SONGS FROM THE LION'S CAGE

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What we have here are a future classic album in the progressive and symphonic genre. It has classical tracks such as "Out Of The Wilderness", "Valley Of The Kings" and the epic masterpiece "Solomon". Steve Rothery of MARILLION is doing a guest appearance on guitar on "Crying for Help IV". - ARENA was formed by the former MARILLION drummer Mick Pointer, who's also responsible for all of the song writing together with the keyboard player Clive Nolan (PENDRAGON, SHADOWLAND etc.). Keith More is doing a great job on his guitars. This album is very reminiscent to the FISH-era MARILLION albums but there's also reminiscences to both GENESIS and YES. - The music, the album cover, the musicianship and the production is top notch and there isn't really anything to complain about. If you liked the FISH-era MARILLION there's no doubt that you'll love this album as well. Recommended!

This is another neo progressive album in the MARILLION and PENDRAGON style. Many parts here (guitar solos, drums and keyboards) really sound like MARILLION in the FISH-era. (end of "Out of the Wilderness", "Valley of the Kings", "Jericho" ...)

"Crying For Help I" is a beautiful acoustic guitar track a la Steve HACKETT. "Crying For Help II" is a very symphonic track having a classical genre. (harpsichord-like) "Crying For Help III" is a floating new age track a la ENYA. "Midas Vision" has a GILMOUR-esque guitar solo that can be compared to "Time" on "Dark Side of the Moon".

Clive Nolan's moog solos a la MARILLION are very melodic and catchy. As a composer, he still shows us here that he can produce miscellaneous amazing sounds and patterns. Everything is never bland, rather catchy and addictive. Lead vocals are very emotive, reminding the singer FISH (MARILLION).

The best song IMO is "Crying For Help IV": it is a Roger WATERS' "Amused to "Death's" Miracle-esque jewel: listen to this floating organ + echoed piano notes; attend the song progression and the emotion from the lead vocals!! This is really OUTSTANDING!! This song ends with an excellent melodic MARILLION-esque guitar solo. We have bits of quintessence: on the last track "Solomon", at 8:00 and 10:00!! Just listen to that incredible bass!! Unbelievable!! The guitars, drums and keyboards complete those quintessential bits. WOAH!

ARENA makes a type of prog that grabs you by the throat. Call it muscle prog, hard prog, it's altogether a powerhouse of keyboards, scorching guitars, bass and drums that hit you in the right places, dramatic vocals and catchy melodious musical passages bearing the purest Clive Nolan signature. This is simple prog, however: with no frills or fancy guitar noodling à la FLOWER KINGS, for example. "Jericho", with its slow build-up to an anthemic finale, is a fine example of the style the band would go on to perfect on their subsequent albums. Other notable tunes are the opening track "Out of the Wilderness", "Valley of the Kings", "Solomon" and the devestatingly beautiful slow number "Crying for Help IV" (which will be slightly modified on the E.P. "The Cry") - my favourite twilight song as I like to call it. Although a far cry from "The Visitor", "Songs from the Lion's Cage" is a stunning debut album and as such is sure to go down in the annals of prog history.

I was happy the first time I got a cassette version of the band which was formed by ex marillion's drummer Mick Pointer and Pendragon's key member Clive Nolan. This album is another piece of what so called "neo progressive" music that really fit my musical taste. I love Mick Pointer not because of his drumming capability, but his involvement with Marillion, my favorite band. Nevertheless, this debut album of Arena is excellent. "Out of The Wilderness" is a track with heavy keyboard playing and some guitar, up-beat tempo. This is a typical nice track to be played after you wake up in the morning. Powerful. This album has a series of "Crying for Help" piece that is continued in their second album "Pride" as well. You must try "Crying for Help II" (track 4) which represents a heart breaking piece with deep touch on classical music. This track is a very nice instrumental music. Once it's done, the more energetic piece of music flows naturally to next track "Jericho" which then became their favorite live track. For those of you who like Hackett style of guitar playing, you will definitely enjoy "Crying for Help IV" where Steve Rothery of Marillion contributes on guitar part. This track also reminds me to "Chelsea Monday" from marillion's Script for A Jester's Tear. "Solomon" is a brilliant decision by the band to put this track as a closing to the album.

