Week 38: Fates Warning - Pirates of the Underground

The artist: Fates Warning are one of the early examples of progressive metal, even though the early albums were more traditional/power metal than progressive metal which is what they would turn to later on. The first era is much different to the later works of Fates Warning and even the vocalists show how different they are to each other. Unfortunately, Fates Warning have produced a lot of mediocrity during the Ray Alder era but No Exit is still a fine album. As for the albums when they had John Arch, The Spectre Within and Awaken the Guardian are highly praised and rightfully so. The band as a whole have been quiet for a while now and the guitarist Jim Matheos has recently been workng with John Arch on a new band called Arch / Matheos but honestly, they should just call it Fates Warning.

The album: The Spectre Within is Fates Warning's second album. With only seven tracks, Fates Warning show a lot of potential. From Traveler in Time to the grand finale Epitaph, the songs are nothing short of excellence. To keep it short, John Arch shows a lot of passion with his singing, there are many high quality riffs and solos that show a great variety throughout and there are some magnificent intros, especially The Apparition and today's song feature Pirates of the Underground. Even the simpler intros such as Traveler in Time and Kyrie Eleison have just a clock ticking and bells ringing for the former and a chanting "Kyrie Eleison" for the latter but are still highly effective for the representing songs. From a personal view, this album easily hits the top 20 picks for heavy metal albums and it's a damn shame the John Arch era was a very brief time for Fates Warning.

The song: Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day! You were probably expecting Alestorm or Running Wild but it's not just those two bands that have written songs about pirates. Pirates of the Underground starts off with a elaborate intro section. Jim Matheos and Victor Arduini have a lot to offer with their dual guitar display with throwing a few solos around along with some catchy riffs that even have a slight thrash vibe to it. By two minutes in, only then John Arch kicks in with his shrieking vocals. Multilaying for John Arch is used to increase the effectiveness of his vocal performance. After two verse lines, the guitarist duo are back to play yet more solos that show so yet more power and to have roughly five solos in a single track with all of them being highly memorable is quite an achievement. Although the riffs are still something to wow about, the solos are even more impressive and none of the many solos show any signs of weakness. Overall, Pirates of the Underground is a solo-maniac song that only reminds every metal fan why this album gets a lot of praise. Having some speedy riffs as well as a lot of power from John Arch makes this even more of an incredible song!