Band:	Arwen
Album:	Illusions
Style:	Power metal, Progressive metal
Release date:	2004

01. Intro
02. Illusions
03. Riding Alone
04. Dance Of Souls
05. Infinity
06. Keltia
07. Fantasy Of Reality
08. No More Tears
09. By My Own Sight
10. One Reason To Live
11. Lullaby
12. Somewhere In The Past
13. Touch The Sky

Spain is really fighting against the leading countries of the Power/Progressive genre. More and more very promising bands is coming out every year.
Arwen is not that new, but "Illusions" is just their second album, and already does they sound like they have been around for ages.

Arwen was found by Jose A. Garrido (Guitars) and Luiz M. Hernández (Bass) in 1996.
Nacho Ruiz (Male Vocals) and Mamen Carmen Castaño (Female Vocals) joined in 1998.
And by the end of 1999 Nacho Arriaga (Drums), Rosalva Alonso (Keyboards) & Alberto Avilés (Guitars) had completed the line-up, almost.
Arwen hired one more keyboardist, Jonathan Zapatero and was now an eight-man strong band.
They signed with Arise Records in 2001 and released their debut album, "Memories of a Dream" in 2002.
They then recorded a song for the second part of the Helloween tribute that Arise released.
Arwen then lost their first member, the male keyboarder Jonathan left and was replaced by Javi Díez.
Meanwhile, Jose joined the largest of all Spanish Power Metal bands, Dark Moor. He didn't stay for long, after less than a year he left and is now only a member of Arwen.
They started to record their second album in the summer of 2004, and it's now going to be released in November, once again through Arise Records.

And it's November now, and the album was released on the 12th, that means last Friday.
All of you that know Arwen through their debut album, "Memories of a Dream" know what to expect of this eight-piece band.
Quite much keyboards, male accent-singer, beautiful female singer and some progressive parts too (even if the last thing is more prominent here).
All of that was Arwen anno 2002, and all of that x2 is Arwen anno 2004.

The production in crystal-clear, and only that makes this album better. But the band itself is also much better. Ruiz voice is better, and Mamen sings even more beautiful now, actually she should be, at least, mention when it comes to beautiful and good female singers, she's both. Plus that she now sings lead on three whole songs, that's good since she got a voice better than many female vocalists.
And for the progressive parts, everything José written got a large potion of progressive.
Even the keyboard parts are better, much better, more professional.

But the music is also better, it's more professional, heavy and the lyrics feels more personally now than on "Memories?" so everything about Arwen is better, much better.
I liked "Memories?" I did, until I heard this album, believe me; "Memories?" sounds more like a Demo than a real album, compare to this.

So if you had any kind of interest in the debut, do yourself a favour, check out "Illusions", you'll notice that the band has evolved to a very fine piece of Metal band.
Arwen has seriously taken up the hunt for the leading Spanish Metal bands, and I'm sure they'll outplay both one and two bands on the way.

Check Out: "Illusions", "Riding Alone", "Dance of Souls", "No More Tears" & "Lullaby".