A roaring debut, with the wisdom of Solomon

Arena's first album borrows more from the band members' previous affiliations and influences than later albums did. There's less of the band's own "identity" which would be stamped so definitively on later albums such as "The visitor" and "Contagion". It's still an excellent album though, with many fine (neo) prog rock moments.

The opening track, "Out of the wilderness" has an early Marillion feel, with "Fugazi" like marching themes, and various time changes. "Valley of the kings" continues the Marillion sound, perhaps with hints of Gabriel era Genesis. There's some fine synthesiser from Clive Nolan, who moves to organ for the excellent "Jericho", a track which once again has an infectious marching rhythm.

The closing track, "Solomon" is often cited as the band's finest track. It is certainly still a live favourite, and at over 14 minutes, a well structured prog rock masterpiece. For those who like their prog to include synthesiser and guitar solos, time changes, a story line, fine vocals, and a majestic ending, "Solomon" meets the bill on all fronts.

The album includes the first four "Crying for help" interludes, which were later grouped together on "The cry" EP.

An excellent first effort from the band which demonstrated their vast potential, more than fulfilled on later albums. Essential for "Solomon" alone, but don't let that blind you to the quality of the other tracks.

Arena? Guarenteed every time.

Even 10 years after the launching of Songs from the Lions Cage, the sound's fantastically bombastic. Powerful prog done with experience and a keen sense of melody.

Fans of complex and pushed-forward progressive, this is not for you. Arena never really invented a genre, instead they improved a formula popularized by Marillion by pumping up the VU meter on the producer's mixing console. Bigger sound and harder edge, néo-prog needed that intensively. The néo-prog genre tends to be more sappy, melancolic and generally more on the softer side. While Pendragon, Marillion, IQ, Illuvatar and other such are betting on harmony, softeness and many times marshmallow-lame-afternoon-soap- opera, Arena is standing on the edge of mental anxiety and questionning. This gives the lyrics a dramatic sense but on the darker side of life. On paper this could sound rather negative or depressive, but with the music it takes a real sense.

With the Visitor album, this album is at the top of the shelf. Why? The melodies are so keyboard-catchy and the songs are longer with some of the best they made. Give a listen to Solomon, Valley of the Kings and the Crying for Help suite. The melodies are simply carved for life in your head. Nolan and Pointer are really proving themselves to be a killer team as time goes by, but the icing is that it's been like that since the beginning!

If you're aiming for Arena be sure to know what you want. Don't expect complexity or stratospheric performances and long solos. This is not a performance band. The songs are done with energy and professionalism BUT the main goal of Arena is to entertain with good melodies. If you want catchy stuff with punch, passion and more attitude, you got it.

Despite being a Fish era inspired by Marillion record, this album stands for one of the best of the 90's. Arena really tooked an old recipe and shot some grandeur steroids in it's veins. This was supposed to be a one-time experience!

This records stands as a standard in the 90's renaissance of the genre. If you see it, don't think by the cover that it's another obscure band, this one's for real.

No doubt about the qualities of the members (including guest musician Steve Rothery) but this prog lacks any emotion and sounds so derivative! Of course the compositions sound dynamic featuring lots of catchy melodies and exciting keyboard soli but after 10 minutes I'm longing for some warm acoustic guitar or moving flute-Mellotron, what a bombastic prog wall paper!

It´s not a perfect masterpice...But almost!!!

This fisrt Arena was wonderful! The only two members remaining now of this release are the keyboardist Clive Nolan and the ex-Marillion drummer Mick Pointer, but the feeling, the great compositions and good lyrics of all the later Arena´s albums are here yet. Even the Keith More guitar sounds a little similar to the Jon Mitchell´s one...

Maybe the singer John Carson is very similar to Fish sometimes, but it doesn´t matter, because he sang with a lot of feeling, and the most important fact, he sang great songs! I really like the work of every member of the group in this album, but it´s not a problem for me, because I like the members of the other albums too!!!

The only weak point I find in this album are two songs: Crying for Help III (a little bit repetitive...) and Midas Vision (not bad at all, bot doesn´t reach the great level of all the other songs of the album...)

