UMUR "Chasing Time" is a compilation album by US progressive/power metal act Fates Warning. The compilation was released through Metal Blade Records in July 1995. Fates Warning were formed under the Misfit monicker in 1982 but changed their name to Fates Warning in 1984. Up until this release they had released seven full-length studio albums. Each of those albums are represented with at least one track on "Chasing Time" (some with more). In addition to the original studio tracks "Chasing Time" also features a two previously unreleased tracks in "At Fates Fingers" and "Circles". The former is an instrumental and re-arranged version of "At Fates Hands" from "Perfect Symmetry (1989)" while the latter was recorded in 1993 but shelved. Some parts of the track would later appear as part of other tracks on "Inside Out (1994)". On a maybe less interesting note "We Only Say Goodbye" from "Parallels (1991)" appears here in a remixed version.

So "Chasing Time" is more or less a best of compilation with a few rarities thrown in to make it a worthwhile purchase for the hardcore fans of the band too. The latter part of the band´s audience need not go out of their way to get "Chasing Time" in my opinion though, as the rarities are only moderately interesting. "Chasing Time" is more a release for the casual listener, who gets an easy way to get into Fates Warning without having to listen to seven full albums of music, and for that purpose the compilation works really well. You get a fairly good idea of the music style on each of the band´s releases. The tracklist is not chronological, which might confuse new listeners, but to my ears the choice to arrange the compilation like that actually works pretty well. You can always argue if the right songs where picked for the tracklist or not, but as it is it´s a pretty good presentation of Fates Warning up until 1995. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

Sinkadotentree Very tempting to give this 5 stars because they are my favourite Metal band and i love every track on here...but this is a compilation album after all so 4.5 stars it is. It's kind of cool in the liner notes that they get at least one band member's thoughts on each track represented here. It's especially cool to read Ray Adler's thoughts on "Guardian" a song that was released during the John Arch era, so before Ray became part of this band. He says "I think that at one time or another everyone has a song in their life that's very special to them, something that moves you the very first time you hear it. For me that song is "Guardian". After hearing and playing this song too many times to count it still has the same effect on me." Me too Ray. A great cross section of the band's discography is on display here including two tracks that weren't previously released. The first one is "At Fates Fingers" which is a re-worked version of "At Fates Hands" from the "Perfect Symmetry" album. Here they took out the vocal section and added a guitar part left off the original. Amazing tune ! Also "Circles" is new.It's from 1993. They used the bridge section of this on "Outside Looking In" and the other sections except for the chorus on "Shelter Me" but changed the lyrics and sped up the tempo. This isn't as great as "At Fates Fingers" but it's a good tune as well. It's a 5 star album for yours truly but 4.5 stars makes more sense considering.