Japan 1st Press

The Visitor is the third studio album by the British progressive band Arena, released in 1998. One of prog's great records of the 90's and beyond. With The Visitor Arena became a 'real' band, not just a Clive Nolan (Pendragon) project with ex original Marillion drummer Mick Pointer. Now with their best ever line up that included John Mitchel on guitar, John Jowitt (IQ, Jadis) on bass and vocalist Paul Wrightson they produced one of prog's masterpieces of all time. This concept album about a man facing a near death experience is really thrilling, both musically and lyrically.

It's quite difficult to find a young person who knows about the Scorpions. Even when their careers were peaking in the '80s, they were never widely recognized, existing always as more of an underground band. The lack of hit singles produced by the group is by no means a judgment of its talent, however, as Deadly Sting: The Mercury Years proves. Some may find the fact that Mercury made the compilation a double-disc set surprising – again due to the band's small following – but the album is far better than the single-disc collection Best of Rockers 'n' Ballads. Following chronologically from 1979 to 1993 (thus covering the years in which the band enjoyed its most success)…

This early live set by Purple Mark II, complete on two discs, was recorded in Stockholm, Sweden in 1970, and it showcases the band at its most extended. The jams on "Wring That Neck" and "Mandrake Root" clock in at around half an hour apiece. An instrumental version of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" leads into the requisite drum solo, and also included is the longest-ever recording of "Child in Time." Some of this (especially "Mandrake Root") can be trying to the patience of someone who wasn't there. But this was the era when hundreds of bands were stretching out every night, and Purple, with the skills and imaginations of Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore to call on, did it better than many, at its climaxes reaching a fiery intensity matched by few others.

When Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple in early 1975, many fans figured that the band was over. But with the arrival of worthy replacement Tommy Bolin, the band was suddenly back in business with the oft-overlooked Come Taste the Band release. What the prior members of Deep Purple didn't know, however, is that their new guitarist had a serious drug problem, which hampered his playing by the time the group landed in Japan for a series of shows in December of 1975. With Bolin allegedly having no feeling in one of his arms on the night of a Purple gig at the Budokan, the show was to be taped for a future release.