Fates Warning
Inside Out

THE REVIEW

The chameleon! What an extraordinary animal! What an ability to adapt to the surrounding environment and to constantly change skin!

Well, if I had to play a nice game and associate each band in the metal scene with a group, Fates Warning would be this wonderful lizard.

And "Inside Out" their favorite offspring.

Let me explain better.

Born in the early eighties to emulate the characteristics of the purest classic "heavy metal," Fates Warning will be remembered for their direct contribution to the development of Progressive Metal undertaken after a succession of integral and radical changes both in their line-up and in the sound they produced.

The album in question can be considered a sort of channel/bridge to the stylistic development embarked upon with the previous albums "Perfect Symmetry" and "Parallels," definitively abandoning the "Maiden-like" atmospheres and the more transparent Speed Metal to delve into the murkier and more intricate universe of the progressive style.

From a technical standpoint, the musicians (even if this work is considered by many as the most fragile of the trilogy) deliver an absolutely impeccable performance, from the undisputed leader guitarist and founder of the band, Jim Matheos, to drummer Mark Zonder, a true virtuoso of the skins, capable of deconstructing uneven time signatures of absolute difficulty in an exemplary and sometimes inconceivable manner.

However, do not be deceived by the improbable technique just described above, because "Inside Out" reveals itself as an album as warm as a fireplace in December with songs of strong melodic and expressive impact like the open-track Outside Looking In, a true flagship of the entire album with its consistently aggressive march and a catchy chorus perfectly complemented by the vocals of Ray Alder, a true talent in vocal timbre, sound, and rhythmic form.

The songs follow with a sequence of flashes sometimes of pure stylistic technique and at other times of pure harmony and melody, at some points even touching upon a near "rock 'n roll catchy" vein and even revealing a few choruses to hum in the shower, as in Pale Fire, Shelter Me, or in the wonderful The Strand.

A special mention surely goes to the compelling and ultra-technical Face The Fear, while I would include Island In The Stream, Inward Bound, and Afterglow among the more melancholic songs where ethereal and gloomy atmospheres meld directly with the group's soul.

Even more innovative and completely out of the box is the Titanic (there's no other adjective to describe it) Monument, with a complex structure and traced in the middle by two of Matheos's beautiful and impactful solos.

In any case, "Inside Out" closes a cycle for Fates Warning, which, like the wonderful lizard known as a chameleon, will come to change their color to that shaded gray/black of their masterpiece known as "A Pleasant Shade of Gray."

What a wonderful animal the chameleon is!

What a wonderful group Fates Warning is!