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I chose "Parallels". I literally listened hundreds of times to this album! I'm a rather big fan of the 'Alder'-era. Arch's singing is - as already mentioned in other posts - a bit to one-dimensional for my taste, although I also like the albums they made with him.

The last couple of years I listened to "Disconnected" a lot. Modern, yes, but really classy!

The Knell wrote:

sagrotan wrote:

GJ wrote:me too also

whers's Helm btw? with a poll like that appearing..

Helm left the forum entirely because of some forum related issues, I don't know anymore

I'm very sorry to hear that Helm has left the forum.

I knew he hadn't been around lately, but i expected him to reappear. Any idea what drove him away?
I'll miss his insightful commentaries, no matter the subject matter Helm always had an interesting point of view.

It was ages ago he left. I've actually thought of writing him and asking hum back, maybe I will. So we can argue haha It was a disagreement with Avenger that saw him leave.

That's a shame. I definitely have been missing him here.

Awaken the Gaurdian, no question.[/i]

Divine Victim wrote:

pan_Heathen wrote:I dont really fancy Arch vocals though. Too one dimensional when compared to singers like Geoff Tate. I like Ray Alder better.

Best cover: No Exit. magnificently disturbing.

I don't think I could agree less with those two points haha!

Yeah, I get that a lot Especially concerning Arch vocals. I really wish he could make something happen in the lower or at least mid registers too, but its insanely high pitched vocals from start to finish and thats allright in power metal, but not enough in progressive music. Thats why I put Midnight and Tate high above him.

daniel wrote:It was ages ago he left. I've actually thought of writing him and asking hum back, maybe I will. So we can argue haha It was a disagreement with Avenger that saw him leave.

His relentless pursuit to demonize the artistic intentions of US Metal got the better of him.

pan_Heathen wrote:Yeah, I get that a lot Especially concerning Arch vocals. I really wish he could make something happen in the lower or at least mid registers too, but its insanely high pitched vocals from start to finish and thats allright in power metal, but not enough in progressive music. Thats why I put Midnight and Tate high above him.

Normally I may agree with that, but in the case of Arch he wrote such complex and infectious vocal lines that I find there is plenty of diversity on offer! I can't think of any good parallels to his brand of meandering but beautiful melodies.

"Awaken the Guardian" is unmatched brilliance; the pinnacle of everything. Those melody lines with the best vocals imaginable on top of them. Really, I sometimes wonder how it's possible to come up with such music. It's like cracking Fermat's last theorem.

Yeah, it's inconceivable! One of my favourite vocal melodies on AtG is the first verse-and-a-bit of Giant's Lore - totally glorious. Arch doesn't sing it quite the same later in the song, but the opening section gets me every time. Works so brilliantly over the quite open guitar work too.

I had a dream,i was you...
thus starts one of the most glorious bridges to ever embellish a metal song.
'Fates Warning' plays Athens tonight and its even a 'true metal' version of Fates warning playing the Parallels LP in its entirety.but nothing post AtG interests me either.
I have to agree however,that even though AtG is as a whole more congruent,the great songs of TsW are,to me,a tad better than the AtG tracks,Guardian excluded.

Hmm, this is a hard band to choose what album is they're absolute pinnacle. They went through so many different "eras" if you will and all were excellent. I think that "Awaken The Guardian" is a little over-hyped though and that "Perfect Symmetry" and "Parallels" do not get the recognition they deserve. I'll have to think about this a little harder and perhaps judge these poll options again on a fresh listen of each of first six albums or so.

I guess I know what my play list will be like this week.

It's a 4-way tie between Awaken, No Exit, Perfect Symmetry and Parallels. It's very hard for me to decide which one leaves the others behind.

Awaken The Guardian was the very first FW album I listened to, at the tender age of 16, and it had an immense impact on me. I still remember the hours I spent listening again and again to the dubbed tape I had, trying to decipher the what was going on there. It was hard for me to "get" this album, since it's not your average mainstream metal offering, but eventually it all paid off.

The first three albums of the Alder era, are absolutely wonderful. The band showed a natural progression towards a more streamlined style, which resulted in Parallels. There was some commercial vibe in that album, but it never seemed as a selling out to me. FW simply were more easy to listen to.

Night was a very,very good debut, with the band showing some hints of what they were able to accomplish. Spectres is a solid step forward, but for some reason I was never able to fully familiarize myself with it and appreciate it, even though it has been close to 15 years since I got that album. The Apparition, however, is a total killer, and one of my favorite Fate's tune.

As for the post-Parallels ere, things are hit & miss for me. Especially after Inside Out, there isn't much of a band anymore, just a songwriter and a couple of his collaborators. I always find something interesting in these albums, but listening to them from start to finish, would probably induce some sort of coma.


Except Inside Out, which I believe it is fine, in a "why-didn't-we-get-as-big-as-Queensyche-let's-go-for-take-two" sort of way.

I prefer Alder era with Perfect Symmetry being my favourite one and one my top albums of all time. I like AtG quite a lot too, but generally the first 3 albums never blew me away due to the fact that I find something irritating in Arch's voice although I must admit that he has a unique way of singing.

Awaken the Guardian. Easily.

It was the work they had been developing in the previous two albums. Bocken was filled with the Maiden influence, Spectre was original but the formula wasn't at 100% and then came Guardian, if there is a musical perfection heaven, this album is there for sure.

Heard no Exit a few times, but it was lacking something. I heard also a little bit of rest of their records, but they're too far from what I'd like to expect from a band that acomplished such an album as "Awaken The Guardian".