Double Vision, a new album, speculations?

[PH]

Hi all!

"Double Vision" is going to be released in a few weeks. Any thoughts on this?
I'm sure it's a concept album. And I somehow expect it to be a sequel of some sort, of "The Visitor". But maybe I'm too far off with that.
In an attempt to get this forum going again, let's speculate! Could be fun.

"The Visitor" was about a guy who has a near death experience. While his whole life passes him by, he is confronted by his emotions and a few strange figures. One of them is The Visitor. Or perhaps they're all The Visitor. And who is this Visitor? God?

So, the title of the new album is "Double Vision". It's the same title as the third track on "The Visitor".
The lyrics start with:

I've seen that face before
Demon eyes watch what an Angel once saw

Hence the 'double vision' I guess. (I'm not very good at this)

I've seen this place before
A wilderness born from the torment of souls
(Yes!) I've seen this place before
A memory lost as the story unfolds

I begin to have a feeling that the new album is going to explore one particular part in the memory of the protagonist. A memory that was lost.


Ok, that's it for me now. I'm curious to know what you guys come up with.

[erik]

Hi all!

"Double Vision" is going to be released in a few weeks. Any thoughts on this?
I'm sure it's a concept album. And I somehow expect it to be a sequel of some sort, of "The Visitor". But maybe I'm too far off with that.
In an attempt to get this forum going again, let's speculate! Could be fun.

Appreciate your efforts to keep this place alive PH!

I have always enjoyed the lyrics/conceptual aspect of Arena's music. I am going to chew a bit more on the "Double Vision" theme, but will respond now to your statement that it is a concept album. Obviously Unquiet Sky broke the cycle that Arena followed from The Visitor onwards, where a concept album would be followed by a separate songs album (although often with certain linked themes running through the songs). Both Seventh Degree and Unquiet Sky were concept albums, so what can we expect now? Anyting I guess, but I think the track list may give a clue, since the concept albums have more, shorter tracks. If we look at the Double Vision track list, this album seems more in the vein of say Immortal? and may prove to be a separate songs album. Lyrically it may still be linked to The Visitor track of the same title of course..

[erik]

Clive has shed some light on it with this interesting comment in Prog Magazine:

There are seven tracks and one of them adressess some of the questions that were never answered on The Visitor. That one is The Legend Of Elijah Shade.[/unquote]

[erik]

I haven't figured it all out, but it seems like Clive is creating a big conceptually interlocking whole across various albums. He has disclosed that Elijah Shade goes back to The Visitor, which is underlined by the highlighted first letters of the titles of the parts of the track that spell "Visitor". Also, the Visitor can be steen cycling on the first page of the booklet. But the first part Veritas is about "a monster that feeds on human desire to be free, enslaving the spirit, he dines on the souls.."  That reminds me very much of The Butterfly Man. Part two introduces a traveller (hinting at Traveller Beware?) and from here on there are various references to lifting a curse, which was the theme of Unquiet Sky. And the booklet of Unquiet Sky also had the cycling Visitor on its pages (Unexpected Dawn page to be exact). So far more questions than answers but all very intriguing indeed!

[erik]

PS a further gimmick is that the highlighted letters in red in the lyrics spell the names of the band members and in the centre pages the highlighted letters in the names spell "Vision"

[PH]

Interesting things that you mention, Erik. I aLso had to think about The ButterfLy Man as soon as I heard that Lyric. Good to see I'm not aLone on that.
After tomorrow I have aLmost two weeks off from work. So there shouLd be pLenty of time to deLve further into it.

[The Butterfly Man]

I aLso had to think about The ButterfLy Man

Aww very nice of you



But in all seriousness, I think Erik is on to something here. I almost can't believe that it's just a coincidence, seeing that Clive wrote the lyrics.

Tom