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Firing on all cylinders

Worgelm | United States | 08/08/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Engine as the name might suggest, is stripped-down metal taken to the barest essentials. Its not ground-breaking or earth-shattering, but its damn good and damn listenable. Gone are the constantly-shifting time signatures and complex percussive arrangements of Fates Warning. Lead vocalist Ray Alder neatly acquits himself here, Engine's at least as good and even better that _Parallels_ or _Inside_Out_, and at points its definitely on par with some of the best moments past _Perfect_Symmetry_. Its groovier, brooding, power metal, much simpler and heavier, sometimes bordering on the funk-thrash of Death Angel. The tracks "Monster", "You're Awake" and the devastating "Teach Me" are ample evidence of the Engine redlining. But there are slower moments, like "Tree of Life" and the gorgeous "Falling Star" (with some commendable textural guitar work by Mr. Bernie Versailles) that prove Engine can downshift and write a good power ballad if given free license. Sometimes the songwriting is a bit simple-minded, but in general this is really excellent and appealing stuff."

One of the best heavy albums I own

bluesjr | Dallas, TX USA | 03/06/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Engine is the first solo effort from Fates Warning frontman Ray Alder and it's the first time we've ever been exposed to his excellent musical writing ability. (Since then, he's penned a handful of songs for the last two Fates Warning albums - FWX and Disconnected which were some of the best songs on those albums in my opinion.) This is the kind of album that you'll like from the first listen. It's less progressive than Fates Warning and relies heavily of creative hooks. Each song is carefully and artfully crafted and every song on the album works well together. I'm impressed with Alder's songwriting ability and hope to hear much more from him in the future. Highly recommended!"

Fates Warning it ain't ... good straight-up metal it is

Matt from www.prog.web.com | 10/21/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a very good album ... taken for what it is: a metal album. No orchestrations, no complex time-changes, no ballads (!), no keyboards (well ... not really) -- it isn't progressive and it isn't power metal, and it isn't meant to be. The vocals are still very strong and enjoyable, though I don't think Ray's voice is on par with his more operatic Fates Warning style. The music is moody, brooding, and heavy -- bordering on visceral, but not that harsh. Years back I would have loved this album even more probably, now its aggressiveness is almost a little too much for me, but not so that I can't recognize how good it is. A solid buy for metal fans, in my opinion."