FATES WARNING

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PERFECT SYMMETRY (1989)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

HIGH POINTS: Chasing Time.  LOW POINTS: Part Of The Machine, Nothing Left To Say, At Fate's Hands.

I have a feeling that this review won't really make prog metal fans who come across it very happy, instead giving them an immediate impulse to flame me, but I can't help it if this crap does absolutely nothing for me other than put me to sleep.  Apparently, Perfect Symmetry is considered a 'landmark album' in the scene (at least by the All Music Guide), a transitional effort where the artsy arrangements and playing became more prominent than the straightforward metal sound, but that 'landmark' tag is a load of bullshit, if you ask me.  My impressions of the sound?  The music seems like second-rate Queensryche in approach, only with a distressing lack of vocal melody, songs that don't create any sort of memorable mood or atmosphere (just notes that might be complex on paper), a vocalist who doesn't seem to realize staying in the upper range and stretching out every word constantly doesn't equal fantastic, and really, really dull jams.  What the hell am I missing here?

Maybe the genius of Mark Zonder's drumming!  I just absolutely love the opening "Part Of The Machine", where the drums are continuously falling over themselves to be sophisticated, regardless of the fact there's like, two note riffs repeating themselves.  In any case, the result of this song is a complete failure, a melodyless 6 minute wailing that sounds like whatever machine's on in that song seems to be malfunctioning.  God, the same sort of thing happens on the initially promising "At Fate's Hands" - there's a rather pleasantly quaint piano, violin, acoustic guitar and drum introduction that builds nicely for 3 minutes, and then they blow it and go on an extremely boring jam session of simplistic riffing that sounds complex just because the time signature shifts are constant - for 4 more minutes.  Absolutely pointless.  I wish I could even remember that much about the epic 7-1/2 closer "Nothing Left To Say", but I can't.  Absolutely no aspect of that one has stuck with me after four listens to it, and it's never gotten any better.  It seems like they took the title of the song way too literally.

Admittedly, only those three tracks really strike me as worthless, but that's not to say I like the rest much either.  The only song that I can call somewhat of a success is "Chasing Time" (at least they picked a good song to name their best-of compilation after), probably because it doesn't try to be progressive.  It's not very memorable, but the pop ballad atmosphere is actually quite nice, and the fast violin solo is a real treat, especially compared to the remainder.  I guess "Through Different Eyes" is okay, as it correctly points the way to the more hook-filled moments on Parallels, though the chorus is the only thing remotely notable thing here.  The side closing "A World Apart" has a pretty cool watery guitar intro and outro, though I can't remember a thing about it other than that, and it's also way too long and plodding to be actually, you know, good.  There are a couple other songs here, too, but my brain was unable to acknowledge them.  Or this album as any good.  It's not really horrible, but there's so many other more interesting, entertaining and atmospheric stuff to listen to than this blah, so why even bother?

OVERALL RATING: 4

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PARALLELS (1991)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

HIGH POINTS: Eye To Eye, Life In Still Water.  LOW POINTS: The Road Goes On Forever, Don't Follow Me.

When it comes to discussing Fates Warning's albums, this one's usually seen as their finest moment among fans, but since I'm far enough away from ever being a fan (except for maybe A Pleasant Shade Of Gray, of course), I see things a little differently.  Sure, this album is a big improvement over Perfect Symmetry in just about all ways possible - it has several songs that I can actually remember the melodies to (and a couple of them can even be called damn catchy!), the atmospheres are a lot more effective (especially during the more dreamy moments contained within here) and the professional playing comes through a hell of a lot better.  But the arrangements still seem a little awkward and ineffective to me, and the plodding, same-sounding tempos make the whole thing feel somewhat more uniform.  Plus the Queensryche 'influence' is still unmistakable - same sort of approach in the vocals, guitar dueling approach and lyrics, pretty much.

That being said, there are some truly worthwhile songs on here, and that's something I couldn't really say about the last album.  Both of them tread more toward pop than prog, but I don't really mind, as "Life In Still Water" has a really ear-catching power metal influenced riff with some really cool rhythmic drum embellishments going on there in the intro, plus a well-flowing buildup that switches around to several good anthemic melodies (with a bubbly techno-ish bassline underpinning it) - and that's even before it gets to the best part of the song, the catchy chorus, of course!  Even better in this vein is "Eye To Eye", which has glorious chiming guitar / hard riff interplay in its' introduction, and the rest of its' Rage For Order-esque pop song quality definitely doesn't disappoint either, nor does the fantastic midsong solo.  These guys can be real damn good when they want to be!

