Arena launch Contagian 'MAX' 10th Anniversary campaign!

**Rufus** · 11-14-2013

I hope enough people support this to make it viable. One of my favourite Arena albums & saw them twice on the Contagian tour!

This year is the 10th anniversary of Arena’s classic Contagion album. Originally the band decided to make it a single disc and provide the extra material on two EP’s rather than creating a two disc album. Plans were made for a two disc fans only release and the mix for that was actually made but was eventually shelved for various reasons. However, now the band have decided to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Contagion by releasing it after all.

To make the release feasible Arena have launched a pre-order campaign to fund the production of the Contagion ‘Max’ 10th anniversary edition. The band are offering the two disc version of Contagion that offers an alternative listening experience of the whole continuous Contagion saga and includes the EP tracks inserted into the correct places in the concept and presented in a special digipack with full artwork and 28 page booklet including full lyrics. All pre-orders placed before November 25th get their copy signed by the original Contagion band members Clive Nolan, Mick Pointer and John Mitchell!

This special package will be strictly limited to 1000 copies. The release date has not yet been fixed but the band hope to put it out before this Christmas and otherwise early 2014.

“We invite you to pre-order now at www.verglas.com. Take a leap of faith… We are part of this arena, we are part of this band”

**JKL2000** · 11-14-2013

Wow, I'll definitely head over and pony up for this, as I don't think I ever managed to get one of the EPs, and I always thought the Contagion album was really good but I somehow wasn't getting the "correct" experience.

**doh** · 11-14-2013

I did get the EPs and just recently listened to them again. Any new tracks besides these?

**JKL2000** · 11-14-2013

Ordered!

Hey, I didn't even know about the Arena "Live" CD from the most recent tour. I need to get this too, as I love the Seventh Degree of Separation album. IMO it may be their best.

Wow, Amazon charges more for the download than the CD. WTF? Well, ordering the CD... Guess I'll check around a bit on prices first...

**Rufus** · 11-14-2013

Originally Posted by JKL2000

Ordered!

Hey, I didn't even know about the Arena "Live" CD from the most recent tour. I need to get this too, as I love the Seventh Degree of Separation album. IMO it may be their best.

Wow, Amazon charges more for the download than the CD. WTF? Well, ordering the CD... Guess I'll check around a bit on prices first...

I have the live DVD of TSDOS tour . I thought the live CD was drawn from previous tours though?

**Rufus** · 11-14-2013

Originally Posted by doh

I did get the EPs and just recently listened to them again. Any new tracks besides these?

Dont think so ?

**robh** · 11-14-2013

From the e-mails that I've received, no new tracks. It's putting the songs on the two EPs into the right order.

**Rangershockey7** · 11-14-2013

When I downloaded my Arena songs onto my Ipod, I realized how much I love Contagion. I ended up downloading the entire album, and a number of tracks off the two EP's.

Since I own the album and both the EP's, I am not sure if I will jump at this right now.

Any word on any bonus tracks that were not included on any of the 3 original disks? Any additional liner notes?

Who knows, I might be swayed.

**robh** · 11-19-2013

E-mail received over the weekend.

Dear Arena-fan,

We are happy to announce that we have reached the required number of pre-orders: the production of the special Contagion ‘Max’ 10th anniversary edition will now really start!

To all those wo have pre-ordered a big thank you for your loyalty and support! The album is scheduled to ship end of January 2014. All orders will receive an email from Verglas when the cd has been posted, so please don't contact us, we will contact you ;-)

If you haven’t pre-ordered yet: this 2 disc version is strictly limited and exclusively available at the Verglas store. It will not be released through any other website or shop, ever! There are now only 200 copies left, so order now or regret it later! ;-)

What do you get: the two disc version of Contagion, with the EP-tracks inserted in the correct places in the concept, in a special digipack with full artwork and 28 page booklet, that includes all the lyrics. The price for this special package is £20 plus postage. We have extended the deadline a little: all pre-orders before December 7th get their copy signed by Clive Nolan, Mick Pointer and John Mi

**JKL2000** · 11-19-2013

Originally Posted by robh

E-mail received over the weekend.

