Review

Band: Fates Warning

Album: A Pleasant Shade of Grey

Reviewer: Jeff

I really love Fates Warning, and love almost all their albums, but this is one of the few exceptions. When I picked this album up I had just heard Parallels and No Exit, and was expecting something quite interesting and memorable, and much to my disappointment, I got neither.

The album starts off slow and almost morose sounding, with just some bell-type noises and an almost spoken word passage from Ray Alder. This didn't scare me at first, because I figured "concept album, slow, building intro". As it turns out, the slow, building intro of this album takes nearly 5 tracks before it really gets going. Each of the first half dozen songs seems like it's really going to go somewhere, but it just doesn't. They build up only to die down again, but it's not really an enjoyable rollercoaster ride to be on. Track 6 was really the first thing that grabbed me, and 7 was interesting as well, but after it all seemed to blur together until I came to the last 2 or so tracks.

While the band probably named the tracks simply "A Pleasant Shade of Gray I - XII" because they wanted to give a flowing conceptual feel, it may have just as well been due to the complete lack of identity most of these songs have. Many of them simply drift by leaving you unmoved and uninterested, wondering whether or not they're even going anywhere.

Despite it's downfalls, the album still can be enjoyable when you're in the right mood for it, but as a whole it's just quite unmemorable.

If you're looking to get into Fates Warning I would NOT recommend this album and tell you start with something like Parallels, No Exit, Inside Out, or the Spectre Within first. Well, unless you're into taking long musical naps.

Jeff's Rating: 65%