The rest of side one is an inconsistent bag of hit-and-miss, though.  There are interesting and well-developed parts here and there, like in the case with the opening "Leave The Past Behind" - the moody vocal introduction leading into the 'walking' guitar line and subsequent short instrumental jam is priceless!  Too bad it isn't very memorable after that, and the offbeat way in which the chorus is delivered (or maybe the way the instruments are playing?) really bugs me.  The side-closing "The Eleventh Hour" is also atmospheric, contemplative, and embellished with a nice guitar tone and other sound coloring textures in there (i.e. the bells and cymbal work), but once it actually starts to rock, it does so in a somewhat standard, again Queensryche-ish, way, and the jamming is a bit dull - stick to the more atmospheric parts (in the first few minutes and very end of its' 8 minute length) and you'll be fine.

Side two attempts to bring more of a pop and standard metal sound to the mix (okay, so maybe just the intros and jams on this album can be called progressive) to a not-always-great effect.  "Point Of View" and "We Only Say Goodbye" both have top-notch riffs and excellently memorable pop metal choruses going for them, with the former also having a kickass bassline, and the latter switching nicely from atmospheric to hard rockin', but also have very subpar, generic verse melodies going against them.  And they also lose a bit of steam here with the last two songs, the unmemorable thrash of  "Don't Follow Me", and the closer "The Road Goes On Forever".  Now this one isn't so much bad as much as it is frustrating - with its' multi-part structure (in terms of the different unmemorable melodies it contains), it sounds like it's going to build up into some amazing buildup or monster solo section, but it never does!  And there's not much else to grab on to here either.  Oh well - at least I can hear potential in the songwriting this time, and I can even call the overall effect decent!  That's progress!

OVERALL RATING: 6

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INSIDE OUT (1994)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

HIGH POINTS: Monument.  LOW POINTS: Island In The Stream, Down To The Wire.

Hi, we're Fates Warning!  We've recorded an album a lot of prog metal fans, for some bizarre reason, love!  Now, led by our genius songwriter Jim Matheos, we'll take three years to record a followup, but we won't make any major changes this time!  In fact, that "We Only Say Goodbye" song we did on the last album was really damn catchy, so we decided to kinda 'explore' that completely ordinary vibe even more on this one, and it came out really cool!  In fact, this is actually the same exact album as Parallels, but that doesn't really matter, since Parallels kicked ass, right?  Oh, and we hid a spot for our drummer to go wild on near the end, because we realized this album didn't have a song that sounded like a fan favorite on it!  We'll probably get even more commercial success this time, since we included this really great ballad that shows our heart-tugging emotional side!  And it's got strings!  Man, this album's gonna rule like no other!

I'm sorry I started this review in such an obnoxious way, which will probably get even more fans after my ass, but I can't help it - in large stretches, this album is unbearably boring to me, for some of the same reasons I hinted at in the intro.  The last album may have sounded a bit standard to my ears, but absolutely nothing compared to this.  Probably like, more than half these songs use the exact same midtempo groove as "We Only Say Goodbye", and some even have an 'eerily similar' vocal melody ("Shelter Me" and "Down To The Wire", both rather half-baked power metal workouts) or just choose to rip off another song ("Outside Looking In" = "Life In Still Water").  Add to that there's hardly any melodies or instrumental performances that stand out, and it's no wonder I consider this a boring bunch of mediocrity, as the end of the chorus in the appropriately generic "Pale Fire" says it all ('with nothing to inspire...' indeed). Not that there's much awful here, except for maybe the aforementioned acoustic ballad "Island In The Stream", which seriously sounds like soulless elevator music to me, and neither its' dragging 6-1/2 minute length or string arrangements help at all, but geez, how boring and standard can you get?

Boring and standard enough that I'd easily give this a point or two lower, were it not for a few factors.  One: Ray Alder's vocal performance in "The Strand" is unusual in a good way, though the rest of the song can fall off a cliff as far as I'm concerned. Two: The acoustic/keyboard based instrumental "Inward Bound" and especially the closing "Afterglow", are very pleasant (though short).  Three: "Face The Fear", though unmemorable and clumsy, at least has energy.  And four: The fan favorite epic "Monument" might actually be a classic - it's the one time I can agree with fans on the excellence of Mark Zonder on the kit, as his work around the cleverly shifting riff is powerfully virtuosic stuff, plus they actually build around it with subtle variations and a fine dramatic vocal melody throughout, and that instrumental middle with 'clinking noises' and flamenco guitar just rules!.  But you can get that song on the Chasing Time comp anyway, so don't think it's justification for getting this otherwise bland effort.  Maybe it was that song that fueled a creative spark of sorts.

