursts into a powerful riff, introducing the listener to some great keyboard and guitar parts that keep returning. Buried beneath the riff is an excellent bass line - listen to the song with headphones on to appreciate this. There isn't very much variety and the main riff/solo part is repeated a bit too much, but vocals are as colourful as usual.

Highlights are The Shattered Room, Tantalus, and Purgatory Road. Opera is a bit too long, Moon and Mirrors are a bit too short - but all the tracks have their merits and are all worth listening to. If it wasn't for these slight problems, this would get the full 5 stars, but at 4, it still remains excellent.