REVIEW: Fates Warning - "Still Life"

US Release Date: October 5th 1998.
Bought at: "Plato", Leiden, The Netherlands, on September 8th 1998.

*For the impatient amongst us, the short review:

A brilliant live album, with wonderful performances all around. A very fitting
Monument (Ha!:-)) to one of the finest bands of progressive (hard)rock. Like,
this is one gnarly album, dude!

*For those with nothing better to do for the next couple of minutes, the long
review:

The band:

Ray Alder: voices;
Jim Matheos: electric and acoustic guitar;
Mark Zonder: drums, percussion and other sound effects;
Joey Vera: bass, backing vocals and comic relief;
Jason Keazer: keyboards;
Bernie Versailles: electric guitar on Disc Two.

The Songs:

Disc One (51:59)

A Pleasant Shade Of Gray

I (2:20)
II (3:29)
III (3:53)
IV (4:36)
V (5:24)
VI (7:08)
VII (4:47)
VIII (3:37)
IX (4:38)
X (1:11)
XI (3:32)
XII (7:24)

Disc Two (55:40)

[1] The Ivory Gate Of Dreams (20:54)
[2] The Eleventh Hour (8:16)
[3] Point Of View (4:34)
[4] Monument (6:45)
[5] At Fates Hands (6:47)
[6] Prelude To Ruin (3:40)
[7] We Only Say Goodbye (4:43)

The Performances:

The band was in prime form during the second leg of the European "A Pleasant
Shade Of Gray"-tour, during which they recorded this album. The reviews made by
the charming Miss Schnepf as well as myself of some of these concerts,
available at the honourable Mr. Kizer's website at

http://www.ivorygate.com/fw 

already reported this, but in live situations the whole experience can be
somewhat overwhelming, causing the spectator to miss most details, resulting in
gushing fanboy reviews even in the case of an only barely passable performance
by the artist(s), should the spectator in question be inclined to a favourable
opinion about the artist beforehand. Not this time, however, as a two-hour
listening-party, with as constituting elements an adequate sound system, a set
of headphones and the album that had to be reviewed, revealed to me.

-Huh?!

What I *meant* to say, was: as we expected, the performances on this album are
top-notch. We all know Jim never pulls a Keith Richards on us, Mark secretly
hides an extra pair of arms under his shirt and Joey can play circles around
Bootsy Collins' platform shoes, so I won't bore you to sleep by stating the
obvious about these people. Who did surprise me, however, were Ray and Bernie.

Except for a few minor slips on "Monument", Ray is right there where the song
needs him to be, even if that means achieving escape velocity and shaking hands
with the crew of MIR. Of course he had already proven time and time again he's
an excellent vocalist in the studio (IMHO he's the very best, but hey, I'm
biased:-)), but live performances are the ultimate test, especially for someone
wielding an instrument as fragile as the human voice. Although it seems lately
he has been getting better, James LaBrie of Dream Theater could not always live
up to his reputation during concerts, but here Ray *does* live up to his
reputation, and then some.

I don't know how much time Bernie had to learn all of Frank Aresti's parts on
the older songs, but it apparently was enough: it turns out he did a wonderful
job. Rather than copying Frank's solo's exactly, he tried to give them his own
flavour, and this resulted in some very interesting material, and pretty fast
sometimes too. If the band ever decides to once again employ a second
guitarist, I think they can't go wrong with Bernie.

That leaves Jason "That Little Kid From Divine Regale" Keazer. Great
performance here as well, with some intriguing new twists on the material.

The Sound:

Rather than going for the dry, raw sound that seems to be in vogue with metal
concert registrations, longtime Fates producer Bill Metoyer went for a much
warmer sound. This does lessen the clarity of the sound somewhat, but it never
becomes muddy. In fact, I very much like this sound. There were some very minor
balance slip-ups, but I doubt many will notice this.

Two guitars on Disc Two means extra "oompf", and this is just what the older,
more metally material needed. While the version of "Acquiescence" with just Jim
on guitar from the second leg of the US APSOG tour is great, I prefer this
version, with two guitars. On APSOG Jim's on his own, but still he manages to
give the song a somewhat "fuller" feel, by adding something here, and changing
a little something there. I especially liked the continued solo in Part IX, at
times doubling Ray vocal lines and then playing something entirely different.

Also very uncharacteristic of modern metal is Mark's drum sound. Rather than
using the sticks-on-rock sound many seem to like, here the drums sound much
warmer, reminding me of Pick Withers' sound on Dire Straits' "Love Over Gold"
which I love so much. They don't sound exactly alike, but it does give you an
idea of how Mark strays from the norm here, with terrific results.

The Package:

Very nice-looking set, with interesting cover art which gets repeated on the
back and inside the tray in different forms: the off-center close-up of Ray's
head (not his own head, but the head he made:-)) graces the front cover, the
side view which was the original cover can be seen inside the tray, and on the
back we see a similar view of the head as can be seen on the front only with
the camera pulled back a bit and in different colours. 

What the band meant to say with these images? I'm not sure. The head is covered
in staves; all evidence (trust me, I know what I'm doing…) suggests this does
not mean their dedication to music and their music itself goes only skin-deep.
The face looks pensive and calm but not overly joyous. It is faced towards us -
a sign of honesty and being at peace with oneself. Around the face the picture
is blurred, and behind the head appears to be a light source, causing the
strange effect of lines seeming to shoot out from around the face. Both these
elements - the expression on the face and the "speedlines" - evoke the feeling
of some incredible power about to break free from behind the face, or rather
inside the head. I'm sure most of us have felt this while listening to Fates
Warning's music: a realisation that this isn't just a random amount of data on
a plastic disc, but that this is the expression of a group of people being true
to their art, people with a story to tell, and with the instrumental prowess to
do this in a way very few musicians are able to emulate. It's not just the
music, but a whole world of feelings, emotions and thoughts that could be
unleashed if you are open to what you hear after you press "play".

Of course, the other and much more likely option is that I'm completely full of
it:-).

The Conclusion:

I already know the Top-1 of my "Best Albums Of 1998"-list… Other brilliant or
likely-to-be-brilliant 1998 releases such as "Once In A LIVETime" (Dream
Theater),  "Tyranny" (Shadow Gallery), "My Arms, Your Hearse" (Opeth), Yngwie's
upcoming live 2CD or even his "Millennium Suite" (don't procrastinate about the
high import price from Japan on that last one - just get it), not one of those
can come close. I guess this means I'm going to have to assign the first 11 (on
a scale of 10) in my personal CD catalog. Ah well…

-Marco van Leeuwen, overlord@caiw.nl