Label: Metal Blade Records
Release date: May 10, 2019
Production: Jim Matheos
Album length: 68.03 min
Genre: Progressive Metal
Rating: 10/10
This one’s been out for more than a year now, and hand on heart, it’s hard to find an excuse for the sheer negligence of letting an album like this slip through our fingers. Let’s get one thing straight right away: this is one of the best progressive metal albums released last year. So it’s absolutely worth shining a spotlight on
The Arch/Matheos project is the work of vocalist John Arch and guitarist Jim Matheos, a pair of partners in crime who go back to the early days of the legendary Fates Warning. John Arch sang on the first three albums of this cult prog metal band, and those three albums are a story all their own. Precisely because of his vocal approach, which you can recognize from a mile away and which is one of a kind in the metal universe. Why are those three albums so different? Simple. The answer lies in the way John Arch builds his vocal melodies, and his phrasing and meter too. Tie that approach to Matheos’ phrasing and all the other guitar ideas inside the compositions, and the result is a unique kind of magic that only happens when these two musicians work together in the studio. Proof of that is Arch’s excellent EP »A Twist Of Fate« (2003), and just as great was the debut of the Arch/Matheos project, »Sympathetic Resonance«, which came out nine years ago. »Winter Ethereal« is the logical continuation from the point where its predecessor’s story ended. In 2016, after a long 30 years, Arch worked with Fates Warning again. The band wanted a reunion with the famous singer, exclusively for a handful of shows where they played the album »Awaken the Guardian« in its entirety. That surely helped strengthen the bonds between Arch and his former Fates Warning comrades too, though »Winter Ethereal« probably wouldn’t have turned out much different even without that collaboration. It features even more names than its predecessor. Alongside current and former Fates Warning members, there are also bassists Steve DiGiorgio (Testament, Death) and Sean Malone (Cynic), and drummers Matt Lynch (Cynic) and Thomas Lang (Paul Gilbert).
Compared to the debut »Sympathetic Resonance«, »Winter Ethereal« feels even more dynamic and varied. In terms of the sheer range of ideas it’s more interesting to listen to, and it simply comes across as an artistic, more mature step up from its predecessor. The arrangements are noticeably more detailed too, and the sound is expanded and further enriched. There are even more guitar lines weaving into each other or “thickening” the phrasing. The solo spots grab you just as hard, with incredible intensity and freshness. Poly-rhythmic structures create a monstrous contrast to the phrasing. That multi-faceted rhythmic variety, with its technical brilliance, simply takes your breath away. It’s precisely the larger number of contributors that brings so much more interest to this album. And which track is both the most classic and the most progressive metal song on the album? Well, its best one. That’s the last one, Kindred Spirits. Let’s say it’s the most ambitious of everything Arch and Matheos have recorded together for this project so far.
If you’re looking for whatever sounds closest to old Fates Warning, the last part of the album’s second track, Wanderlust, is the one to name. You could actually make the bold claim that what we hear on »Winter Ethereal« could well be the new Fates Warning album with Arch, had he not left the band back in 1987. It carries the spirit of old Fates Warning into new times, with an updated and refreshed approach to songwriting and production. It’s a progressive metal achievement that’s a one-of-a-kind in its own right. At the same time, it’s not hard to detect the roots of “U.S. old school speed metal” in it, the scene that also gave rise to Crimson Glory, Queensryche and Savatage back then, long before a band called Dream Theater ever showed up on the planet, each of them carving out a special place in metal for themselves. »Winter Ethereal« buckles under the raw weight of abrasive phrasing, the songs are once again complex in structure, with rhythms that break and shift again and again, and with breathtaking drum fills executed with bravura. And the leaping vocals, extremely dynamic in how they use the musical lines, are, on top of the building blocks listed above, an extra catalyst of the record’s progressiveness. A progressive metal record with a rustic aura. It’s incredible how well Arch’s voice has held up. Rust doesn’t stick to it any time soon, and the singer stuns with extreme power and extremely high registers that, at 61, he still hits as if it were a joke. His voice is one of a kind, and thanks to Arch, »Winter Ethereal« is just as one of a kind.
»Sympathetic Resonance« was an excellent release, but »Winter Ethereal« tops it. Forget about any major scale. This is also an album that knows nothing of note-shaking. If anyone’s shaking notes, it’s Arch in his vocal melodies, but that’s exactly what makes it so special and unique, and what had so many fans of old Fates Warning in tears when Arch left the band.
This is an album that’s been very skillfully brought up to date in the studio, and it’s a bridge to everything that bound Arch and Matheos together on their past albums. Definitely a bridge back to early Fates Warning too. At the same time, it impresses with its remarkable tightness and perfect production, which intensifies the contrasts and develops predatory moods of a dark nature, leaving the listener with blood running cold and goosebumps all over. Thanks to all its distinctive qualities, its incredible punch of ideas and the fire with which it’s delivered, it’s surely the winner in its genre category for 2019. This isn’t the end. The next album will follow. That’s indisputable. The bottom line is simple. There’s no better news.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Vermilion Moons (09:06)
2. Wanderlust (05:59)
3. Solitary Man (05:41)
4. Wrath of the Universe (08:23)
5. Tethered (06:11)
6. Straight and Narrow (04:20)
7. Pitch Black Prism (07:06)
8. Never in Your Hands (08:13)
9. Kindred Spirits (13:00)
Line-up:
Jon Arch – vocals
Jim Matheos – guitar, keyboards
Guest musicians:
Frank Aresti – guitar solos on tracks 8 and 9
Joe DiBiase – bass on track 3
Joey Vera – bass on tracks 2 and 8
Steve DiGiorgio – bass on tracks 1, 4 and 6
Sean Malone – bass on tracks 7 and 9
Bobby Jarzombek – drums on tracks 4 and 6
Mark Zonder – drums on tracks 2 and 5
Baard Kolstad – drums on track 8
Matt Lynch – drums on track 9
Thomas Lang – drums on tracks 1, 3 and 7