Best songs: Out of The Wilderness (marvellous final choirs!), Valley of the Kings (very complete song with an epic ending!), Jericho (the perfect neo-progressive song, and the best of the album in my opinion), Crying for Help IV (just very beautiful, with a superb Steve Rothery´s guitar solo...) and Solomon (another epic, grandilocuent song, with a impressive instrumental section in the middle!).

Conclusion: A MUST FOR NEO-PROGRESSIVE FANS!!! In my opinion, very better than other bands like IQ or Pendragon...

My rating: ****1/2

I listened to this album for the first time in 1997. I don`t have it in my collection. I listened to it because one of my brothers has it. It was given to him as a gift by a German friend who my brother met when he lived and worked in Germany for one year. I was curious to listen to this album as I read a sticker in the CD cover which says "Former Marillion`s drummer Mick Pointer`s New Band" or something like that.The CD looks more like an independent release, I mean, like an album released by the band with their own economic resources and not by a major record label, but maybe I`m wrong. Anyway, this band has their supporters and fans, and I also support the idea of "creative freedom" for bands.

This album has some interesting things, a good recording and mixing, good musicians and some good songs, but I couldn`t be very much interested in buying their new albums. The atmospheres are somewhat "dark", both in music and in lyrics. The band is obviously very influenced by other Progressive Rock bands and by Marillion`s music too, IMO. Maybe some of the Neo-Progressive bands have to work harder than old Progressive Rock bands to have an own identity. Maybe this was the case in my interest with Arena`s albums.

I didn`t like Mick Pointer`s drums playing in MARILLION`s first album, "Script for a Jester`s Tear". I think that at that time the band had good reasons for the change of drummer, but when I listened to this Arena`s first album I was impressed in how good Mick Pointer was playing the drums. He improved a lot in his playing since he left Marillion, and his playing is one of the more positive things in this album. The keyboard player, Clive Nolan, is also very good.

Attention Marillion fans! The long lost album made right before Fish left the band has been found! Okay, all jokes aside, the first Arena album does host a lead singer greatly influenced by Fish which makes this album all the more queer. Suffice it to say, if not for Clive Nolan's fantastic keyboards, (the best in the Neoprog field?) this album for me would have gone into the 'to be sold' pile toot sweet. Now, I'm not knocking Neo like a load of prog fans do. I happen to really, really like IQ and early Marillion, but with all the riffery that goes on in this album it's too close to cheesy metal for my tastes. If I want metal, I'll listen to bands that don't have the cheese factor. Yeah, you know what I mean. I can just picture Spinal Tap and all the 80's hair bands playing this sort of thing with keyboards. Makes me cringe! What sets this particular album apart is the nice instrumental breaks between songs. Kinda gives you a breather from all the bombast. Standouts for me are 'Valley of The Kings' and 'Solomon'. Both songs have excellent interplay between Nolan's cascade of keyboards and just a smidgen of cliche guitar work via Keith More. Otherwise, it's wankery and I don't like it. A solid 3 star affair for me and probably 4 or more for huge fans of Neo. Okay Fish, you can stop using John Carson as an alias ;-p.

A great debut album!

Since I got to know ARENA through this site The Visitor , Immortal? and Contagion were the first albums I purchased, because they had the best ratings. After having listened to those albums many times I started really liking this band and decided to buy the rest of their studio albums.

Songs From The Lion's Cage was a very pleasant surprise. The first thing I noticed between The Visitor and Immortal? was that ARENA had replaced their lead singer. And I must admit I was initially impressed more by the voice of Paul Wrightson than by the voice of Rob Sowden. However: I must cut Rob Sowden some slack, since he has proven to be a very talented singer who fits well to ARENA's music. What I didn't know was that ARENA had yet another lead vocalist on their debut album called John Carson. His voice is quite similar to Paul's and even reminds me of Fish. And we have Mick Pointer (ex-Marillion) playing the drums, so that ARENA's debut album even sounds quite a bit Marillionesque might be more than a coincidence.

