Time Signature
Through different ears...
Genre: progressive metal
Musically, this is a very interesting and challenging album, which excels in technicality and top notch musicianship. There is plenty of melody and plenty of tasty twin guitar harmonies and guitar solos - and a lot of really tasty and different (without being totally quirky) guitar riffage. This does not mean that "Perfect Symmetry" is a straight pop metal album - far from it. As mentioned the music is quite technical (especially Zonder's drumming), and the compositions are also quite complex compared to the commercially succesful genres of heavy metal at the time.
As with virtually all other early Fates Warning albums, the vocals may take some getting used to, but once you're there, you can't imagine it any other way. The only problem is the production in that, as is typical of metal releases of the 1980s, there's why too much reverb in general, and specifically on the drums - the snare especially (the cymbals sound very nice though); it is not as bad, however, as some other 80s metal releases I've heard, and it is not like the production ruins the listening experience at all.
I'd recommend this album to fans of progressive metal and to those who like a bit of melody in rock but are looking for rock music that has more to offer.