SilentScream213 Blows my mind that Ray Alder isn’t considered one of the canon greats of metal vocalists. The music here is technical and complex Prog Metal, but the vocals are total AOR a la Queensryche. Ray’s range is very impressive, he can hit incredibly high registers without getting pitchy or strained, and carry a passionate weight all the while. The way he harmonizes with himself are flawless, and again making comparisons to Queensryche, the choruses on this thing are catchier than the vast majority of Pop music. The lyrics aren’t shallow by a longshot, but pretty clearly revolve around feelings of lost human connection, letting go, and moving on. Or in Pop terms, breakup songs.

Probably an odd way to praise a Prog Metal album by immediately comparing it to Pop music and focusing on the vocals, but whatever. The songwriting is quite similar to the prior Perfect Symmetry, but it’s a bit simpler in structure and with better production. There was an obvious emphasis on melody and catchiness when writing this one. Fates Warning certainly tread the softer side of the genre, but unlike Queensryche, the musicianship is very technical indeed, and simple choruses where the vocals can shine often give way to incredibly intricate verses and instrumental segments. Though most of the album is the simple Rock ensemble of instruments, layering and production effects ensure a depth to the sound that reveals more with each listen.

While every song here is fantastic, I will admit the ending tracks are weaker, except for “We Only Say Goodbye” which is a Pop Prog masterpiece. Probably my favorite song by the band by this point, the lyricism and emotion in Alder’s voice play over simple yet evocative guitar lines that pull every heart string. Such a beautifully passionate song that is sad yet strong. Like much of this album, really. Despite how catchy and melodic it is, “Parallels” is a truly somber package, best enjoyed when you are reeling from loss but still want to sing along to some good music.

UMUR "Long Day Good Night" is the 13th full-length studio album by US progressive metal act Fates Warning. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in November 2020. It´s the successor to "Theories Of Flight" from 2016 and features the same four-piece core lineup as the predecessor. Guitarist Frank Aresti is not involved in session work this time around, but Michael Abdow returns to play a couple of guitar solos.

Stylistically the material on "Long Day Good Night" continues the relatively riff heavy but at the same time melodic progressive metal of "Theories Of Flight (2016)". Fates Warning haven´t had a history of releasing the same album twice, but this time it´s close. Maybe they´ve finally locked into a groove because "Theories Of Flight (2016)" also felt very much like the sibling album to "Darkness In A Different Light (2013)". Personally that´s fine by me, because both of the two direct predecessors were high quality progressive metal releases as only Fates Warning make them. To my ears "Long Day Good Night" is like listening to the early 90s mainstream heavy rock/metal oriented Fates Warning releases, but with an added metallic heaviness, providing the music with a more contempoary edge (the same can be said about the more heavy and meaty sound production). The soaring melancholic choruses of the early 90s are in place, but the riffs and the heavy busy drumming still make "Long Day Good Night" quite a different sounding release to the mentioned albums from the 90s.

Although "Long Day Good Night" features both heavy riffs and rhythms it´s overall a very dynamic release, with loads of mellow and more subdued moments too. Again this is nothing unusual for Fates Warning and upon conclusion "Long Day Good Night" is in many ways Fates Warning by numbers. I know that has a very negative ring to it, and that´s partially intentional, because while "Long Day Good Night" is another high quality Fates Warning album and tracks like "The Destination Onward" and the 11:29 minutes long "The Longest Shadow Of The Day" (which opens with a 6 minutes long instrumental section) are strong compositions, there are tracks featured on the album which fall under the filler catagory (the mainstream oriented "Under The Sun" is even a little weak) and at 72:35 minutes of playing time it can be argued that the album is too long for its own good. I would have prefered a 40-50 minutes long playing time with only the sharpest and the most memorable material featured. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is still deserved though.

siLLy puPPy FATES WARNING without a doubt has crafted some of the most daring and forward thinking progressive metal albums as a pioneer in the fledgling musical style that gestated through the 80s but the band’s efforts over its near 40 year existence have been quite patchy with some triumphant highs and some uninspiring lows but overall this band has proved it has the power to reinvent in sound time and time again. Returning to the scene four years after “Theories Of Flight,” FATES WARNING unleashes its 13th studio album LONG DAY GOOD NIGHT with a return to Metal Blade Records after it departed after 2004’s “FWX.”