What I like especially about Songs From The Lion's Cage is the variety in songs. Some songs are merely instrumental and very "spacey" (e.g. Crying For Help III ) and this stands in great contrast with the heavier edged ones. (e.g. Solomon )

Conclusion: All and all Songs From The Lion's Cage is a debut to be proud of and was already an indication of what was yet to come.

A solid 4 stars well deserved!

Arena is one of my preferred Neo-prog band. On this album, all songs are composed by Mick Pointer (ex-Marillion) and Clive Nolan (a great songwriter and a keyboard player I like very much). Rothery will even be featured on the guitar on a small piece in this album (but what a solo!). Clive and Mick are ther cement of this very good band (studio or live - I've seen them once in our prog Mecca in Belgium : Spirit Of 66 - thanks Francis). They are still in the line-up as I write this review.

The album structure is a bit strange : some long numbers interrupted by the "Crying For Help" theme.

The opener is a brilliant number. It is a complex song with an extraordinary intro : Floydian background, Crimson hypnotic guitar riff. Very promising, indeed. This is a typical Arena song. Very strong and powerful. Carson sounds at times as Fish when he tries to match his so delicate and subtle voice. This is probably the number during which the Marillion filiation is the more obvious (especially in the wonderful final section).

The first "Crying For Help" is an acoustic guitar interlude that reminds me of "Mood For A Day" (Yes) or "Horizons" (Genesis).

"Valley Of The King" is not as good as the opener, but still features a great Nolan on the keyboards. He is really amazing. The tortured vocals, are rather Gabriel oriented. A good song but a bit of additional "grandeur" would have been welcomed. The number lacks a bit in personality. An orgy of keyboards is not always sufficient to make a great song.

"Crying II" : sounds as a medieval madrigal. One could easily imagine the picturesque scene of the some noble ladies listening to a group of troubadour during the the middle ages. Very light music (like Tull at times).

The start of "Jericho" is extremely melodic. Carson sounding as ... Carson who is pretty good by the way. This is a very nice and quiet song which evolves to a similar sound (around half of it) as in "Eleven Earl Of Mar". The finale is truely bombastic and sounds finally as Arena. They should keep on like that, really.

"Crying III" : sounds 100% like Land's End. Same ocean-like -oriented music. Only perturbated at the end by a telephone ring, then a joke : "This is the problem line, we're not in right now, so please leave a message". Nice break to relax.

It fades into "Midas Vision", which is a catchy and poppier song. On the heavier edge of the band. The guitar break is fully Gilmouresque. This is another good song from this rather encouraging debut.

"Crying IV" : is a very mellowish and melancholic track for most of its part. It truely sounds miserable for about three minutes. And then, we'll have this fantastic guitar solo from Mr. Steve Rothery himself. Really brilliant. Again, David is around the corner.

The best track of the album is : "Solomon". Arena will be used to produced a brilliant closing numbers.

The first guitar break is made of pure Floydian sounds (Gilmour era). Fortunately is sounds as Arena during the vocal sections. It is rather grandiose and bombastic during the long and powerful finale. This will be a trademark of the band for other epics to come. This long piece of music (almost fifteen minutes) is extremely pleasant and varied. By no means boring for a second. Two-third of it are really personal and defines the Arena style.

This first album indicates that they had not yet made a choice about their future sound. They hesitate between Marillion, Floyd and Genesis which is fine with me since those are ones of my most beloved bands. This first album, still is very good; Arena will need some time to develop their genre. They will have a long career (still in progress) which I will be delighted to comment all the way through.

Four stars for these very good debut.

