I’ve followed British prog rockers Arena from the 1996 release of ‘Songs From The Lions Cage’ up until their latest release ‘Pepper’s Ghost’. I absolutely adored the band the first couple of years. The album ‘The Visitor’ however seemed to be a turning point for me. This concept album what the best the band ever recorded and things seemed to go down hill from then on (maybe it’s just my personal taste that started to differ). Still, the release of a new live DVD caught my attention, especially because it was recorded during the 10th anniversary tour of 2005. The nineteen tracks can be considered as a best of compilation and this band has more than nineteen great tracks in their back catalogue!

I can be very brief about the quality of this release. DVD recordings aren’t going to be any better then this one! You can easily tell that this is a high standard recording by a very professional film crew.

As a matter of fact, the DVD was filmed by a Polish TV-crew. Incredible close ups are alternated with wide screen views, all crystal clear! The lights are absolute perfect. Bright colours and bright faces, moving cameras and nice back grounds. The sound is close to perfect.

There are just two slightly negative points I can think of. The first one is the corny ‘La Gazza Ladra’ intro, how hard is it to come up with something original? Second; Arena put themselves in a difficult position: there’s no way that this band is even going to release a DVD that is going to top ‘Smoke & Mirrors’.

This leaves me telling you that there is a six track movie included that was shot at the reunion gig at De Boerderij in Zoetermeer, the Netherlands and that there is a special digipack edition available that features an extra cd.