PERFECT SYMMETRY

This highly enjoyable album is rightly considered a classic of progressive Metal, or at least an important forerunner to the genre as it would develop in the 90's with Dream Theater and others. Perfect Symmetry could be seen either as an early Prog Metal album or as an influential proto-Prog Metal album. As such, Fates Warning are somewhere in the middle between (the Judas Priest and Iron Maiden inspired) Queensryche and Dream Theater. Kevin Moore from the latter group provides some keyboards to the track At Fate's Hands which is also the track closest in nature to Prog Metal as we know it today. It is also the absolute highlight of the album and an excellent song in its own right. But the rest of the album is not bad at all.

I must admit that I was not impressed by this album (or anything else by Fates Warning) on the first few listens. I gave it a rest for a long while and returned again with fresh ears a couple of years later to find, to my surprise, a great album. The energetic and complex riffs, powerful lead guitar and many nice touches of acoustic guitar, occasional piano and keyboards and even violin at some point creates a varied enough and appealing sound. The tone is dark and melancholic much to my taste. The 80's style Metal vocals is probably an acquired taste and might put some people off, but I have learned to enjoy this style.

This is perhaps not the most original and ground breaking album (especially not by the standard set by classic progressive Rock from the 70's) and to some people it might even sound a bit dated today, but this album certainly constitutes an early example of Metal being taken further than it was by the vast majority of its practitioners in the 80's. As such it was showing the way to the Prog Metal of the 90's.

Highly recommended!

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