Ark - Aradiokaos (2010)

Jorn Viggo cannot hold a candle to Tore Ostby. Not in this world at least.

Apples and oranges.... Totally different styles. Viggo is a stronger bluesy, hard rock guitarist, whereas Ostby had a serious artsy fartsy side to his music that is rather unique.....
 
Hundreds of thousands of records? Naaah.

Making good money? In France and Japan? Hell yeah! They were "big" in France before they stopped - really selling a strong amount of albums there.

As it often is on this board, people have a distorted opinion on what's "big" and what's not.

Most often people think that because a band is wellknown in the power/prog genre, they must be big everywhere.

However, and this is a case of this, sometimes people tend to forget that if a band makes it in one territory, that territory/country is actually enough to fully pay for recordings and touring. So, sometimes it doesn't matter if you're not selling a ton of discs worldwide, as long as you break it one place. Ark was very close to breaking commercially into France before they quit.

c.

I have a feeling you missed my sarcasm on the post above. If anything, I was dissing the comment that this "new" Ark is a cash grab. It's not like they're a fully established band with a huge fanbase all around the world that will buy their new disc and make them millionaires. To me, cash grab is basically when a band puts out a record exclusively for the money. Considering we're talking about Tore Ostby & co., I highly doubt this is the case. It's not like they're as big as, say, the Scorpions (not that their new album is necessarily a cash grab).

In any case, I really didn't know that ARK was that big in France, although I knew they were popular in Japan. Almost breaking commercially in France, though, really? I'm surprised, but in a good way.
 
I didn't miss it, which is why I decided to explain that while they might not seem big, they were well on their way in certain territories. Of course it didn't happen, as we all know, but that's how it is in this business ...


Ahhh gotcha. Well, thank you for explaining, like I said, I would've never guessed it. Plus, ARK deserves the recognition if you ask me. I will still defend my point and disagree that the new album is just a cash grab for the band.
 
Jorn Viggo & Tore are both amazing players. I'd pay money, on any given day, to hear either of them play.

Claus... I too had no idea about their success in France. Part of what makes this board so cool, is the industry perspective of people like yourself.
 
I'll check it out regardless, but I gotta admit I don't have great expectations without Jorn. It's very hard to explain - I love Burn the Sun - a lot, but I just have this feeling if they went out and got a new, different singer, it's probably going to be somebody I'm not gonna dig. I'm open mind until I hear anything though.
 
I love Jorn, but I also love Macaluso and Ostby. Macaluso is right there with Zonder for me when it comes to drumming. Ostby is god. So I will always buy whatever either musician puts out. Oh, Coven's bass on Ark is killer too by the way...
I agree with the bat. I'm super psyched to see Mac and Ostby pulling this out again. I've grown a little weary of Jorn, I'm afraid. Been a big fan, but for some reason everything he does is starting to sound the same to me. Time for some new blood.
I think I heard mention of Adrian Holtz? I seem to remember John was working with him or going to work with him. Anyway, just a suggestion, not based on anything much. He also recently had Mike Dimeo singing with his Union Radio band, so, maybe? I know Mike's with Creations End, but in this genre, multi-banding seems to be common, and often a necessity.
 
I agree with the bat. I'm super psyched to see Mac and Ostby pulling this out again. I've grown a little weary of Jorn, I'm afraid. Been a big fan, but for some reason everything he does is starting to sound the same to me. Time for some new blood.

I agree that Jorn's last two solo records sound very complacent - because they do - because Jorn isn't a very good writer. His solo albums were strong when he had other great writers to lean on and great players in his band (cough Jorn from Pagan's Mind cough) - but as time goes on those people have faded away and Jorn has changed his solo band from a very creative melodic prog metal effort into simply Hard Rock music. Sometimes it rules - The Duke was a great example of this I think, and the last two have their moments, but most of the time it's just kinda boring.

Jorn's voice however - I still can't get enough of it, which is why I love that he lends his voice to so many projects. I think he may have the best voice on the planet, so I like to see it get around.