PEPPER'S GHOST

Sixth studio album from Arena and when I first listened to it, I thought it was just another good prog album which didnt have that "something" to make the difference.Third listening and I must cite that my opinion chanced.This album is really good!What you can easily realise is that speed has increased alot and also the guitars are heavier .You can notice that in Bedlam Fayre ,Tantalus, Purgatory Road and in the last three minutes of The Shattered Room(which tends to be a power-prog burst).Opera Fanatica is something different for the band(and unique maybe)and works just great. Smoke and Mirrors and The Eyes of lara moon are the more-traditional arena songs(atmosphere+drama+slow tempo) in which you can enjoy Rob Sowden's voice at the most.As for all this negative comments which have been made about Sowden's voice and it's inability to follow the more up-tempo parts of ths album,I thing that his voice was a little bit "backwards"but that was a matter of production and substantially the band's choice.