THE VISITOR

"The Visitor"is the second album after I heard that Arena "Contagion". And while "Contagion" was an indisputable masterpiece, with a constant flow of great maturity and evidence of a original sound (i love the voice Snowden), the same can not be said of "The Visitor".

This is a good album, yes, but not the great masterpiece of neo-prog I thought was.Some reviewers commented that the influences of Marillion shown in the first two previous albums dissapears.I say that no.You not only is influenced by Marillion, but also there are echoes of Pendragon (The slow and melodic tracks.) so the sound is not original, unlike "Contagion" (which still had influences from heavy metal and Genesis, but the latter is present in every band of neo-prog).

There are positive aspects, of course.The three major tracks, "A crack in the ice, " "The Hanging Tree" and "The Visitor " is exceptional. "The hanging tree" is beautiful, with above-average vocals.Wrightson has a good voice and your tone is not very different from Snowden (actually I did not even realize they were two different singers).

3.5 stars.Good album, but could be better.