Immortal?

The first album with Rob Sowden and Ian Salmon: seven tracks, a twenty-minute Moviedrome, and Chosen to open.
Arena, 2000

Released
April 2000
Recorded
December 1999 to March 2000
Studio
Thin Ice Studios, Surrey
Label
Verglas Music
Producer
Clive Nolan, Simon Hanhart

Play on hypersongs

Recorded and mixed at Thin Ice over the turn of the millennium and mastered at Abbey Road by Chris Blair, with Hugh Syme again on art direction. Nolan wrote the lyrics, and the music is credited to Nolan, Mitchell and Pointer. InsideOut Music America issued it in the United States.

Critics read it differently. The DPRP reviewers heard a bleak concept album about modern technology, the internet and television, and Gary Hill of Music Street Journal called it a fine concept album with echoes of Pink Floyd and Marillion. Jurriaan Hage instead heard lyrics about film, and joked that it could have been called Clive at the Movies. DPRP's four scores ran from six to nine out of ten, and Planet Mellotron called it the best Arena album so far, with reservations.

It appeared on vinyl for the first time in 2024, remastered by John Mitchell, with Moviedrome given a side of its own, and a remastered CD followed in 2026.

Track listing

  1. Chosen6:20
  2. Waiting for the Flood5:52
  3. The Butterfly Man8:56
  4. Ghost in the Firewall4:55
  5. Climbing the Net4:40
  6. Moviedrome19:43
  7. Friday's Dream4:44

Personnel

More from Arena

Songs from the Lion's Cage (1995), Pride (1996)

Sources

  1. Arena: Immortal?, Discogs
  2. Arena: Immortal? round table, DPRP (2000-02-05)
  3. Arena: Immortal?, Music Street Journal
  4. Immortal? review, Jurriaan Hage (2000)
  5. Arena: Immortal? (2024 vinyl), Discogs