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Fates Warning - Perfect Symmetry CD (album) cover

PERFECT SYMMETRY

Fates Warning

 

Progressive Metal

4.13 | 469 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Gatot
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars It's not truly prog, but it's an excellent album .!!

It's probably the album that remarks the band effort to progressive vein. In its own style, I can see the band effort is worth as the result is an excellent album with full of energy with some prog elements. The music is not something you might expect of progressive metal vein with repeated heavy riffs. It does not mean that there is no riffs, I find some but it does not characterized the overall music of the band, especially this album. The first spin I found the album looked like a heavy metal vein at least for the first three tracks. But when repeated the spin couple of times, I could see some changes of time signatures and / or rhythm section performed unexpectedly but with a nice transition. The music of this album is probably similar to Rush and Queensryche with more progressive elements, I would say.

Musician-wise, put aside the prog ness of the album, I admire the powerful voice quality of Ray Alder that can sing with an excellent stamina for especially high register notes! His voice (in this album) reminds me to Geoff Tate (of Queensryche) voice. I do enjoy Ray's vocal quality and it sounds perfect with this album. The other musician of importance in this album is of course the master mind and songwriter Jim Matheos. It's not a matter of technical skills he delivers with this album but he has his own unique guitar style that is really "perfect" for the music of this album. Mark Zonder plays brilliant work behind the drum stools. As my prog mate put it, he has an "acrobatic" drumming style. I fully agree with him. Last but not least, there is an excellent work on bass guitar part played by JoeDiBiase. He fills in some segment in dynamic way.

Let's have a look at track level ..

The album opener "Part of the Machine" starts with a music loop / sampling followed by a blast of intro part in hard rock vein with guitar takes the lead on melody. The vocal enters the music in a distanced style with high register notes augmented with sort guitar riffs. It reminds me to the music of Black Sabbath. The music turns into short guitar solo with rhythm section of guitar as well. The rhythm then turns to form a sort of melody and accompany the vocal to increase into higher register. The music turns into quieter passage with guitar fills while voice line is still in high register.

"Through Different Eyes" starts with an ambient guitar solo with a bit of Floydian style, then it blasts off with relatively the same fast tempo as the opening track. The guitar solo at opening is stunning and provides excellent musical enjoyment. The music suddenly turns into quieter passage filled with guitar work in slow tempo. The vocal line enters in this slow tempo nicely. The music is composed tightly - in a hard rock vein.

"Static Acts" starts nicely in the vein of Saga. The vocal line enters at a quieter passage accompanied with guitar fills. The music turns into a faster tempo with high register notes of vocal line. The music flows nicely with guitar as main rhythm section augmented with keyboard sounds. Stunning guitar solo in prog style has made this track an enjoyable one to listen. It's one of my favorite tracks.

"A World Apart" starts in a mellow fashion with great voice line backed up with excellent guitar fills and acrobatic drumming style. The music flows in continuous form accentuated with guitar fills and sort of psychedelic style. It has a reat variation in terms of high and low points that can elevate our emotions toward the music. The stunning guitar solo accentuates the cohesiveness of the composition.

"At Fate's Hands" opens with a collaborative efforts of guitar, piano and violin. It provides a classical nuance of the song. Very nice opening. The vocal enters nicely after the classical outfit, backed up with soft drumming and some keyboard at background. Half way through, the music turns into a faster tempo in symphonic style. It's a wonderful passage, combined with electric guitar rhythm. The music gradually increases its complexity featuring the combined sounds of guitar, keyboard, bass, violin and drum. It's a very progressive movement and it's a prog track to the corner!

"The Arena" is a straight forward rock tune with excellent composition.The short guitar solo in the middle is stunning.

"Chasing Time" starts with a nice guitar fills in mellow style. It's a kind of ballad song or slow rock outfit with a unique singing style. Halfway through the track the band has pushed the song further into prog vein. The inclusion of violin solo has enriched the track.

"Nothing Left To Say" opened with soft riffs and stunning guitar solo in prog met vei with unique time signatures. This guitar solo has really enriched the song and gives rich textures of the song. It turns then into quieter passages with guitar fills and let the vocal line enters the music. It's a catchy vocal melody. It's a track with tight structure and wonderful composition. One of my favorite tracks.

My Recommendation

Go and get the CD! It's an excellent addition to any prog collection! Overall rating is 4.5 out of 5. However, it's too naïve for giving full five stars rating for this album. This album is really excellent. Keep on Progging .!!!

Progressively yours,

GW - Indonesia.

Gatot | 4/5 |

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