I was driving one of my sons to their home and listening to some music on the way back and it inspired me to write this blog. I really like a band called Fates Warning and they were actually my gateway drug into the world of Progressive Rock and Metal. It wasn't all smooth sailing though. It was a bumpy start and no small amount of that was due to the unusual head voice vocal styling of John Arch. He took some time to grow on me and now he won't let go.

How I discovered ^{Fates Warning}

for me it was a summer in 1987 or 1988 when I was on a motorcycle trip with a friend. I lived in a very remote part of Colorado at the time, but the motorcycle trip would be hundreds of miles and take us through parts of Colorado Springs, Denver, and Greeley, Colorado. I was a music fanatic even then. Back in those days I bought at least two books a week, and one cassette or CD for music. I was still school age so my extra money from flipping burgers, folding towels, chopping wood, washing dishes, etc went to books and music.

As small town boy I ended up in a big music store in the city. I made a b-line straight for the metal section. I was almost exclusively a listener to metal at that age. I also liked very much to be the person who discovered a new band. In my town, I was the first person to listen to Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, Testament, and many others. I was thus a corrupting influence. I needed to keep my flow of new music non-stop so I could continue to corrupt the minds and ears of those around me. :)

Well there was a band called Fates Warning and I had never heard of them. The cover art was pretty fantastic so I found myself purchasing an album called Awaken the Guardian. That too was a cool title for a young metal head like me. I remember I purchased a couple albums that day, but it is only this one that I distinctly remember.

The First Listening

We end up at the house of a friend of the guy I am traveling with. The person acquiesced into letting the teenager listen to his new music. He even took some time to listen to it with me while we waited on a pizza from Dominoes to be delivered. That was pretty exciting too as my town was so small that at the time it had no source of Pizza.

It opened with a title called The Sorceress. Even that title is so METAL!

The nice melodic intro steem rolled into some very interesting music. I could tell it had a ton of potential. Then the vocalist (John Arch) began singing and the whiny operatic vocals (I didn't know what head voice was at that age) kicked in and that was not exactly my cup of tea. Yet the drums and musicality were interesting enough that the guy listening with me commented it reminded him a bit of Rush. I didn't know what Progressive music was at the time, had I known this then I would have known the comparison to Rush was a good one as Rush is a very accomplished Progressive Rock band. Fates Warning would be one of the earliest bands that could be considered Progressive Metal.

So listen to what I first heard if you like. Keep in mind I didn't care for it when I first heard it. There is more to the story.

The Sorceress by Fates Warning from the album Awaken the Guardian.

I listened to this album a few times and it didn't really grow on me. If you recall I indicated I was buying one to two new albums per week at this age. Music and books were my thing. So this album, and this band ended up on a shelf. It also did not have that OOH and AHH factor I was accustomed to with my musical corruption of those around me.

Math and Music

As it would happen one night I am doing some trigonometry homework for high school and I happened to put that Awaken The Guardian back in. I had one of those do problems 1-150 odd problems type situations to complete in math, so I was going to be stuck there for awhile.

I didn't mention earlier, but I actually began learning to play guitar the summer before this math assignment. That road trip on motorcycles to the Denver area was me traveling with the guy I convinced to give me guitar lessons. He was an extremely talented bass guitar player. I didn't have a bass, but I had access to guitars so I had chosen the guitar instead. By the time I was doing this homework I owned a black Gibson electric with a standard electric guitar stratocaster style body, and I had an amp which was a BASS amp. I didn't know any better when I bought it and the music guy kind of screwed me over when he talked me into buying it. I was young and didn't know any better at the time. So I was very much in the habit of listening to music in a way I hadn't been in my life prior to this.

I often thought can I play this and this question was gradually broadening the music I listened to and the appreciation.

Anyway, I applied this question as Fates Warning played in the background and I was doing math homework.

That is when I noticed something. It was a subtle but important detail I wouldn't have noticed before. I'd hear a rhythm phrasing and think "I can do this" and I'd start to count how many times it repeated and usually I couldn't get past one. This was odd. It was certainly different. It was rhythmically in my budding wheelhouse in terms of skills. I'd already played some Black Sabbath and other classic metal/rock tunes. Yet this was simple yet it wasn't. It kept changing. As I tried to pin down the musical pattern my eyes widened. I started seeing that behind its simple veneer there was a very subtle complexity.

