This band has a lot of cojones. Progressive metal pioneers Fates
\nWarning don’t create a concept album;
\nA Pleasant Shade of Gray<\/i> isn’t even a loose concept album.
\nTo be either of those things, it would have to be made of many
\ndifferent songs, strung together on a common thread. And what we
\nhave here, friends, is a single song extended to almost an hour,
\ndivided into twelve parts. How does one even approach an album like
\nthis? Yes, the twelve parts are different, but they are tied
\ntogether musically and lyrically, so much so that calling them a
\nsingle song is not only justified, but natural.<\/p>\n
The opening track is just an introduction to the concept: “so
\nwhere do we begin \/ and what else can we say? \/ when the lines are
\nall drawn \/ what should we do today?” This isn’t a story of
\nhappiness, or sadness, but of listlessness, despair, emptiness —
\nit could even be called a depiction of clinical depression. Don’t
\nbuy this album expecting grooves or metal solos, as those are both
\nfew and far between.<\/p>\n
The music is a reflection, in many ways, of the concept of the
\nalbum — intentionally so. The third part of the song features
\nspectacular vocal delivery over top of very distinct and deliberate
\nguitar riffing, but it’s a long way from the metal edges of
\nParallels<\/i>.The first hint of a “driving tune” is with part
\nfour, and even that takes a while to get going — past the
\nexquisite “oohs” in the middle, we get to hear a slick guitar line,
\naccompanied perfectly by drums. Part five gives us our first taste
\nof the true chorus: “let nothing bleed into nothing \/ and did
\nnothing at all.” This accusatory phrase shows up throughout the
\nrest of the album; truly, the musical continuity is admirable.<\/p>\n
The album begins to cool off after reaching a fevered pitch at
\nthe end of part five; we are treated to wistful, mournful guitar.
\nFrom nowhere, a driving bass line draws us further and further. It
\nis with this track that most of the musical risks are taken —
\nspacious landscapes are drawn in pencil and daubed with ink, until
\nvocals come in and bring a sensation of fading and
\nhopelessness.<\/p>\n
Beginning with part seven, Fates Warning turns the crank from
\n“interesting” to “compelling,” with tightly coordinated guitar,
\ndrums and keyboard, expressing the musical themes that had been
\nalluded to earlier. This track is clearly the standout, the one
\nthat could have succeeded as a single where the rest would
\nfail.<\/p>\n
Part eight is a delicately strung-together instrumental, with
\nmoments of both sheer beauty and mind-numbing repetitiveness.
\nHowever, it’s also the most disappointing track artistically,
\nbecause it fails to strike a balance between thematic elements and
\nrecapitulation of those elements. After this song we can take our
\nfirst breath, as the album stops for an instant — not quite a
\nperiod in the song, but definitely a comma or semicolon.<\/p>\n
Part ten begins the ending of the song; we feel the impending
\npressure, building to a climax, which regrettably doesn’t
\ncompletely succeed. The jarring transition to part eleven’s
\nstandard prog-metal guitar line is unpleasant and feels like a
\nletdown after the extended buildup. However, the soaring, biting
\nvocals salvage the feeling of the opening, bringing back a touch of
\nmalice and disgust to the storyline.<\/p>\n
Part twelve, the capstone of the album, is extraordinary. The
\nfeeling, the emotions, the pictures painted are all sharp and
\ncrisp. The regret, the longing described lyrically and musically
\nare heart-wrenching. This piece of music is a fitting end to the
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
I can’t recommend this album to everyone; I found it difficult
\nto listen to at first, because I wasn’t listening for the right
\nthings. It’s not a collection of short stories — it’s a novel that
\nrequires dedication and perseverance to appreciate. It’s not a
\nhappy subject, and in fact could be considered far more upsetting
\nthan even explicitly sad albums — it’s a tale of despair and
\nlistlessness, of the human equivalent of the color gray. It’s not
\nwithout its flaws, but it certainly is a masterpiece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":26322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6430],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-37550","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-fates-warning","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37550"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37550"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}