INSIDE OUT

As Fates Warning's most un-metal album, Inside Out has done little more than garner criticism from metal for being "an album of ballads." While I can't say the album is all that heavy compared to its metal contemporaries, FW did certainly not alienate all of heavy rock to be a Michael Bolton clone. Inside is much more musically refined than it's predecessors and features much more streamlined production. While Dream Theater was taking a more bombastic approach (Awake was released the same year), FW were getting more focused on mood than technicality here although some of the music here isn't so simple to execute. Ray Alder has arguably the one of the strongest, most captivating voices in all of prog metal/rock (and I'd argue anywhere...even Michael Bolton though I can't see why people like him so much).

The songs that really stand out to me include The Strand, Shelter Me, and Monument (which seems to be a consistent choice for live material for the band). There's not much on heavy metal here, but if you're into the Kevin Moore-influenced sounds of early Dream Theater, you'll enjoy this album (sans blinding instrumental sections and solos of course).