New Fates Warning

[toejam]

If not for Fates Warning in the early '80s, Dream Theater would probably not be what they are. Anyway, they finally have a new album after about 9 years. The album (Darkness In A Different Light) is pretty damn good! Here's the last and longest track from it.

[markD]

i have been listening to this for the last week. i love it. worth the wait. i HATE dream theater, but still greatly enjoy fates.

arch/matheos was really good too....

[toejam]

I seem to always enjoy DT for the most part, haven't picked up their newest one yet. I've heard a couple tunes from Arch/Matheos but haven't picked any of it up yet, either. I love most of everything Fates does, and even the Redemption stuff with Ray is pretty killer, too. Ray's still got a great voice, although his voice has changed a little as he's gotten older and he doesn't like to hit the high note stuff any more since he thinks it's too '80s... plus he admits he still smokes and drinks.

[markD]

considering he smokes and drinks, ray's voice is still pretty smooth for a guy that has to be in his mid 40's (at least). i actually like where his voice is now. as jim's music has changed, ray's voice has changed along with it. i am also glad they have a drummer that in as good as mark zonder. i was really bummed when he left.

the arch/matheos is really cool because it is like an old fates warning reunion album. you could tell the difference in john's lyrics vs. jim's or ray's, but the music was totally new FW all the way. very cool stuff.

i am also glad they have frank aresti back. his soloing is so much more acrobatic than jim's (though i prefer jim's style - enough so that i have adapted mine to be almost identical to his). it makes the songs more interesting. joey vera is a fucking beast on the bass too. i thought it was weird when he was in anthrax, but FW is perfect for his abilities.

my big issue with DT is that they don't seem to have "songs". a lot of their music comes across as technical exercises to me and i get bored really quickly listening to them. while FW explores the progressive realm, they at least keep it in the rush range, where it always comes back to a song - not just splooging for 12 minutes because you can...

[leftykingv2]

Sounds awesome! I gonna see if I can get it on Itunes! I loved a lot of their old stuff in my younger day but seemed to forget about them after a while. I haven't listened to them in about 7 years so I got some catching up to do.

[toejam]

i am also glad they have frank aresti back. his soloing is so much more acrobatic than jim's (though i prefer jim's style - enough so that i have adapted mine to be almost identical to his). it makes the songs more interesting. joey vera is a fucking beast on the bass too. i thought it was weird when he was in anthrax, but FW is perfect for his abilities.

Joey is indeed awesome! I'm pretty sure he got the brief Anthrax gig since he used to be in Armored Saint with John Bush.
Here's some recent live footage, and Frank is gone again, as there was some other guy taking his place. I read somewhere else online he hooked up with a new chick and bailed or something, but not sure if it's permanent or not...

[markD]

cool! thanks for sharing!

[markD]

here's the guy playing in place of frank aresti.

http://www.michaelabdow.com/

seems temporary....