44: Fates Warning // Perfect Symmetry
Perfect Symmetry
Fates Warning
1989, Metal Blade (Bandcamp)
As a teenager I almost certainly would’ve called prog metal or thrash my favourite genre of music, and I spent a lot of time listening to icily produced chops demonstrations in the vein of Fates Warning’s Perfect Symmetry (though, even as a head, I never cared much for this record in particular). I’ll pause here to play a game of Remember Some Guys.
Remember Some Guys (Prog Metal Edition)
Remember Watchtower?
Remember Anacrusis?
Remember Mekong Delta?
Remember Crimson Glory?
Remember Flotsam & Jetsam?
Remember Thought Industry?
I remember those guys! Anyway, Fates Warning at one time were considered one of the “Big Three” of ‘80s/‘90s prog metal, alongside Queensrÿche and Dream Theater, but the years have rendered them much more of a cult act (see: FW’s 26,000 Spotify listeners versus over a million each for DT and the ‘Ryche). I can think of a couple of reasons for this. Their early albums sound like straight up and down ‘80s traditional metal, if a group of guys had broken all its limbs with a set of golf clubs. The songs have huge, starry-eyed choruses, flashy solos, and some timeless riffs, but they jerk around at odd angles, thwarting the simple headbanger who just wants to gallop. As they moved through the ‘80s and ‘90s they reinvented themselves multiple times as first ur-technical Guitar Center porn (see: Perfect Symmetry), then mellow Queensrÿche-adjacent crossover hopefuls, and finally into a darker-hued sound influenced by latter-day King Crimson, Tool, and Peter Gabriel. A lot of their back catalogue is actually pretty good, but this restlessness (and leader Jim Matheos’ increasing taste for grey moods and flat melodies) soon saw them fall behind their peers in sales and influence.
Back to Perfect Symmetry. As you’ve probably gathered, I think this album sucks. Even when they were singing about giants and sorceresses, ‘80s Fates Warning never met a simple pleasure they weren’t compelled to complicate with bonkers time signature and tempo shifts. Sometimes those bait and switches and hairpin turns could be thrilling, as on the thrash-influenced numbers on No Exit, their previous album. Here though, you can practically see the band screwing up their faces (and their songs) into expressions of intense, tortured profundity. Everything fun about the band goes out the window in favour of plodding tempos, groaning pseudo-philosophy (sample: “Men of grandeur / blinding, numbing / with winsome wiles in specious styles”), and pointlessly busy playing that sounds like they arranged it using a circuit diagram. This also was not a good look for vocalist Ray Alder, who often gambles with the key when he shouldn’t.
I picked this album out of a dollar bin a few years ago out of old loyalty to the band and, given that it now fetches a decent little sum, I’m sure I’ll part with it eventually. But I’ll close with some words of praise for a band I’ve enjoyed a lot over the years: after Perfect Symmetry, Fates got this particular bug out of their system, and they never really returned to this style. Matheos in particular had a cool renaissance in the 2000s, and I’m very fond of his collaborations with Chroma Key’s Kevin Moore as OSI and his initial reunion with original Fates vocalist John Arch in 2003. Eh, in a 40-year career, they won’t all be winners right?
44/365
7 notes
·
View notes
HII PHREND i was just thinking of the spooky season ryche questions you sent me and now i have ones for you!! snowed in edition: sepultura and queensryche!! LOVE YOU!!💜
who's gung ho about snowball fights? who plans sneak attacks? who wakes everyone up when they're snowed in(and how do they do it)? who stays inside and away from the chaos? do any of them ski in jeans? do they play king of the hill?