OVERALL RATING: 5

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A PLEASANT SHADE OF GRAY (1997)

(reviewed by Nick Karn)

HIGH POINTS: Part IX, Part VII, Part II.  LOW POINTS: Part XI.

Well, this is more like it.  I suppose Fates Warning realized they hadn't yet fulfilled a very key requirement in being a successful art rock band, and that was to create a concept album.  To make up for this distressing omission from their catalog, Jim Matheos went out of his way to make it not just any concept effort, but an entire 52 minute plus song divided into 12 parts.  Now, an idea like this might have turned out to be an absolute nightmare judging by the style of the last few albums, but here I'd say it helped the band become focused as arrangers - A Pleasant Shade Of Gray actually builds on the success of "Monument" from the last album, cleverly repeating a few great atmospheric instrumental/vocal themes and interspersing short jam bits as links between 'parts' at just the right times, and the lyrics... man, they rule!  They're equal parts introspective, dark, and uplifting, with some really great lines here and there - 'recite soliloquies to shadows on the wall? / revise revisions, reverse decisions watch our heros fall and... / let nothing bleed into nothing' being a fine example.

Also noteworthy is that they're somewhat expanding their sound from the monotonous prog metal formula.  In fact, I would say this album treads more toward an mood piece than a prog rock song suite, though the instrumental virtuosity and jamming links, as well as the lyrical subject matter, place it in that sphere, still.  It's just that atmospheric keyboards and piano are far more prominent in the mix (helped out by former Dream Theater member Kevin Moore, who has had close ties to Fates throughout recent years), and there's often a somewhat harder industrial tinge that creeps up here as well, paving the way for the following album's style.  It's encouraging that Ray Alder's vocal approach changes as well for the expressive better - by now, he's far, far removed from power metal wailing, often staying in a laid-back, relaxing sort of tone called for by the lyrics, but also demonstrating even more of a range of personalities.  Hooray!

If you're wondering whether or not this is among the longest songs in prog, though, be aware that, like Thick As A Brick, it isn't really one song, especially since flow between parts isn't totally ideal - you can usually tell where one part ends and another begins - but still, this didn't prevent the band from deciding not to actually name each part.  The main 'so where to we begiiiiiin...' melody backed up by 'atmospheric' keys, though, shows up several times throughout, most notably in the more or less introductory "Part I", the more multi-faceted side one closing "Part VI" and the closing "Part XII", where the band hits upon a very, very serene and peaceful mood not unlike the best Brian Eno ambient tunes.  I think the entire piece could have used a somewhat more dramatic ending, though that's only a minor disappointment.  Oh, watch out if you're planning to fall asleep to the album - that alarm clock after a minute or two of silence may scare the crap out of you!

I won't really go over all the parts in this suite in too much detail, since a lot of it is kind of similar in mood (one of the few drawbacks here, though that's usual for Fates, isn't it?), and my actual description of the sound fits most of these parts to a tee.  I will point out, though, that "Part IX" is probably the high point for me - this gorgeous acoustic ballad captures a nighttime mood better than almost any song I've ever heard, and that opening 'stayed up late last night...' melody is perhaps the most lasting in their catalog.  I actually think this 'song' could have stood on its' own rather well as a hit single for the band, though I don't think the effect is really complete without a fantastic plunge into the dark techno-ish soundscapes of its' "Part X" followup.

There are also other notable moments - "Part II" has its' tense piano opening and really neat sounding horn-like keyboard chorus, "Part III" best shows the maturity of Alder's vocals by this point (going from desperate wails to a grunge-like low tone) "Part V" has the moody 'let nothing bleed into nothing...' climax making its' first appearance, "Part VII" is a convincing remnant of the Fates' hard rocking past, and "Part VIII" has the tightest and best instrumental segments. I'm only reminded of the unbearably repetitive and clumsy moments in the last few albums in "Part XII" (with its' nagging 'do you think that I...' refrain), but for a band I wouldn't have thought had this much potential were it not for the fact I heard this before any of their other albums, one misfire among these parts isn't bad at all.  Easily one of my more recommended concept albums from recent years, and certainly the Fates Warning album to get if you're interested in them.

OVERALL RATING: 8

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