HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS
A Contagion Preview – March 2002

End of March 2002 the Cage committee embarked upon a trip to Shutteroaks. If the band doesn’t come to us, we’ll go to them! The trip had been planned consulting Clive. Contagion would basically be finished. We were curious to hear a bit of the new album, of course! But because of the delay in the recording process, we did not hear a near final version yet. Instead, Clive and Mick played us the entire demo to give us an impression of what’s to come.

Clive and Mick emphasized that the final result will sound very different. Nevertheless, the demo gives a very good impression of the structure of the album. Furthermore, since there are no embellishments, the focus is on the melodies and vocal lines. And there are a lot of really great melodies on this one! It all sounds very impressive and promising. 

The Visitor, being the previous concept album, is an obvious and inevitable point of reference. Contagion has a similar structure, especially the opening and finale. On the other hand, the tracks on Contagion segue even more seamlessly into each other than the songs on The Visitor. You really need the track list and lyrics to keep track of where you are while listening to the album. This album is one organic whole instead of a collection of self-contained songs, though there are some on it.

Contagion is a roller coaster of different moods, a varied journey in which the dark, heavy sound of Immortal? is continued, combined with quieter, melancholic interludes and more upbeat moments.

The album has a very ominous opening not unlike Moviedrome, which sucks you into the album. Clive used the movie Flatliners as an illustration to describe what he wanted to achieve with the opening. The opening track Witch Hunt is a heavy track, with a great staccato rhythm and a really great bass sound. The more prominent role for the bass is really evident here and can be heard throughout the album.

Another highlight is The Painted Man, which has a killer theme that has a similar function as the theme of The Hanging Tree; it returns various times later on in the album. Then it really grips you!

In Tsunami the influence of the band Tool can be heard clearly. The rhythm section definitely has a Tool flavour. This is quite an innovative track. But Arena experiment with new sounds and rhythms throughout the album.

The instrumentals on this album are all amazing. They consist of strong, repeated themes that flow very smoothly and feature some awesome keyboard solos and bass lines. Simply stunning!

Mea Culpa also must be mentioned. It’s a very sober, solemn and melancholic track with a leading role for the vocals. Later on in the studio we heard a more final version with Rob’s vocals instead of John’s and we were very impressed. Rob has grown very much in his role and his vocals have a whole new layer in terms of depth and emotion. 

The album ends with Ascension. A very apt title: sit back, close your eyes and let the music lift you higher and higher. It’s a very ‘big’ track that provides the perfect finale for the album. After having listened to the whole demo twice some of the songs already really got us hooked. 

Then, when we heard some more final versions in the studio, we were even more impressed. It’s great to hear how the ideas have matured and developed, to hear all the ‘colours’, as Mick put it. Even Mick, Clive and Ian hadn’t heard the new versions of these pieces and were obviously enjoying it as well.

First we heard the result of Ian’s exhausting days with Mike Stobbie [when we arrived at the studio he was still struggling with Ascension and we went to the pub to let him finish his job!]. We got to hear the pure bass track of Madness Lies and were stunned, WOW! Next followed some impressive parts of the keyboard solos of the album and of course Mike let us enjoy Rob’s vocals to the fullest with the recordings of Mea Culpa. 

During our trip back to Holland various choruses and melodies were buzzing through our heads. A highly contagious album indeed…

By: Erik Beers and Marcel Kolenbrander