I feel that "Songs from the Lion's Cage" their debut record, and the follow up "Pride" are good albums just not essential.Their excellent albums start with "The Visitor".ARENA was formed by the former MARILLION drummer Mick Pointer, and the former PENDRAGON keyboardest Clive Nolan.The band thanks (in the liner notes) PALLAS for the use of thier mellotron,Fudge Smith,Peter Gee,Nick Barrett and Karl Groom.Tracy Hitchings would add backup vocals to this album.I would also mention that the "Classic Rock Society" voted this as the best album for 1995. "Out of the Wilderness" opens with mellotron as guitars and synths trade off solos.I can't get over how much the singer John Carson sounds like Fish!The keys and drumming are outstanding.Some good soaring guitar as well."Crying for Help I" consists of Hackett like acoustic guitar melodies."Valley of the Kings" is dominated by synths and drums in the intro.Some aggressive guitar follows as vocals come in.The keys swirl about and the mellotron is fantastic!Theatrical vocals follow. "Crying for Help II" features light keys as flute melodies join in. "Jericho" has some sad lyrics and church organ.The drumming is crisp, and we get waves of mellotron 5 minutes in.The song does becomes a positive uptempo number."Crying for Help III" has some good piano with synth washes that create a haunting soundscape."Midas Vision" has a nice heavy intro as passionate Fish like vocals come in.Scorching guitar solos come and go."Crying for Help IV" features piano and vocals until Steve Rothery adds a beautiful guitar solo (to end the song) that lasts over a minute! "Solomon" is the epic at almost 15 minutes in length.It mentions the bands name as well as the title of this album.I'm sure this is still a significant song for the band.It opens with keys and vocals as a heavy guitar melody comes in.The mellotron 3 minutes in amazing.There is a cool vocal melody 7 minutes in as the song becomes more uptempo.This all sounds so good, and then 11 minutes in the pace slows back down. So this is where it all began for ARENA,and perhaps that is reason enough to check out this good record.3.5 stars.

Another album that places its best material in the front song and final song. Coincidence? I think not. Either way, this album is a prog sandwich with fresh, delicious bread and on-the-verge-stale meat and veggies. Not to say that any material is bad--it's just that if it was a bit better, the whole could be something special to have and to hold forever. Hence, this is good music, but no masterpiece. Here are the highlights:

Out of the Wilderness. A very mysterious opening that morphs into a funky time led by a cool keyboard groove. This song will certainly keep your attention. It's kind of weird, but in a good way. Near the end, this song takes a nice turn into a major key with positive emotional finish. I had very high hopes for the album after the opener...unfortunately a bit too high.

Crying for Help (parts I, II, III, and IV). These "songs" may have been short brainchilds of various bandmembers or merely intended as filller. Either way, they are neither wilder entertaining nor unlistenable. We have the acoustic guitar, harpsichord/flute duet, keyboard ambience, and emotional vocal piece, respectively. The Rothery solo in the latter piece is nice, yet not spectacular.

Valley of the Kings. This is one of those prog epics where the band has the talent, motivation, and creativity to make it work, but it just doesn't quite add up. Not to say that this is a bad song by any means--it just doesn't quite hold together for me. It's probably that Carson is a bit off on the vocals (though I can't pinpoint why). Nice keyboard arrangements and fills by Nolan though.

Jericho. Evidence that Arena at this point were quite creative (dare I say progressive?), but can't quite pull it all together. Enjoyable yet not quite entirely memorable or captivating.

Solomon. This song is worth the price of admission alone. Great mellow intro, followed by a restrained guitar/keyboard instrumental that is quite well-done. Then the band FINALLY decides to kick up the tempo a bit, and boy do they ever! Where I felt restraint and hesitation earlier, I feel fun and energy here. Great interplay of bandmembers throughout, and after this section, the song moves into a delightful refrain and simple but beautiful riff to end the album. Also, this is the only song on the album where I "buy" the Carson's vocal contributions.

All in all, I'm glad I bought this for Solomon, and to a lesser extent, Out of the Wilderness, though there is no material on this album that I would consider to be grating or annoying. Certainly this album holds promise for the future!

In the mid nineties we called this a sensation (both band as album). We already had Marillion for quite some time, this was said to be a clone but a very welcome one. I personally always thought Arena had the edge over Marillion but that has also to do with the change of vocalist in Marillion. So this was their debut and though this is not my favourite band ever I have always kept a soft spot for Arena. I am a big fan of Clive Nolan and he is dominant in the band so that's one of the reasons. I also love the recent guitarist of Arena (John Mitchell) but their first, Keith More, was hardly any less as we can hear on this debut.

