Torture Tunes
Fates Warning
Theories of Flight
Sometimes in a Perfect Symmetry we find ourselves Chasing Time searching for The Spectre Within and finding No Exit, no way out, and no Parallels. Emotions feel like Still Life in A Pleasant Shade of Grey, leaving you tattered and Inside Out. Well, it’s time to Awaken the Guardian in this Night on Bröcken, and devise your own Theories of Flight and shed some Darkness in a Different Light.
/>Fates Warning is one of the bands that blazed a trail for progressive heavy metal. In 1984, they were before their time with thought provoking lyrics, screaming, surgically placed guitar solos, and aggressive rhythms. Though they had a few lineup changes within the camp, they kept pumping out heart pounding music that makes you beat your chest with pride.
Ray Adler is the voice behind the chaos, Jim Matheos and Frank Aresti provide the shred, Joey Vera drops the bottom end into the depths of Hades, and Bobby Jarzombek is the rapid heartbeat that drives each song on the new release, Theories of Flight.
The songs here are masterful. Fates’ roots have not withered and the waters that make the music flow have not run dry. From beginning to end, track one to track eight, it’s perfect, simply perfect. The mellow soulful intro in the grand opening number, “From the Rooftops”, leads straight into madness. “Seven Stars” and “SOS” continue to use rhythm to their advantage as each chug of the guitar and beat of the drum is another slug in the gut. “The Light and Shade of Things” has a jazzy intro for the first three minutes as Ray croons over the atmosphere, and then it gets punchy for the remaining seven minutes.
Fates Warning
Theories of Flight
(InsideOut Music)
Written by: Tim Duran
10 out of 10
“White Flag” and “Like Stars Our Eyes Have Seen” are frantic in delivery, and “The Ghosts of Home” has a weird intro of static and low frequency effects leading into mellow arpeggio and soft vocals. It then slams back into the changing time signature rhythms that make your head spin (but in a good way).
The record ends with more of the same intro as in “White Flag”. The title track is a Pink Floyd type instrumental. It’s pensive, mellow, acoustical, electric, and eclectic. Downside, in one part you can hear when the vocals were punched in; however, it’s barely noticeable. Upside is Fates Warning has not failed to give more than 100% in the songwriting and the recording. As I stated earlier, this is perfect and deserves of a perfect score, so they get the big X from me.
Tim Duran, HMS
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