FATES WARNING - Still Life. Japan (VICP-60509/10)+Bonus

jarpomarx

Fecha: Viernes, 2014-04-18, 6:06 PM | Mensaje # 1

EsparaelMetalTeaM

Grupo: Usuarios

Mensajes: 2974

Reputación: 101

Estatus: Offline

FATES WARNING - Still Life

Japan Edition (VICP-60509/10)

Edición japo de este doble álbum en vivo de esta banda de Metal Progresivo. En el primer CD podemos encontrar la grabación en directo del álbum A Pleasant Shade of Gray. En el segundo, además de temas del resto de sus álbumes, contiene una versión del tema In Trance de los Scorpions.

Tracklist:

Disc 1: A Pleasant Shade of Gray
1 Part I 2:09
2 Part II 3:35
3 Part III 3:56
4 Part IV 4:35
5 Part V 5:27
6 Part VI 7:04
7 Part VII 4:46
8 Part VIII 3:36
9 Part IX 4:38
10 Part X 1:11
11 Part XI 3:31
12 Part XII 7:24

Disc 2
1 The Ivory Gate of Dreams 20:54
2 The Eleventh Hour 8:14
3 Point of View 4:33
4 Monument 6:46
5 At Fate's Hands 6:47
6 Prelude to Ruin 3:38
7 We Only Say Goodbye 4:43
8 In Trance 4:40

Software: EAC-FLAC
Tamaño archivo: 794.86 MB
Portadas: NO

Disponible sólo a los usuarios

Japanese edition of this Fates Warning's live album including one bonus track, a cover of Scorpions.

From Metal-Archives
That's what the enthusiastic Euro crowd chants before the first classical notes of The Ivory Gate of Dreams rings out, they then swell to a cheer in appreciation of the Godfathers of Progressive Metal. It took this band 14 years to get around to releasing a live album and it was worth the wait. This is still the best-sounding live release I've ever heard and arguably the best metal album ever, production-wise. Fates Warning is one of those bands that knows how to improve on things in concert and with Terry Brown’s help look out! You’re about to get your head ripped off.

The Ivory Gate of Dreams is an epic, 20 minute masterpiece of power/thrash metal. This song rolls over the listener like an ocean of doom, with waves of heaviness broken up by wakes of clean guitar. Jim Matheos and Bernie Versailles trade fleet-fingered solos and come together for some of the sweetest guitar harmonies ever recorded. They also crunch out ultimate riffs that are not always in unison but often played in key just off of each other, something this band was known for, and the transitions between all the different parts is so much smoother than the original version of this song.

Ray's vocals are drastically improved over the studio version as well. He has a lot more control over his voice, going from growls to smooth crooning to upper register wailing while the audience participation enhances everything. It is so much better than the No Exit version that I hardly ever listen to that one. That album was the most poorly produced Fates record, it was just too damn quiet. Here, the guitars have a lot more bite than the distant original as this is the best guitar tone I've ever heard. The Ivory Tower section particularly demonstrates this with its stuttering, ultra-violent riffing; it's criminal they didn't throw Shades of Heavenly Death into the setlist with this killer tone.

The first disc contains A Pleasant Shade of Grey in its entirety and again, improvements are made in the live setting with smoother shifting of gears. You can read other reviews for details of what the album proper sounds like but suffice to say it is minimalist, syncopated and industrial-heavy; an introspective journey. The only bad thing about it is it requires an hour of your time and a certain mood to listen to.

Other highlights are At Fates Hands and, of course, Prelude to Ruin. The former has a mellow, gloomy beginning that builds up into this stop-start style of ultra riffing with exigent keyboards in the background where they belong in metal. Again this sounds much better than the studio version (are we seeing a pattern here?) since Prelude to Ruin is next and it also sounds better than it did on Awaken the Guardian! That says a lot coming from as hardcore a John Arch fan as myself. The crowd really gets roaring here, hint hint. I still remember first hearing this and being floored by how imaginative those riffs are and Ray proves his worth as a singer when he hits this "Vultures scavenge the subconscious of our hungry MIIIINDS!" Fuck, why couldn’t they have played this in full? Especially with this awesome of a sound.

From the accessible art rock (or jazz metal lite if you will?) era of this band are The Eleventh Hour, Point of View and Monument which are all great songs as well, although they don't differ much from the original cuts and have been beaten to death by this band in concert. Being that Fates refuses to play any of their older material you can expect to hear these three songs at every fucking one of their shows.

The performances from all are amazing as this music is a lot more technical than it seems. Guest guitarist Bernie Versailles shreds up Frank Aresti's old guitar lines (not that Frank was a slouch by any means) and fellow guest bassist Joey Vera (he wasn't a full-time member yet), who is the most entertaining band member to watch live, pleasantly punches his way through this mix. The musicianship is particularly noticeable albeit in a subtle way during the lengthy APSOG, where they make no mistakes. Mark Zonder shows how Steve Zimmerman's quality dropped between Awaken the Guardian and No Exit. I don't hear any difference between Zonder and Zimmerman on Prelude but on TIGOD Zonder, even though he's a fucking douchebag, wipes the floor with Steve.

Those upset that there's not more older material on here must realize that at this point in their career Jim had disparaging things to say about the early material of his band. He explains his feelings intelligently but it’s still depressing to hear him say that he was upset for including Prelude to Ruin on this. I would have rather heard more older stuff hell, I would have rather heard anything else from these guys than the throwaway song, We Only Say Goodbye, the worst song Fates Warning ever recorded.

Sigh.

I would still recommend this to a newbie interested in this band, as you get a good representation of early, mid-period and modern-sounding Fates.

NO A LA LEY LASSALLE