>I downloaded a couple of songs by FW to see what they sounded >like and I had a hard time with the vocals. I found them a bit too >"operatic" (a la Bruce Dickenson) for me. Are the majority of the >vocals in FW in this style?

Yeah if you prefer the more sedate vocals like on O.S.I. then FW may seem too "metal" in comparison.  FW have been around since the early 80s and started basically as a metal band.  Their original vocalist John Arch was very much the typical metal screamer.  He left the band in 1988 and was replaced by Ray Alder who has a somewhat lower range but is still, as you put it, operatic.  Generally the sound of the band and vocals got more mature with later albums, and my favorite of their albums that I mentioned, A Pleasant Shade of Gray, comes from this late period, in 1997 I believe.