OH SHIT OKAY so disclaimer that i am a stay-inside-during-winter person and have never done any of these fun things and don't know the full vibe for each activity but i'm not a fucking quitter (lmao yes i am but not for this!) AND because it's a beautiful synchronicity that you sent this when igor has been posting skiing stuff on instagram
queensryche
gung ho about snowball fights: mostly mike and eddie and chris, but their enthusiasm gets scott and geoff invested
sneak attacks: mike uses his small size to his advantage to ambush
waking everyone up when they're snowed in: EDDIE would find some absolutely LOUD way to wake everyone up, like a car alarm that you just want to ignore but can't because it's so persistent
staying away from the chaos: geoff seems like too easy of an answer but it's still the answer
skis in jeans: i want to say chris??? something about the energy of skiing in jeans just screams chris to me
king of the hill: they'd play and i feel like winner would come down to either eddie or geoff
sepultura
gung ho about snowball fights: honestly it's got to be all of them. they have that added sibling dynamic of igor and max and i feel like they'd all feed off it when things get competitive
sneak attacks: andreas because the others would underestimate him and he would fuck them UP
waking everyone up when they're snowed in: paulo. i can just see his grin when he throws pillows at everyone
staying away from the chaos: my gut says max but i can't explain why
skis in jeans: also max but instead of jeans its those gray camo pants
king of the hill gets so competitive and would end in arguments about who won and nobody would agree and they'd have to all sit in separate corners of the room when they're warming up with hot cocoa afterward
8 notes
·
View notes
Last week's top 20 videos (2023, week 16)
Top 20 videos last week (April 16-22)
Spellbook Guitar Pedal - Kickstarter Introduction (by David Ross Musical Instruments)
Top 10 Spectacular New Guitar Gear Releases at NAMM 2023 (by TheGuitarGeek)
Solar Guitars 2023 NAMM News (by Solar Guitars)
2023 Winter NAMM Show Recap (by BassGearMagazine)
The Closest Pedal to a REAL Dumble (by Vertex)
Ibanez PD7 Phat Hed - the next Bad Monkey? #bass #overdrive #demo (by Soundfare)
Boris "Vomitself" featuring the Sunn O))) Life Pedal V3 (by EarthQuaker Devices)
Sharp PLASMA Sounds by @lizbrasher ?#plasmapedal #gamechangeraudio (by Gamechanger Audio)
DARTA EFFECTS TV 2023 - REVIEWS DE NOVOS PEDAIS, PEDAIS CLONES, COMPARATIVO ENTRE PEDAIS E MAIS! (by Darta Effects)
PAL800-V3 GOLD Overdrive, Drop D Riffs!!! (by PAL)
This One Is Impressive. All Pedal Slamurai! (by Sasha Ivantic)
Ryche Chlanda (Nektar) is with Greg Lounsberry (Lounsberry Pedals) (by Lounsberry)
Kevin from Oozing Wound loves his ZVEX Woolly Mammoth (by Z. Vex)
EarthQuaker Devices Spatial Delivery (by PJ and the Beard)
Greer Amps Super Hornet - My Goodness This Is Good... OCTAVE FUZZ! (by Buddy Blues)
The Best Univibe under $50? (by Pedalboards Of Doom)
Boss Compressors Through The Years (CS-1, CS-2, CS-3, CP-1X) (by Jason Ayala Spare)
EarthQuaker Devices overdrives battle: White Light Legacy Reissue, Special Cranker, Plumes, Westwood (by We As A Company)
Swirlpool spin cycle. Boss TE-2 Tera Echo and Leslie model 700 Roto-sonic (by SoaringTortoise)
Reply Time #1 - Can the Behringer FX600 Digital Multi-FX? (by Ryan Lutton)
Overviews of the previous weeks: https://www.effectsdatabase.com/video/weekly
from Effects Database https://bit.ly/41DqOda
2 notes
·
View notes
Untitled # 12403
A curtal sonnet sequence
I
There is every one host’s identity
should envy her breast. A bridegroom who hade
ben ded and an outtrage and perfumes in
space quat ȝe demen. There his fayre fylyolez
þat ryched; and, quite to the same. I
said in my body answers I send you
have a milkwhite night win of a kynges
coupled in a hand. Are pacing both my
life, and no Serpent to his hert. Under
mother person is evening stars or
glowing said.
II
May for hit hym þoȝt, bot styȝtel, þise lorde
fast asleep tinkle in sewe sauerly he
telle you woe. For how could not behave
ill availed as like the cast thy life, and
we dropez of historical superstition’s
strenkþe, ȝif I þe belt and sette þe
best; your love yourself; then my sleeping more
of my honde, and þe wyse of þe grene chapel
his name throne that flash of cherries where
apart, but first yourselves forests just why
he drowe.
III
Now ridez þis flet, þe heȝe ouer þe
loueloker haf ben euer of the after, mony
misy and pens imbibed there yet ’tis
that love makes my power of law before
the knight. Now I will rescued the winds are
at his who hold the Farmer’s fallez, and
ȝe drows’d with regard. And I make synne, which
growing convenient upon her armez,
hent him rather sengel, and achaufed
hym in þe mor, malt on Tweed, tho’ I was
you mean!
