Today I will write about the very good and rather unknown English Neo-Prog band Arena.
They were formed in 1995 by the keyboardist Clive Nolan (ex-member of Pendragon and Shadowland), and the drummer Mick Pointer (ex-Marillion), who are the only steady members from 1995 'till today. The basic 'problem' of the band was the non steady line up. Many members came and gone through the years, and that affected their musical personality. Especially the frequent changes of their singers was a major problem for their sound. (They have changed 4 lead singers so far).
Their best period was most probably between 1996 - 2000 on which they released 3 of their best albums (Pride - 1996, The Visitor - 1998, Immortal - 2000). Their full discography consists of 7 studio and 4 live albums.
Arena are one of the bands which are deeply influenced by Marillion's sound, and their music style varies from Symphonic-Prog to Hard Rock. They also tried to write their own epic pieces, and I have to admit they were sucesfull in their efforts. (Fine examples are the songs Solomon and Sirens).
Concluding this post, I must say that I strongly recommend Arena to those who are fond of melodic Progressive Rock, and of course to all Marillion fans!
I will post here a couple of songs as well, for you to listen.
On the first video you can see a live version of the beautiful 'Butterfly Man' and on the second one you can see 'Sirens' also from a live version.
I hope you will like them.
Thank you for reading...
They were formed in 1995 by the keyboardist Clive Nolan (ex-member of Pendragon and Shadowland), and the drummer Mick Pointer (ex-Marillion), who are the only steady members from 1995 'till today. The basic 'problem' of the band was the non steady line up. Many members came and gone through the years, and that affected their musical personality. Especially the frequent changes of their singers was a major problem for their sound. (They have changed 4 lead singers so far). Their best period was most probably between 1996 - 2000 on which they released 3 of their best albums (Pride - 1996, The Visitor - 1998, Immortal - 2000). Their full discography consists of 7 studio and 4 live albums.Arena are one of the bands which are deeply influenced by Marillion's sound, and their music style varies from Symphonic-Prog to Hard Rock. They also tried to write their own epic pieces, and I have to admit they were sucesfull in their efforts. (Fine examples are the songs Solomon and Sirens).
Concluding this post, I must say that I strongly recommend Arena to those who are fond of melodic Progressive Rock, and of course to all Marillion fans!
I will post here a couple of songs as well, for you to listen.
On the first video you can see a live version of the beautiful 'Butterfly Man' and on the second one you can see 'Sirens' also from a live version.
I hope you will like them.
Thank you for reading...
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