Fates Warning - The Spectre Within (1985)^{Release ID: 2306}

‘The Spectre Within’, released in 1985, is the second album of American progressive metal pioneers Fates Warning. One of my favourite bands for a long time, I must admit to struggling with their earlier material. Their first album, ‘Night On Bröcken’ was mostly forgettable in my opinion, and other than one or two moments, I found it difficult to really pick out any major highlights. Sadly, ‘Spectre…’ is no different.

It’s not that I don’t like it, but damn, this has been on my playlist for over a year, and I still feel like I’m not overly familiar with it. Perhaps I’m just busier than I think I am, but I just zone out whenever I play this. And it’s a shame because it’s not a terrible album.

Further laying the foundations of progressive metal, the performances on this record are of a high standard. With some tight guitar playing and fantastic displays of vocal prowess by singer John Arch, but sadly, there’s only really two songs that I like, and that’s ‘Without a Trace’, and ‘Apparition’. The rest just sounds like they could be Iron Maiden b-sides.

And it’s a shame. Because I genuinely love this band, but then I guess not every album is perfect! I’d like to stress that I don’t think this album is awful by any stretch, but I would much, much rather listen to ‘Parallels’, ‘Inside Out’, ‘Disconnected’, or one of my all-time favourite albums, ‘A Pleasant Shade of Gray’. So that’s what I’ll do.

Fates Warning did something incredible on their sophomore album; they took two metal subgeneres that hadn’t even begun evolving yet and combined them to create an even more unique sound that would be mimicked forever. Of course I’m talking about Progressive Power metal.

Now, this album isn’t true Progressive Power Metal, but it’s absolutely clear this is where it started, and some moments in their songs actually delve completely into this territory. The songs are speedy, complex, long and changing, and feature some nearly operatic vocals about space and stuff. There are no weaknesses whatsoever to this album. Of course things could be improved, as hundreds of bands have done since, but at the time it was released, absolutely nothing could have touched this in this realm of metal.

Keep in mind, their debut album was a very, very generic Heavy Metal album with absolutely nothing substantial about it at all.

The second album from Fates Warning was a big step forward, and began to establish their own sound. The production, while dated these days, is a big improvement on their debut, and there is a satisfying organic warmth to the rhythm guitars. Jim Matheos is clearly stretching his songwriting wings here, exploring trickier time signatures and arrangements; the roots of their progressive leanings are here, but this is still very much a traditional/power US metal record. In that milieu, the lead guitars are not quite at their peak yet, but this would be Victor Arduini’s last record with the band. John’s vocals are strong and impassioned, diving up and down his range, in a unique combination of Bruce Dickinson’s tone and Geoff Tate’s register. The songs are mostly strong, but there is still some weaker NWOBHM-inspired fare filling the gaps and stops the album being a killer from start to finish.

The more challenging arrangements kick off almost immediately with opener “Traveler In Time”, which chugs along at a metal mid-pace, with occasional Uriah Heep-like interludes, and has a soaring chorus melody. However, it suffers a common issue to some of the tracks on this album, which is that it spends much of it’s close to 8 minute duration being held in check in tempo - the songs feels like it wants to take off at a gallop at times, but when it fails to do so it feels a little anti-climactic. Things do pick up to a more frenetic pace in places (“Orphan Gypsy”, “Without A Trace”), but other tracks (“The Apparition”) feel like they’re being held back a little. The choruses are some true standout moments of the album, featuring strong yet unpredictable melodies and rich harmonies (“Without A Trace”, “The Apparition”), which make the songs on this album quite memorable, much more so than those on it’s predecessor, and hinting at what was to come on it’s successor.

The album closes strongly, “The Apparition” and “Kyrie Eleison” being two of the tracks that really stand out in the Fates catalogue, and encapsulate this stage in the band’s development from derivative youngsters to influential champions of a new genre. It is somewhat overshadowed by its successor, but has stood the test of time and is a pleasure return to for repeated listens, especially after a long absence when you realise how many of those choruses you remember.

Firstly let me preface my review by saying I'm not a fan of power metal style vocals, especially so when they are used to excess as I feel they are across this album. 

At the time (1985) this album was extremely influential, with prog still in its infancy and rarely venturing into the heavier elements of music. The album showcases some great examples of key changes, rhythmical and tonal changes throughout but in my opinion the overbearing vocals take away from the experience. Some outlying songs from the album are below;  

Traveler in Time - The vocalist seems to be singing in a completely different key and rhythm to the rest of the band, which is great when its done skillfully and tied back in regularly, but unfortunately this is not a good example. The tone changes are great, giving a great emphasis on the heavier riffs by dialing it back for a few bars only to come back in heavier than ever.

Orphan Gypsy - Killer riffs throughout, especially at the start but this song is ruined by the out of tune yoko ono shreaking (for reference - https://youtu.be/h9kgu71d81U).

Pirates of the underground - Rhythmically focused riffs that are some of the best on the album, then the vocals come in.. lots of great changes throughout the song which adds to the journey, 4:57 onward being my personal favorite bit! (https://youtu.be/BRi2G3ARoO8?t=1372)

Epitaph - The longest song of the album peaked my interest, I was hoping for a repeating theme built to an epic wall of sound, but what this song delivered was 2 separate songs mascaraing as one.