A Pleasant Shade of Gray (1997)

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Fates Warning are considered, if not the real originators of progressive metal, then at least the band that stood at the very beginning of the forming of prog metal as an individual music style. Their tight connection with Dream Theater is known widely, and exactly that fact attracted me to learn more about this band and to listen to at least one of their albums. "A Pleasant Shade of Gray" is a conceptual album with tracks that don't actually have names except of featureless "Part I", "Part II", and so on. As regards the music, I have listened to this album for several times, but at the moment I can't remember any prolonged part of it - such an uncatchy and expressionless this album is. On the other hand, I can't say the album is poor. The music isn't middling and overall level of performance is good. I don't like the vocal parts, however, but everything else is well-done. As a result, I rate this album with 3 of 5 stars. This means the album is good enough, but I don't think I will listen to it once more in the future.