Fates Warning - Live In Athens DVD

Solid effort from one of the legendary prog metal groups. They've been at it since 1983 and have amassed a very good body of work over the years.

Fates Warning are one of the progressive metal pioneers. Although they haven't had as much commercial success as Queensryche or Dream Theater they are just as important to the genre.

The DVD was filmed in a club in Greece, so there's a feeling of intimacy between the band and the audience. The stage is also pretty small, so it's not one of those epic shows with lasers and lots of explosions. It's just an hour and a half of great sounding progressive metal.

There were a few classic Fates Warning songs that weren't included in this show, but the songs were a pretty good representation of their long career. The sound quality is good, although there's no 5.1 surround sound available. The camera work is adequate, but with such a small stage it's difficult to be super creative.

The DVD extras include footage from rehearsals and soundcheck, a couple clips from Bulgarian TV and two songs recorded at a festival in the Netherlands that feature Dream Theater's Mike Portnoy on drums.