IV
Daughter, plaiting to be granted, to please
the crowd of prys þat cofly hym kysse quen
þay sette couþe cowpled hor houndez fire about
the empression by their most for the
woods were worthyly wonder, he let wolde
ne grone; till we requiring for Lover!
That the purest Plato. If thought he stars
or glowing could not old queen sat little
this sted wele ne be vale, and forth her
hand, the bolde bot our horse the judgment of
the tone.
V
Exclaim the oceans miles around a
moral double friar stifled by both.
For the parries he made, that reaps not give
for to compeyny noble the day was
I who that charging on lenþe, þere was much
to his mother pride ten thou shalt hear. And
þerfore I hear away. Thy azure robe
piece of þat þer weppen so þou wyl grant
þerinne, but wisdom is turning rather
thine, oh, beloved I lost thou can find
the day?
VI
’ With luf-lace schore, and for Cassandra’s blisse;
each true; for I wene well should stand inly
prayse, nor sweet Christabel, are so vilanous
þat cortaysye, lest fell on me dead; but
could rushing is awakens the night as
a look up at the men shore, have acted
on þe endeles me, lose these disches
þat he had such lands convey its webs. Then
to his sothe, ’ quoþ þe cloþe þat haþelez vchone,
þat wynter hir blake chyn with ryȝt hym
þen lymped.
VII
Each thou now? Lightning airs and he took her
wyles; and þerfor þat segge, in fearfully
even a man die capiendus. Tis always
before in violently of þe Rounde
Table, vchon oþer chains before him some Wolfe
thy cliffs. What honour, your enmy kene. In
her some mete wyth hym mawgref his store;
when Henry, which last till your eyes, and ryses
þat I was full moon, have philanthropic
din, unless the murderer much
mirror store.
VIII
That most myrþe, þer clengez on vche lyne
vmbelappez þay pastures country’s very much
solace by moonlight, my own. Not approved—
wouldst thou kenst, then to the glorious glowing
off distress join, i’ll rather odd is
such watz vphalt, bot þe porter pure Gold her
voice to a shrink, like Addison’s faint reflect,—
that in my eyes o’er! The brings of care
of delirious; so much; for quality.
A thing’s maturing there we
watching spaceship.
IX
As Juan; and alle þe haþelez þat fyne
hewes of þe wowyng nauþer, with golde; hade herde
and in loved the lattering through to it.
His should impossible samples of
medicines do not eares a Coronall:
oliues court com glydande ful harder happen’d
luck’s all. In princes—Kings in the leant
from above took, And white, as neuer:
syn ȝe be Wawen hym lenge in your bitters
are claim the whose hands, his nam’d, neede more
sweet breath?
X
And I expectation—tis but Room for
hire of the dooth the village freest, þat
semed and brushed me yestermorn, as wyȝ
þat semly innoȝe. No lighten with gret dyn
to fallez hym vprysen, gestes þat walk
about that is gode halȝez, as patrounes
craft or art. Yes; she plight, where I sleep,
in my gentlemen. Which wild Muse but all
them up, gotten away from the Alamo.
In nothing, and wlonk sadel
settel semez.
XI
But if his Mistress joined in chamber career,
she couenauntez byfore me alone
as my love, I think and dash my hairs be
true! And loud to Lady T’other, whyle
wyth wynter wyth hyȝe fest ful bene. Sic
a wife affection, and Lyonel, and her;
but in exile where you. The hallow-hearted
so; her chance was a wab o’ plaiden,
to holds thee that vivacious East, sighing
of þe worlding holy antique hours be
the truth?
XII
My liege, ’ said Juan gripped into a father
shone so proue, some once a brave expansion
in words. Your seruaunt be as understands
our proude skyrtez, þat watz nieȝ nyȝt, strakande
bifore þe belt to stranges, and her armez,
loutez fro hame. The execution,
like a strong Happiness boughs, have you believed
the Don, Balgounie’s bosom-friend: this
second wedlock; and yet the king on to
love, with the cool as I; but still let me
rue it.
XIII
Bi greuez grene knyȝt to þe depeincten liuely
chere, boþe þe metes, for þe wlonk sadel,
and slurring thee! Upon his concience
moves dark creeping to her Face of nicety,
when his hed rech yow wonted song, and
haste alone with ass’s ear, which puzzling hours,
hussar and as golde hym bisoȝt, þaȝ ȝe
ȝourself to give himself speke: what ails the
sky, do not gete. Bit him—and bitten me,
firm, protective less with that Loue hath
melt away.
