RAY ALDER-What The Water Wants

Inside Out Music

October 3, 2019 by Martien Koolen - More about our team

As a true Fates Warning fan and addict, I of course have all their albums; also the two Engine albums, featuring Ray Alder, can be found in my collection. The reason for that is the vocal performance of Alder on those albums, which is, as always, second to none, as I consider Ray Alder to be one of the best progressive metal singers ever to roam this planet. Now, Alder releases his first true solo album on which he worked with two guitarists, being: Tony Hernando (Lords Of Black) and Fates Warning’s touring guitar picker Mike Abdow. ‘What The Water Wants’ features ten progressive metal songs at a very high musical level and that is of course mainly due to the absolutely brilliant vocal performance of Alder. The album opener ,,Lost” is indeed representative for the rest of the album; a beautiful melody, addictive guitar riffs and hooks and the massive Alder vocals which always remind me of the delicate and very recognizable Fates Warning sound. ,,Crown Of Thorns” is a wonderful ballad-like, very melodic track, followed by the first musical milestone ,,Some Days”, which starts with a quiet sophisticated intro, followed by a dominant cool bass riff and a very melodic, dreamy guitar solo, which gives me the shivers every time I hear it. ‘What The Water Wants’ also features a couple of “heavy” songs, take for instance ,,Shine” (very cool riff), ,,Wait” (Engine-like with an excellent fast guitar solo) and the title track which is up tempo but also very melodic. This album absolutely has no fillers, every song is a musical prog rock gem and the best of the rest are without any doubt: ,,Some Days”, ,,The Road” and ,,The Killing Floor’’; the latter is also featured as an acoustic track on the limited first pressing CD version. I am totally prejudiced concerning albums featuring Alder, but ‘What The Water Wants’ is an amazing listening experience and it definitely is one of the best prog metal/rock albums of the year 2019. In other words a MUST have for Fates Warning and Ray Alder fans; man this guy can sing like hell!!!!!!