The song that stands out for me is the great epic Solomon. This song starts really fairylike with some sweet tones followed by balladlike singing by John Carson, then gets a little rougher with coming up guitars in slow style, this goes on for several minutes until in the middle of the song an instrumental part starts which is legendary to me. The actual reason I'm so fond of this track. The instrumental part lasts almost 4 minutes and makes me go into raptures. It still does after more than 10 years so it's a lasting thing. Ultimately the vocal part comes again like in the beginning and the song ends with a very nice grand finale. Superb !!

Other very good tracks are Out of the Wilderness and Valley of the Kings as well as the live-cracker Jericho. Alas there is a big downside on this album and that's the "Cry-tracks" that get worse and worse, go on even on their next album (Pride) and get even worse there. These tracks are a waste of space and diminish the album, I have to say. That doesn't go that far that I will take away a four star rating for this album because the rest is too good for that. So 4 it is.

Progressive arena rock?

Songs From The Lion's Cage is Arena's debut album and as such it is an excellent album with obvious signs of the even greater things that was to come on later albums like The Visitor and Contagion. Arena was formed by Clive Nolan and Mick Pointer, previously of Pendragon and Marillion respectively, on keyboards and drums. The line up is here completed by John Carson on vocals, Cliff Orsi on bass and Keith More on guitars. While Carson is a fine vocalist and More and Orsi are very good instrumentalists, they would soon all be replaced by other, more distinctive talents that would play larger roles in further shaping the band's characteristic sound. A sound that, at least in my opinion, has a lot more depth and substance and also much more of an edge compared to other Neo-Progressive bands. I have never been much a fan of the subgenre, but Arena is very special.

This first Arena album consists of five proper songs plus four rather laid back pieces that might be called interludes or links, all of which are called Crying For Help, and three of which are instrumentals. This formula would be used again on the band's second album. While I really like the idea of having these rather mellow interludes break up the harder edged and more progressive songs, I must admit that some of these work better than others. Some of the instrumental links almost feel like transportation and they are not as well integrated into the overall set as on later albums like The Visitor and Contagion where instrumentals form part of a more or less continuous piece of music. However, even if the Crying For Help tracks are not always perfectly integrated, they still constitute nice interludes between the other tracks and they are (almost) never offensive or distracting.

The two first Crying For Help pieces are very nice. Crying For Help I is a lovely acoustic guitar piece. It is not remarkable by any means, but very nice indeed. Crying For Help II is a harpsichord piece with a folky/medieval sound. Again, this is a lovely piece that adds something to the album even if it is not in any way remarkable standing on its own. The third Crying For Help piece is less interesting, however. It is a repetitive and rather tedious piano piece that is way too long for its own good. It runs for almost five minutes without anything happening at all. This is pure New Age and as such it becomes too uneventful for my taste. This one also includes samples of a telephone ringing that I find quite annoying for primarily two reasons: First, it breaks the "ancient" atmosphere of the album by introducing such a modern thing as a telephone, and second, I always start looking for my telephone whenever I hear that sound! This is thus the low point (and the only low point!) of the album for me. The last Crying For Help piece is a vocal and piano piece that is very good and the only real ballad of the album. The presence of a song like this one proved the versatility of the band and makes the album varied and complete in a very appealing way.

The rest of the songs are all very, very strong. Jericho and Solomon has become live favourites and eternal Neo-Prog classics and deservedly so - these songs are simply excellent! Like with basically all the Arena albums, this album too is a grower. At first I gave this only three stars, but I now think it deserves a four star rating. It is surely an album that deserves repeated listens even if it is not as rich as the band's best albums. However, the five proper songs of this album are all available (some even in better versions!) on live albums and videos (for example, on the live album Welcome To The Stage which contains great live versions of Out Of The Wilderness, Valley Of The Kings, Midas Vision, Jericho and Solomon. Which is pretty much this entire album except the Crying For Help pieces), so the mere presence of these classics here does not make this album essential by themselves. But still, I think that this album as a whole deserves four stars as it was here these songs originated and these original versions are great.

So the final judgement on Songs From The Lions Cage is a very good one. I admit that it is perhaps a slightly immature album as it does not display the pure excellence of some subsequent albums by the band. But Arena has once again persuaded me to raise a rating with a further star!

Highly recommended!