• Aria - The Yellow Circle Arena (Live in Moscow) (2012) (10/10)

    Genre: Heavy Metal
    Label: Self-production
    Playing time: 115:55
    Band homepage: Aria

    Tracklist:

    1. Black Square
    2. Fights Without Rules
    3. The Night Is Shorter Than The Day
    4. Phoenix
    5. Distant Light
    6. Deception
    7. Black Legend
    8. The Story Of A Murderer
    9. Coliseum
    10. Blood For Blood
    11. Attila
    12. Last Sunset
    13. Ice Shard
    14. The Calm
    15. Heaven Will Find You
    16. Hero Of The Asphalt
    17. Rose Street
    18. Kick Some Ass!

     

    Aria - The Yellow Circle Arena (Live in Moscow)

      

    Russian Heavy Metal legends ARIA prove that their genre is still alive and well and have become its most consistent band in the entire world. While other Heavy Metal bands struggle over personal line-up changes, their age or more and more experimental and progressive influences, all these elements don't keep this band away from delivering pure and yet relevant new Heavy Metal records. These Russians recently went through an important line-up change. Nine years after the departure of popular original singer Valeriy KIPELOV, the successful successor ATHUR BERKUT also left the band two years ago and got replaced by a young and energizing singer named Mikhail Zhitnyakov of Ãðàí-ÊóðàæÚ.

     

    Now, the new line-up also came around with a first glorious live release recorded in their hometown Moscow that is entitled “The Yellow Circle Arena”. While fans of most Western Heavy Metal bands from IRON MAIDEN to SAXON desire to listen to the old classics, the enthusiastic crowd here cheers the amazing new titles as much as the pioneer works of the band. We are just three minutes into the brand new opener “Black Square” and you can see the entire band jumping around on scene and the crowd going insane. The band continues with another new track which is the epic “Fights Without Rules” that includes massive sing along parts and a chorus to make you want to kneel before the band. There is no difference of quality in comparison to the older songs and the fans seem to know the new songs as well by heart as they know their classics. My favourite new song of the band called “The Story Of A Murderer” is as magical on stage as it has been on the last album. The crowd claps their hands and sings along in the calm opening parts and goes mad in the atmospheric but unchained middle part of the melodic epic. You can see young and beautiful women on the backs of their boyfriends, old Heavy Metal veterans as well as children bang, cheer and dance along to the music. Heavy Metal simply unites all sexes and ages. The instrumental performance and the crystal clear vocals of the song sound technically perfect without lacking energy.

     

    The band didn’t forget to include a few classics in their set. Let’s take one of last decade’s greatest Heavy Metal anthems called “Coliseum”. The song is just ten years old but as legendary as the band’s earliest successes. The crowd goes crazy once again, sings along to the majestic chorus and the band just rules the song with big smiles on their faces. "Last Sunset" is another melodic Heavy Metal anthem which is only seven years old now but the song must still be cited as highlight on this release. It mixes atmospheric and epic verses with a highly melodic chorus that ends on a heavier note.

     

    The band closes the concert with two heavy performances of their classics “Hero Of Asphalt” and “Rose Street” and you don’t even recognize that the band is playing in 2012 and not in 1987 anymore. The new more recent members perform the songs as if it were their own and as if they had just written them a few days ago and were overtly enthusiastic to expose their new works to the fans for a very first time. Just to give you an idea, the new singer was eight years old when the original “Hero Of Asphalt” record was released in a slowly dying Soviet Union and it’s incredible how he manages to perform the song as good as the original singer.

     

    After nearly two hours of powerful live music the band leaves only to come back to perform the final encore “Kick Some Ass!” from the milestone record “Play with Fire”. In the beginning, I was a little disappointed because I was expecting a performance of an epic classic such as “The Volunteer”, “The Ballad of an Ancient Russian Warrior” or “Play with Fire” which is undoubtedly one of the best Heavy Metal songs ever written. The amazing thing is that the band doesn’t even need to play these central milestones to convince me and make their fans go mad. Their back catalogue is strong enough to vary their set lists all the time. The closing “Kick Some Ass” beats the original studio version by far. It’s this live version that made me rediscover and fully enjoy this track that hadn’t really been on my map before. Needless to say that I think that the new live version is by far the best of this song.

     

    After two incredible hours of energy, pleasure and technical ecstasy, ARIA leave the stage and have once again carved their legendary status in stone. These guys are the living proofs that Heavy Metal isn’t dead and still relevant in 2012.

     

    The band comes for three extremely rare dates to North America this autumn to perform in New York City, Boston and Toronto. I will try anything I can to go to one of those dates even if the distances are very far here in Canada. Any Heavy Metal maniac around should do exactly the same. While you are waiting for these dates, just give this DVD and double CD a few spins to get in the right mood. If you happen to not know ARIA yet or if you think that their last great album came out somewhere around 1991, shame on you because you are mistaken. Go and get this package and feel what Heavy Metal is all about.

     

    (Online October 30, 2013)

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