Fate's Warning

Inside Out

Dont Listen To The Fools!

Review Score:

(8/10)
I believe the constant criticism this album gets is very unjust. Many fans do not even give this album a chance because it is accepted as their worst album by others and they just assume that it is not worth their time or money, I even doubt most of them have heard it. Yes, we do see Fates Warning taking to a slightly more "commercial" sound, completing what they hinted at with Parallels, but dont try and group this with other prog-metal commercial disasters like Savatage's "Fight For The Rock" or Dream Theater's "Falling Into Infinity". Yes, we do see standard song structures here, but I do not see this as something that limits the band. Like always, the lyrics are very well-written and Mark Zonder gives a truely astonishing performance. We also see Ray Alder coming into his own as well, which is a good thing unless you liked his mexican version of Geoff Tate from the previous three albums.

The album starts with the brillant progressive piece "Outside Looking In", then moves to the catchy, straight forward, but awesome "Pale Fire", next we hear "The Strand" which sounds almost like some sort of early 90's alt-radio rock songbefore the ... odd chorus sets in. "Shelter Me" is much in the same vein as "Pale Fire", then the epic "Island In The Stream" sets in. One could consider this a Silent Lucidity (Queensryche) clone if the song didnt run so long. "Down To the Wire" and "Face The Fear" are quite good although nothing really new. The instrumental "Inward Bound" was the highlight of the album for me, and after that is the triumphant "Monument", one of the bands greatest artistic achievements ever and certainly the most acclaimed cut from the album. The record ends with the beautiful "Afterglow". All in all, my only problem with the album is its length, come on guys 40 minutes of music is not enough especially considering some prog metal bands of today are releasing albums absolutely filled to the brim with almost twice this much material.

If you enjoy Fates Warning albums like "Perfect Symetry" and "Parallels" I see no reason why you won't cherish this album as well. If you are a prog rock purist that cant go for anything that doesnt have 96 time changes and 57 notes per second I would avoid it and instead go for "A Pleasant Shade of Gray" or "No Exit". Dont get me wrong, this is definitely a great progressive metal release, but it is without a lot of the musical wankery most prog metal fans have come to expect. I dig it, you should too.

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