PEPPER'S GHOST

Recently I've been reviewing quite a lot of modern progressive records. After listening Arena's most recent work (at the time of writing this review) 'Double Vision' a couple of times I was not impressed. One day my mp3 player automatically played the next album listed 'Pepper's Ghost' and I was actually quite surprised how strong these songs sound in comparison. How nice that sound was of progressive albums recorded between the slightly under-compressed late nineties and the totally over-compressed period of recent years. And most importantly, how Arena still had these imaginative songs that could match up to their genre-defining songs like 'Solomon', 'Butterfly Man' and 'Hanging Tree'. In addition to that, there were no endless middle of the road symphonic rock/metal songs that lacked that 'progressive feel' - that neo-prog magic.

On Pepper's Ghost Arena offers 'Opera Fanatica', arguably one of the strongest songs of the genre. With its grand opening in which the dramatic performance of Rob Sowden would be accompanied by real opera voices. This song really takes you to a mad operahouse and serves as a great expansion on themes introduced on the Marillion debut. Rob Sowden - who was initially heavily criticized - has proven to be a very strong singer for the group. With his performance he would really create the lively, engaging fantasies on which the neo-prog genre so much relies. Pepper Ghost might not have that rapid non-stop magical feel of predecessor 'Contagion', but in the end all songs have moments of greatness. 'Bedlam Fayre' is great opening song that really hits home with its killer bridge ("you're only human..."). 'Smoke and Mirrors' has imaginative lyrical verses, a catchy refrain and some nice outbreaks of Johh Mitchell's guitar. 'The Shattered Room' reminds us of the contagious riffing of the Contagion album. 'Purgatory Road' has that great guitar lead opening. Between the stronger moments the band sometimes sounds like it is searching and settling for slightly less perfect musical ideas. This becomes evidently on a song like 'The Eyes of Lara Moon', where after a promising start an out-of-nowhere lead-melodie (which starts sounding exactly like the melody from 'In the Court') disrupts the flow the song.

Comparing to what neo-progressive rock has to offer since 2005, this really is - in hindsight - a very strong release. Would buy a vinyl re-release without giving it a moment's thought. Furthermore, I hope Rob Sowden will return as a singer of progressive rock band, for he really is one of my favorite voices of the 21th century. Four and halve stars.