Unlike my colleague Jon, this is my first brush with Majestic and after getting over my initial impressions the only thing I can say is boy have I been missing out!

Jeff Hamel is an impressive master of many instruments; however his guitar work is flawless throughout. Ranging from dreamy, atmospheric passages to sharp incisive work outs and including most else in between, all the guitar work is of the highest standard and slowly but surely draws you into the joys held within this album.

There are many reference points on the disc, however I would have to agree that Porcupine Tree and Pink Floyd loom large on most of the music, however they do so without on the whole over shadowing it, although there are moments on the 36 minute epic title track, where you are checking the song writing credits to see if Dave Gilmour dropped in on the sessions. That in itself is no bad thing when the mix of the spoken word parts, wonderful vocals and the sublime guitar solos interlink to make the outcome is as impressive as it is.

That’s not to diminish what is also achieved elsewhere on Arrival as there really is no point where the standard drops below excellent. Each of the four tracks are engaging and interesting in equal measure, with Hamel not putting a foot wrong at any turn. It is also to his credit that he has brought the wonderful Jessica Rasche and board to compliment his vocals with her fragile yet confident voice knowing when to blend with its surroundings and when to shine through and dominate for a while.

Hamel is also an extremely deft keyboard player. The album is swathed in atmospheric keys which lift the satisfyingly simple moments to melodic spells that captivate you with their beauty.

Majestic have put together a quite wonderful progressive album with Arrival that will appeal to those who lap up music from the current crop of prog’s leading lights, or those who still hanker for the genres past glories.