I didn't receive the email - what mailing list was this sent to? I believed I'd signed up with the Arena or Verglas list just after preordering.

**PeterG** · 11-19-2013

Did anyone ever get hold of the 2 eps? It STILL irritates me,after all these years, that there are 2 empty slots in my Contagion digipak for Contagious and Contagium.

**LeFrog** · 11-19-2013

I'm not sure I understand: will the 1Oth anniversary 2-disc edition only be available through this preorder campaign, or is it only the autographed version that is limited, with an unsigned version being made more widely available once the pre-order campaign is over ?

**robh** · 11-19-2013

I read it that they are making 1000 copies, and they've pre-sold 800 of these. Mick, Clive and John are signing any copy that is sold by Dec7.

And I have no idea how I managed to get on the mailing list. The pre-order information is here -> http://http://www.verglas.com/index.php

**Rufus** · 11-19-2013

Originally Posted by PeterG

Did anyone ever get hold of the 2 eps? It STILL irritates me,after all these years, that there are 2 empty slots in my Contagion digipak for Contagious and Contagium.

I have them & they include some cool remixes as well. Would be a shame if they didnt make the MAX edition also!

I need to get this ordered ASAP, otherwise it'll be a silly price on Ebay!

**JIF** · 11-21-2013

Why didn't InsideOut ever release the original?

**Rufus** · 02-04-2014

Received my max edition today. Expanded to a double CD & the cover signed by the band
Gonna give this some serious air time right now!

**JKL2000** · 02-04-2014

I almost forgot that I received some kind of shipping notice recently. Rufus, where are you located (*roughly*).

**Rufus** · 02-04-2014

Originally Posted by JKL2000

I almost forgot that I received some kind of shipping notice recently. Rufus, where are you located (*roughly*).

Nottingham, England!
The concept really flows & the extra tracks are really strong. I have the E.P's but i'm pretty sure there'd some unreleased music on this. Really enjoying it!

**JKL2000** · 02-20-2014

Received my preorder today!

**LeFrog** · 02-21-2014

Originally Posted by Rufus

The concept really flows & the extra tracks are really strong. I have the E.P's but i'm pretty sure there'd some unreleased music on this. Really enjoying it!

No, definitely no unreleased music! Just a new sequence with the EP tracks included.
It's a nice package, but I was surprised that the song order was different from the one that was published online when they almost released Contagion Max around 2004/2005. It works quite well this way, and the additional tracks really add to the concept album experience by including recurring themes from the tracks that were on the single disk version.
Minor quibbles:
- On 2 occasions there are 2 instrumentals in a row. I don't think this works so well. I'd rather have instrumental tracks spead evenly between the vocal tracks.
- Listening on headphones, the EP tracks are noticeably louder than the original album tracks. It's a bit distracting, and strange since the liner notes mention that the 2014 album has been remastered.

For me, the album is still stronger as a single disk (perhaps because I've enjoyed the original version for 10 years), but this new version is a nice complement to it, and an enjoyable way to rediscover the album.

**JKL2000** · 02-21-2014

BTW, I think three people signed my copy, but I can't read any of the signatures. Anyone know who signed? Their handwriting's worse than doctors'!

**LeFrog** · 02-21-2014

Originally Posted by JKL2000

BTW, I think three people signed my copy, but I can't read any of the signatures. Anyone know who signed? Their handwriting's worse than doctors'!

The album was signed by Mick Pointer, John Mitchell and Clive Nolan (both Rob Sowden and Ian Salmon who played on the album back in 2003 are not in the band anymore today).

I have the same problem as you reading the signatures, except Pointer's which I think I can figure out!

**pbd999** · 02-21-2014

Originally Posted by LeFrog

- Listening on headphones, the EP tracks are noticeably louder than the original album tracks. It's a bit distracting, and strange since the liner notes mention that the 2014 album has been remastered.

I noticed this right away too and so it is a little off in that way. Excellent album though, I love it.