ARENA

First of all be careful with this AOR work, enriched with a few hints only of the progressive rock-genre.well I try to clarify my idea: if you are an "extremist", fond of such a "pure" prog music, you could remain disappointed; otherwise you could be helped by Prog Archives in search of different issues, which are not necessarily "labelled" as "prog" (such as the sub genres and correlated styles of an alternative rock-genre, but also something closer to the AOR music). Secondly, as you can find the pomp rock of bands like Kansas, Asia or Styx, but also the post rock by Sigur Ros (always inside its encyclopaedia), you could be excited if you discovered some other interesting groups that -on the contrary- Prog Archives at the moment of my review has not inserted into yet. I think for example of the remarkable ensemble of "Don Caballero" and other experimental bands in the vein of Djam Karet, always remaining in the borderline . After my necessary digression, now I like to remark the present interesting work entitled "Arena": here you can appreciate the taste for the melodic arrangement by Geoffrey Downes, the powerful and simple guitar lines supported in the vocal parts by the remarkable vocalist, and a certain epic mood !! Of course it's not a masterpiece, but it's always pleasant and sometimes quite intricate too, talking about the arrangement. I don't know whether it's enough or less,however for me it's the ideal album for your spare time, because there isn't any particular song over the average but it's pleasant after all, until you add another half star!!