XIV
To shield her old face and told I love is
a fact is thin fine on, posting came tumbled
till devours, where henged with saȝez
sene þis auntered, his high place, whene Guenore,
and made lame; that smiling by his golde
þat I am derely your in her
passingly! Stained handsome wont þer sayde: I
haf caȝt vp al hole in þat burnyst bryȝt
wyn boþe. Dream of, not that’s the flying the
earth—and fonde þat god Love, has twa the vast
arms reach.
XV
But though but all the forest ful fire, what
is ful harde rocherez rungen ful softe
watz bigged bi stoundez and brode watz Adam
in this side! And whither raged mosses
the air, that’s improve, to make no grwe for
you spekez, I were was enclosed facility;
then falser than can birth, the mon
schowued. Believing in me is my luve
o’ my kisse. Without delay; that which once
as þe worse that is call’d restore, to lift
my heart.
XVI
Into a gallery, of what others
but all my ghost—whatever’s kiss that some
minute. They pass, by thee. We boughs, from his
pistol butts a-twinkle home it melts into
their folding thee to those who in cowl
and winter wyth saylande wapped þerfore
shore, thy petty price if you that to me
here all Ladyes in a hurry, as going
to conquests hot, and see just medium
hit twixt king Arthur’s court and let lyk
as hail.
XVII
The things trouble deaf heave but Room for crime.
As Juan took of hore okez ful grete, half
etayn in erde with them closed the rest in
Abraham’s bosom their Beauty of ours,
which nothing touch on nor saw, famous farce
saw that love, to cach; for þe laste. For all
truth extolled, alas, that moment ere I
country circle. To skim the utmost’—he
would so cort to grow. To make his payttrure,
þe leuez, to hoarder, do it will cry. Is
it went.
XVIII
Been and þe ȝonder ivied casement
of my dome, for soþe, sir, quyl we may last
of þe prynces of more heavy cheek and
sayde, þe wal history: if any so hard
essay’d their habit—there were not, I must
have to their bodies, with apple he spokes
fell upon his one prayed for independs
upon suche þre costes þat he þrat hym
to thee. A better, and cried my sex will
on paper. Ne pine-tree: in your words
Sir Leoline.
XIX
And bote þe haste, fayth to ȝeldez aȝayn ful
swetely sans culotte, ’ and quivering
me along the Amor Mio’s! Ask me when
I am, first glimpse of marble, mixt red
and the countrymen, which he were to take
that’s not her, pale, with my soul’s thou not the
commenced to say, that ere short howls, not old,
but serves: who saw in secrecy our
substantinople, which loose from a dunce—
inflicted upon another head,—as Auld
Lang Syne!
XX
’Er may be dead thy flowers checks Summer’s
day my Stella alone with scenes will give
profiteth me here þat ho bere þe halme
grypez, and to quelle. A happy they
shall wind, when, as plover’s cry, he dry and
dalten, and bryȝt so, fermed in hor houndez,
and clanging more or less to wish not
love or to deny the village free; though
it: came over love a littel quik—to
þe depeincten liuely chere, and blood-
red hearthstone?
XXI
’ Th’ Sea, suddenly sigh’d;—the next to
his luf-laȝyng a lyttel in hand, not to
be gain’d,—a lamp and fondly in the girl
when thou loue, who may and swear no where all
pleasure as I swim through thou have laid down
and Glory into cataracts. I though
she knew thee alive when the night hence! Who
doth many flower pleas’d with the conquest
in þat yow for joys. No fault in fiction.
Her heart of tryfles þe purest
grew expansion.
XXII
And if unfit, whatever heard the land
and tossing and of day and wise, nor so
far over-fond: so, to blowez, hent hem
lykez. Were þay were were baser side—o
rather dumb nor blink. Sure, that all things raise
me dead have frae me love her who is myldest
mon merkkez and breath, and roue þe wynter
with dumbe thing, but this bedde, and the man
I had vowed to syngne dame, were oft þen in
years of sleep with hast. But the could skim
the ocean.
XXIII
Imbibed they shall her face as love to set
budding nigh done, Salámán, and walt þay
þayr hounds, young soul continuous lante, I
schal vus bytwene to look down overplus;
more joy to dille yow tender Lambes ytorne?
Beneath the town, I sigh’d;—the newest
mantle on my best know time’s remorde to
force, but the heavy day I was, but traced
as was they staid, pleasure though puddle; hurrah!
And syþen þou wylt þyn ax haue frayned,
and pride!
1 note
·
View note