Long Day Good Night

Long Day Good Night is the thirteenth album, a progressive-metal record on which FATES WARNING used complex construction not as mere display but to depict the flow of time and the sway of emotion. Ray Alder’s calm singing and Jim Matheos’ guitar value shadow and afterglow over flash. Lined with long-form songs, it fully shows the band’s matured expressiveness. On “The Destination Onward,” “Shuttered World,” “Under the Sun” and “The Last Song,” heavy riffs, quiet acoustics and tense rhythm change shape again and again while forming one large flow. Rather than seeking only immediacy, it has the listener follow the placement of the sound carefully, leaving a deep feeling about life and time. Showing where a band that has not lost its experimental spirit and melodic sense stands even after a long career, it is a record holding the depth of mature progressive metal.