LONG DAY GOOD NIGHT is a lengthy beast with 13 tracks that clock in at a whopping 72 plus minutes and features the same lineup of stellar musicians since 2013’s “Different In A Different Light.” Despite the four year gap, little has changed in the sound of FATES WARNING and the band finds itself on automatic pilot delivering the classic progressive metal sound that they have become famous for with Ray Alder’s signature vocal style leading the twin guitar attacks and atmospheric time signature changes into familiar territory. The album’s tracks mostly feature standard rock running times with the exception of the opening eight minute “The Destination Onward,” “The Way Home” at almost eight minutes and the 11 minute plus “The Longest Shadow Of The Day.”

As we reach the year 2020 it’s becoming more obvious that some of these classic artists who were so innovative in the past have reached a point where they have literally exhausted the creativity cookie jar as LONG DAY GOOD NIGHT lacks the punch that many of the band’s most innovative albums like “Parallels” or “A Pleasant Shade Of Gray” displayed. FATES WARNING is one of those bands that has been quite good at maintaining an overarching mood for their albums with an uncanny ability to take the sum of the parts of the individual tracks and make them something larger however that is clearly lacking on this 13th release which after a couple listens seems to yield a diminishing return rather quickly.

Musically speaking, the boys are still top notch musicians and although there is nothing inherently bad about LONG DAY GOOD NIGHT as the tracks all display that classic FW prog metal sound in all its extravagant prowess, what seems to be missing from this album is any sort of innovation or new direction and as a matter of fact many of these tracks seem like leftovers from previous sessions that just got strewn together at the last minute. It’s hard to diss a FATES WARNING as they are all worthy of investigation and all display stellar technical workouts that these seasoned musicians exhibit without missing a beat but the fact is that FW has set the bar fairly high for musical perfection and seems to have fallen down the ladder a few rungs in its attempt to stay relevant.

If this album had come out ten years ago it might seem much more dynamic than i find it now. This isn’t a matter of quality matter, it’s a matter of sounding like something that lines up with the here and now and unfortunately LONG DAY GOOD NIGHT which perfectly retreads already conquered musical territories just seems a tad too generic for my liking and the fact that the album sprawls on for over 70 minutes just makes me quite tired by the time it ends as if it’s a chore to sit through rather than feel the desire to revisit. Considering the band plans on touring with the has been band Queensryche in the spring suggests that FATES WARNING may have reached its own expiration date.

For anyone who is content with a stagnation of the creative process and are content to revisit a style of prog metal that is becoming more and more anachronistic each passing year, then this won’t disappoint a bit for my liking i find this album to be business as usual and a bit underwhelming. Still though, we know FW has the knack for reinventing itself time and time again so i won’t exactly write this band off quite yet however after four years i was expecting something a bit more interesting than a simple retread of been here done that. Oh well! 2020 has yielded some other unexpected gems so onto the shelf this goes destined to exist on the forget it and move on file. Oh, and those AOR ballads like “Now Comes The Rain” - ugh.

SilentScream213 Most people consider “Awaken the Guardian” to be Fates Warning’s shining moment, but the album that outshone everything else by miles to me is “Perfect Symmetry.”