This is what sucked me into Fates Warning and down the rabbit hole that would become Progressive music. This is now and has been for some time my favorite musical genre. I love Progressive Metal and Progressive Rock. It all for me began with Awaken the Guardian though I would listen to many other progressive acts such as Rush in the years to come.

Guardian by Fates Warning from the album Awaken the Guardian.

The Vocals Annoyed Me

The vocal styling of John Arch still annoyed me. I put up with it for the sake of the very different music in the background. Until... I started singing along. Over time I came to sometimes WANT to hear his voice. It is a truly unique voice. It is very much an acquired taste though.

Fata Morgana by Fates Warning from the album Awaken The Guardian live with John Arch - late 1980s.

Jim Matheos

It is important to mention Jim Matheos. He is a guitarist and the primary composer for the band Fates Warning. John Arch would leave Fates Warning after the album I purchased and be replaced by Ray Alder. Ray is a brilliant vocalist and many people find his voice much more accessible than John Arch's. Yet those that had acquired the liking of John Arch vocals would find ourselves drawn back to the older albums to get the occasional John Arch fix.

Decades Later

Out of nowhere after a long time a solo album called Twist of Fate came out and it has some brilliant vocals. It totally resurrected the love for this unusual voice. It was John and Jim Matheos who put this together.

John Arch - Relentless from the solo album Twist of Fate.

Vocally this song has some of my all time favorite John Arch vocals. There is this one phrase that consistently gives me goosebumps. It occurs only twice in the song, but I love that phrase. The first occurrence occurs right after the 3:56 mark in the song. These initial lyrics are build up to the part they go like this...

I'm inside you
I deny you
I surround you
I defy you
Hear the voices
They are godless
No forgiveness
So Relentless
(and here begins my absolute favorite John Arch phrasing ever... I find it beautiful)
In the real world you feel real pain
A never ending war inside, again and again
Are you who you think you are, my life runs through your veins
Try as you will, my son, try
But you will not break the chains of misery

Arch/Matheos

Then a new album came out called Arch/Matheos which was John Arch and Jim Matheos making an absolutely brilliant Progessive Metal album. It was not intended for touring as it was really a studio composition collaboration between them. They did perform some live shows. John was not intended to replace Ray Adler as this was more or less just a side project. There were some cool Fates Warning shows where John Arch and Ray Adler sang together.

Midnight Seranade by Arch/Matheos from the album Sympathetic Resonance.

Neurotically Wired by Arch/Matheos from the album Sympathetic Resonance. - master prog song

In reading comments on youtube about the Arch/Matheos album I would see quite a few comments complaining about the vocals. They hadn't acquired the taste. There were comments that said things like "If not for the vocals this would be the best progressive album of the year" and I agreed that it was the best progressive album I had heard that year, but I was in love with the vocals.

Stained Glass Sky by Arch/Matheos from the album Sympathetic Resonance.

Jim Matheos and John Arch discuss Stained Glass Sky.

Conclusion

This is my post dedicated to John Arch, Jim Matheos, and the John Arch era Fates Warning. It was a trip down memory lane. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love Fates Warning with Ray Alder as well and would not replace him. To me they are basically two different bands that I love that just happen to share the same name. Here are a couple of Ray Alder... Fates Warning songs. Most people can handle this easier than John Arch.

Chasing Time by Fates Warning from the album Perfect Symmetry. - this was an unusual song for them when I first heard it but it is masterful and extremely beautiful.

Seven Stars official Fates Warning video from their latest album Theories of Flight.

Silent Cries official Fates Warning from the album No Exit. This is the album Ray Alder debuted on. This is not his best work, but he just joined the band and this album is the closest to John Arch he sounds.

The Eleventh Hour by *Fates Warning from the album Parallels.

Eye to Eye by *Fates Warning from the album Parallels.

Steem On!

Source of images: Album covers from John Arch, Arch/Matheos and Fates Warning - available from a great many places