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Arena - Contagium CD (album) cover

CONTAGIUM

Arena

 

Neo-Prog

3.14 | 54 ratings

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ZowieZiggy
Prog Reviewer
3 stars COMPANION OR CONPAGIUM

This is the second of two companion mini-albums to complete Arena's main work : the "Contagion" album. Some multimedia gadgets and four musical tracks are featured.

"On the Edge of Despair" belongs to the best of the whole "Contagion" concept. A very inspired and beautiful rock song. Although the intro sounds somewhat hard, it is followed by a passionate and acoustic part during which Rob (again) will be excelent. A very effective Arena song (but they have written a lot, haven't they). The whole song will be a swap of these two parts.

"The March of Time" is very catchy as well. Acoustic and gentle as well as hard and dark. The background vocals at the end of the song are rather hypnotic. Some great guitar and heavy keys for this rather good Arena number.

The structure of this EP is pretty much similar to "Contagious". Two good tracks (although the ones here are really on par with the best ones of the main release), an instrumental ("Confrontation") which features great work from John (his guitar play is almost always very effective) and one remix. The "Salamander" one is also better than "Witch Hunt" on the previous EP (but remixes are almost never my cup of tea).

This work is definitely better than "Contagious" but my conclusion will almost be the same (except for the rating) : this EP is essential for Arena fans and a good complement to "Contagion" but it makes the whole of the "Contagion-Contagious-Contagium" suite, an expensive story (around 30 ? for the whole).

Three stars for this good but not essential work.

ZowieZiggy | 3/5 |

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