Arena - Immortal?
Inside Out Music America - 2000
By Rodrigo
/images/covers/Arena.jpg
Immortal? is the first Arena album that I have ever heard and unfortunately I am not that impressed by it. Arena is led by keyboardist Clive Nolan and the music reflects that because it is heavy in the keyboard usage. But this is not a happy keyboard friendly album; the music of Immortal? is slow and dark. Acutally, I highly enjoy the usage of the keyboard sounds but the overall pace of the album is maddeningly to slow.
The opening track "Chosen" uses catchy and driving synthesizer sounds all the way but the pace the song finds itself in makes it boring after a while. There are two acoustic tracks in the album "Waiting for the Flood" and "Fridays Dream". Both are tranquil and soothing musical journeys but I so wished that somewhere in the songs there would be a change of pace to mix it up but sadly that isnt the case. Of these two I enjoy more "Waiting for the Flood" because I like the flutish sounds that come in at about 2:34 into the song. "The Butterfly Man" is a nine minute piece and I like the usage of the pianos because they remind me of carnival music but darker. The bass work by John Jowitt is really special and complements the keys and the guitars perfectly. The chorus is really good and catchy and repeated plenty of times. This is definitely my favorite song of Immortal?."Ghost in the Firewall" is an interesting piece because of the industrial, mechanical sounds that are present throughout the song. The song maintains the general slow pace and it totally reminds me of Pink Floyd because of the music and the fact that vocalist Rob Sowden sounds like David Gilmour. This song ends up being my second favorite song from Immortal?. "Climbing the Net" is actually the most accessible and fastest and song of the album and it is remeniscent of Ice Age because of its overall "happy" sound. The bass is even better here and it is the strongest aspect of the song. This song is kind of odd due to the fact that it just seems out of place with the rest of the album. All this brings me to the epic nineteen minute long "Moviedrome". The song contains plenty of the aspects of the other songs, it just seems to reinforce all the themes from the album. It showcases heavy and soft guitars, epic, soaring and emotional singing, and very cool keyboard sounds. True to the name, "Moviedrome" acts like a film score and there is one eerie moment where the music reminds me of the theme from "Helloween". It is not a bad song but I would definitely shaved some minutes to it and it would have made it a better piece.
I tried giving Immortal? as many listens as possible hoping that eventually I would understand it and appreciate it but that never happened. It sure is different from other progressive metal bands and I can appreciate that but it just moves very slowly for me. There is some good music here but not enough to hold my attention. I would recommend to listen to some song samples before deciding on getting Immortal?
Inside Out Music America - 2000
By Rodrigo
/images/covers/Arena.jpg
Immortal? is the first Arena album that I have ever heard and unfortunately I am not that impressed by it. Arena is led by keyboardist Clive Nolan and the music reflects that because it is heavy in the keyboard usage. But this is not a happy keyboard friendly album; the music of Immortal? is slow and dark. Acutally, I highly enjoy the usage of the keyboard sounds but the overall pace of the album is maddeningly to slow.
The opening track "Chosen" uses catchy and driving synthesizer sounds all the way but the pace the song finds itself in makes it boring after a while. There are two acoustic tracks in the album "Waiting for the Flood" and "Fridays Dream". Both are tranquil and soothing musical journeys but I so wished that somewhere in the songs there would be a change of pace to mix it up but sadly that isnt the case. Of these two I enjoy more "Waiting for the Flood" because I like the flutish sounds that come in at about 2:34 into the song. "The Butterfly Man" is a nine minute piece and I like the usage of the pianos because they remind me of carnival music but darker. The bass work by John Jowitt is really special and complements the keys and the guitars perfectly. The chorus is really good and catchy and repeated plenty of times. This is definitely my favorite song of Immortal?."Ghost in the Firewall" is an interesting piece because of the industrial, mechanical sounds that are present throughout the song. The song maintains the general slow pace and it totally reminds me of Pink Floyd because of the music and the fact that vocalist Rob Sowden sounds like David Gilmour. This song ends up being my second favorite song from Immortal?. "Climbing the Net" is actually the most accessible and fastest and song of the album and it is remeniscent of Ice Age because of its overall "happy" sound. The bass is even better here and it is the strongest aspect of the song. This song is kind of odd due to the fact that it just seems out of place with the rest of the album. All this brings me to the epic nineteen minute long "Moviedrome". The song contains plenty of the aspects of the other songs, it just seems to reinforce all the themes from the album. It showcases heavy and soft guitars, epic, soaring and emotional singing, and very cool keyboard sounds. True to the name, "Moviedrome" acts like a film score and there is one eerie moment where the music reminds me of the theme from "Helloween". It is not a bad song but I would definitely shaved some minutes to it and it would have made it a better piece.
I tried giving Immortal? as many listens as possible hoping that eventually I would understand it and appreciate it but that never happened. It sure is different from other progressive metal bands and I can appreciate that but it just moves very slowly for me. There is some good music here but not enough to hold my attention. I would recommend to listen to some song samples before deciding on getting Immortal?
