PERFECT SYMMETRY

First thing you notice with this album is the radical change of drumming sound and strategy. The sound is dry and quite thin. I don't hear the bass drum that well. When it comes to technique, there aren't any Iron Maiden elements any more, in fact, solely by listening to the drum track, you would attribute it to a progressive AOR metal band. As a consequence, the album feels slower than any other previous output. FW reached the critical point when playing gets superior to the material. Though they try at experimenting with variations and there is even a violin-led part, they fail to make a cohesive impression. The best track is the drum overplayed "Part of the machine" although the most complex track comes with the overblown "At fates hands" with almost five (apart from the bass player) showing off at the same time.

While I do recognize this as a step in the FW evolution, I could never memorize more than a few motives off this album rather than an entire track. For progressive metal heads, this is the 80's FW feast to digest.