DOUBLE VISION

Ninth overall studio album for Arena and third and final release with overall fourth vocalist Paul Manzi, 'Double Vision' came out in 2018 and has since been one of the better received modern neo-prog releases. This album definitely takes on and expands that creative sonic line running across the entire era of the band with Manzi as the lead vocalist - shorter, catchier songs that have a strong classic hard rock edge, whilst preserving the band's progressive pedigree. A fair presentation for a well-seasoned band full of talented musicians, most of which are also involved in several other projects in the realm of prog.

A solid album for sure, but also one whose initial impression fades away after repeated listens, it is one of these records you can definitely appreciate for what it is, but the passing of time, with the ageing of the album, indicates that you do not have too much use for it, when compared to other releases by the same artist. Apart from this, I would probably never understand that horrendous cover art showing this software-manipulated nausea-causing image of a double-eyed, double-mouthed red-eyed man. Kind of fits the music, especially the ominous, spookier tones, but by itself it is a really bad album art.

Yes, there is a major 22-minute epic closing off the album, and I would say that this is the best track on 'Double Vision', but apart from this one and the pretty solid opener 'Zhivago Wolf', the rest of the songs do not excite as much as older material by Arena. Good by itself, but far from being too special, too daring, necessarily groundbreaking, this album takes its righteous spot as one of the fine releases by the Surrey neo-prog masters. Still, I would go on to call it somewhat safe, keeping in mind that this is the band responsible for 'The Visitor' and 'Contagion', two tremendous releases.