Perfect Symmetry is the band’s transition from a fantastical, proggy almost-Power Metal band into a full fledged modern Progressive Metal band, and one of the first albums ever to conceptualize this sound. Gone are the tales of high fantasy and abandoned are the speedy and uplifting metal epics that iconized their earlier sound. Here, they have traded their swords and steeds in acceptance of the reality that the world is a cold, unfriendly place that eats dreamers alive. They have become part of a machine of finely tuned skill and technicality – here the whole band play incredibly complex parts, alone but in unison, creating a cacophony of different melodies and rhythms that never play against each other.

One mistake you could make in reading that is to think they have become technical cogs incapable of producing melodies of beautiful passion. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Vocalist Ray Alder commands his voice like an instrument, but never shies away from simply crying out the sorrows of being smothered in the constraints of modern society. The lyrics across the board sound like those of a man who dreamed of grandeur as a child, but had those dreams quashed by reality. The only options are to hold out a last shred of hope that tomorrow holds something new, or allow oneself to die internally in order to carry on.

The music knows exactly when to dance the lines between progressive technical showcasing, soft passages of pure beauty, or simply catchy melodies. The band does include some strings on a few tracks that harken back to their fantasy sound (interestingly, it’s the least bleak songs with this touch). The titles might also fool you into thinking they’re still a fantasy band – tracks like “At Fate’s Hands” sound entirely medieval in nature. In reality, the song is about being helpless to make your own way in a world where people are smothered to fit roles and voices of the common are not heard. The burden of a modern society is disguised by poetic and timeless words that could apply just about anywhere if not for the context of the album.

It is a jarring shift from their old sound. It’s probably not what fans wanted. It’s also entirely pessimistic, introspective and subtly conscious. To me, it’s the perfect album from Fates Warning.

SilentScream213 For their third album, Fates Warning followed mostly the same sound of their acclaimed sophomore album, The Spectre Within. The band’s highly melodic and often progressive yet deceptively simple music offers accessible entertainment. Most of the power metal influence from their last album is gone unfortunately, resulting in a slower and more sustained delivery.

John’s vocals, while never outstanding, are certainly stronger here than ever before, and his passionate delivery accompanied by the somewhat neoclassical musicianship add a flavor of theatrical atmosphere to the music. The long songs are never boring, containing multiple movements and layered with harmonies. While I miss the speed of their previous release, they certainly check every other box of 80’s Heavy Metal very well.

Stooge After owning this DVD for around 4 years, I can say one thing for sure. It serves as a healthy crash course in the Ray Alder era of Fates Warning. It was actually my first Fates Warning purchase, and I now consider them one of my favorite prog metal bands. All of the footage included features the band fronted by Ray Alder, but they do touch briefly on the John Arch-era material (“Prelude To Ruin” but done with Alder). A large portion of the concert footage can be described loosely as bootleg quality (at least when it comes to production and editing), but definitely above average in terms of overall visual quality.

As great as this is as an introductory piece to Fates Warning fan, it may also find it’s place in your collection to be a temporary one. In recent years, Metal Blade Records has done an outstanding job in re-issuing a large portion of Fates Warning’s back catalog. As many of their re-released albums have included a great amount of footage on bonus DVDs, much of what exist on The View From Here has become available in other ways. Additionally, I believe the band’s complete performance of A Pleasant Shade of Gray is available on DVD in some markets.

I also wonder why, on a DVD that runs roughly an hour long, they chose to include two examples of song repetition. You get both the music video for “Point of View” and their performance of the song at the Dynamo festival. The same Dynamo concert features a performance of “The Eleventh Hour”, which is also included as a bonus performance from another venue in rough bootleg quality. There were surely plenty other performances in the Fates Warning archives that could have added some more variety to this compilation.

As a big fan of this group, I was pleased to see some of the behind the scenes footage from the making of their Disconnected album. Though I’ll admit, it doesn’t go into too much depth. There is also a small trailer for the promotion of the Parallels album. To see the creation of Parallels in more detail, check out their 2CD/1DVD re-issue of that album.

This is a good DVD to pick up for more die-hard Fates Warning fans and those who are just getting into the band. Merely an appetizer.