avant-prog

I must admit that if I like Fates Warning for any reason, over any of the other popular prog bands, ie Dream Theater and Queensryche, not to disregard some less popular, but equally artistic contemporaries of theirs is that they somehow always progressed, never resting on their laurels (for too long), or released a patently bad record. They might have experienced slower periods, times when they changed their sound rather drastically, but they always seemed to be artistically driven.
 

I suppose I was lucky enough, age wise, to start listening to rock and metal in the early 90s, hence capturing the Dream Theater phenomenon pretty much from the very beginning. Top notch musical chop by some guy straight out of a prestigious musical school could be expected, but the sort of creativity, artistic merit and maturity that they displayed early on, was really an eye opener and what set them apart from many of their contemporaries.