Fates Warning
Theories of Flight

THE REVIEW

This time they didn't make us wait another 9 years, this time only 3 are enough; the pioneers of progressive metal Fates Warning release their twelfth studio album "Theories of Flight," and it's a work that skillfully alternates power and melody without major innovations but at the same time without sounding like a copy of any previous work, everything is expertly reworked and modernized.

The impression is that of being faced with a sort of greatest hits played in a more modern and sharp key of everything they have achieved in the last 22 years.

The sharp sound of the previous album is all concentrated in the duo "White Flag"/"Like Stars Our Eyes Have Seen," the two hardest tracks that sound powerful without making too many compromises. "Seven Stars" and "SOS" are also quite direct but more polished and with a sunny and engaging melody in the choruses, they might vaguely remind you of the approach that characterized "Inside Out." The more intricate style of "Disconnected" can be found in the two ten-minute compositions: "The Light and Shade of Things," with its initial muted riffs ready to make way for powerful outbursts, seems to be the offspring of "Something from Nothing," while the further more dynamic "The Ghosts of Home" seems to descend from a "Still Remains." The transition from melancholic verses and delicate melodies to angry and technical outbursts in "From the Rooftops" seems inherited from "FWX." The title track that closes the album is decidedly melancholic.

From an individual point of view, Ray Alder's vocal performance stands out, anything but finished and still capable of delivering a powerful and determined vocal performance, as well as Bobby Jarzombek's drumming, fluid, unpredictable, technical, and energetic.

The clear and brilliant production is the cherry on top of an effective, powerful, melodic, and technical album that from Fates Warning was certainly expected, and here we have it; expectations were certainly not betrayed.