STILL LIFE

After a successful career of 14 years, Fates Warning decided to release their first live album. Disc 1 is simply "A Pleasant Shade of Grey", their 52-minutes masterpiece, released on their last studio album. I haven't heard the studio version, yet but live it's really good, except the slow transitions, which kind of destroy the feeling of hearing one song! Disc 2 features the best songs of Fates Warning, from every album since "Awaken the Guardian". From one of their most popular album, "Parallels", three tracks were taken ("The Eleventh Hour", "Point of View", "We only say Goodbye", a good compilation of their history! Every track, except "The Eleventh Hour" and "Monument" (which were extended by some seconds), every track (on the second disc) is shorter than the studio version, especially "Prelude to Ruin", which has been abbreviated to 3 minutes (usually 7 minutes).

The album has been recorded in Oldenburg, Germany! The audience is quite loud and enthusiastic and they create a nice live atmosphere. The sound is good, nothing stunning, but also nothing to complain about. The track-list is a bit strange, for people like me, who don't own "A Pleasant Shade of Grey" it's not bad but for old Fates Warning fans, there are some tracks missing, so one track of each album is not very much (except "Parallels" - three tracks). So all in all, a quite good live recording, and recommended, but the track list is not perfect.