Fates Warning - Perfect Symmetry

Back when Fates Warning formed in 1982 there really wasn't such a thing as Prog-Metal.  They started as a band heavily influenced by Iron Maiden and the NWOBHM and became more progressive as they matured.  After their classic albums The Spectre Within and Awaken the Guardian they had a near complete lineup change, save the founding guitarist Jim Matheos.  With new vocalist Ray Alder replacing John Arch they recorded the transitional album No Exit.  Up through and including that album, becoming more proggy and less thrashy each time, they had mostly stuck to traditional fantasy themes in their music, lyrics and art.  Enter 1989 and they had a quite significant change in style.  Deciding to drop the wizards and shit they went in a much more industrial and bleak direction with their overall sound.

Kicking off with "Part of the Machine" they certainly don't waste any time in showing the new direction.  New drummer Mark Zonder has a very unique style, using odd meters but not too many hits.  By using complex patterns yet not getting too busy or hitting too many drums he really defines the new style explored on this album.  The overall tone of this song, and the album as a whole, is very much like a machine in that it is mechanical, cold and precise.  Not to say it doesn't rock, it is just about as far away from Iron Maiden as you can get.

I have to say I'm not the biggest fan of Ray Alder's voice, but he does come up with some great melodies.  His tone is just a bit too shrill for my taste, but it is certainly part of the package deal here and he is great at what he does.  Most of the album is definately in the HIGH vocal range, but there are occassions when he goes to a lower register and I actually enjoy that a bit more than when he's going balls-out wailing.

The guitars are brittle and harsh on this album, but again it matches with the new direction they were going.  A Les Paul / Marshall tone would just not fit in here.  Throughout the disc there are interesting chord changes and dual harmony lines.  Like the drums, they manage to dance the line between complex and simple by using unexpected notes and odd time meters but not going "whoodely whoodely" all over the place.

After the very appropriate opening track they kick into "Through Different Eyes".  I'm sure this was an obvious choice for the single and video as it is certainly the most traditional song on the album.  They still manage to sneak in some great loud / soft dynamics between the parts and some cool guitar solos as well. This track is a good indication of the more accessable direction they would go on their next album, Parallels.

"Static Acts" is next, not a bad song but for me it is one of the weaker moments on the album.  If you check out the lyrics it is a pretty scathing rip on the music industry and bands in general.  It does fit right in with the machinery theme of the album though! "A World Apart" follows it up, which is slower and has some interesting drums.  Other than that it is also one of the weak spots on the album, but we haven't truly gotten to the real good stuff yet!

"At Fates Hands" starts out with some strings and goes into a slow and quiet theme that makes me picture being on a ship out in the middle of the ocean.  The second half kicks up the pace and this is when the shit starts getting proggy.  There is some great violin work and some crazy dual keyboard / guitar soloing with Kevin Moore who at the time was in Dream Theater. This instrumental section, and the mellow half before it, is a nice change of pace (and break on the ears) from the harshness of the proceeding tracks.

"The Arena" gets it going again with a brisk tempo and pounding bass and drums.  This one is also a bit more traditional in its direction, but keeps it interesting with some tempo changes. It is a good lead in to the last two tracks, which are the best part of the album for me.

"Chasing Time" starts out as an atmospheric ballad and leads into some great violin and guitar solos.  Unexpected chords and timing keep them from being cliche, and they wisely stay away from the musical masturbation of far too many metal or prog bands.  Just because you can play a million notes a minute in Mixolydian mode doesn't mean you should.

The album closer is easily one of the high moments not just of the album but for Fates Warning as a whole.  "Nothing Left To Say" is an eight minute journey through the themes explored on the album, but wrapped up in a nice concise package that does not get boring despite its length.  This is easily Ray Alder's vocals at their most accessable and all the other players shine as well.  Of all the tracks, this one really brings their Rush influence to the front.  Like the boys from Canada, Fates Warning shows a real concentration on ensemble work rather than individual wankery. 

Definately a transitional album, Fates Warning made a radical shift in their sound on Perfect Symmetry.  It's true beauty is the way it dances on the lines between complexity and simplicity,  harshness and beauty.  Somehow on their most cold and mechanical album they managed to inject more humanity and introspection than they had previously shown.

Bauhaus - Mask

1981 was one hell of a year for music.  There are a number of albums from that year that defined not only the sounds of the 80's but also all the decades beyond.  I'm sure I'll get to more of these eventually, but for today let's talk about the Mask, the 2nd album from those 4 malnourished, pale corpses collectively known as Bauhaus.

Their debut, In the Flat Field, is simply spectacular, not only for it's more well known tracks like Double Dare or God in an Alcove but also it's more quirky fare such as Small Talk Stinks and Nerves.  It has a great combination of raw energy and innovative sounds, not to mention a healthy sense of humor.  It's follow up, Mask, also has these elements but the end result is quite different than it's predecessor.

Though of course they are generally referred to as the Godfathers of Goth, I don't think that they deserve the blame for the god-awful, self-indulgent crap that came around long after their demise.  Maybe I'm still bitter because in 1996 I spent $15 on a horrible album of Bauhaus covers.  Anyways, just like I don't hold Kurt Cobain personally responsible for the rise of Creed or Nickleback, I can't blame Bauhaus for Sisters of Mercy or any of the other absolutely horrible crap that falls in the Goth genre.

Bauhaus is without doubt my number one example of how minimalism can be a very good thing in music.  They had no need for two-handed tapping guitar solos, drum solos, or even shit that would normally be considered standard issue for just about any band like colored lighting, drum fills, or food. I think you could have given them a trash can, a couple sticks with some strings tied to a nail and a bare light bulb and they would have played music that would blow your fucking mind.  Well, it was still 1981 so you most likely would also have to cough up an eight-ball for them to really get going.

Anyways, I could write a book about how awesome Bauhaus is, but somebody already did that and quite a good job of explaining their history in great detail.

Before I get to the album itself, I should note that there has recently been a 3 disc re-issue which I have not yet purchased.  I'm only going to talk about the original tracks that make up the album itself, as I only have the L.P. and a CD I purchased while I was still in high school.  The bonus tracks on that disc don't really do a whole lot for me...

The album starts with some trademarked Daniel Ash feedbacky guitar squiggling before a simplistic drum beat and bass kick in to join him for Hair of the Dog.  The whole thing sounds like Peter Gunn on acid.  This brings up one of the things I love most about Bauhaus... They can take something already simple like a surf / spy or blues riff, strip it down even more, add some crazy noise and all of a sudden you have some strange, creepy, rocking beast of a song.

The mood lightens up a hair for the second song Passion of Lovers.  Here ol' Danny kicks things off again, but this time with some simple arpeggios rather than noise.  I've always loved that about his playing, either he's hitting some simple elegant stuff that you can totally figure out, or it's just a goddamn ball of noise that you will never, ever recreate no matter how many pedals you have.  This one really brings out their more pop side.  One of the other great things about this album is that every song is completely unique by itself.  Somehow the whole of the album doesn't seem disjointed, but by most standards they sound like they could be from different albums, or even bands.

Right about here is where things start to get weird, as only Bauhaus can do. Of Lillies and Remains is a kind of funky back beat with some weird ass narration by Peter Murphy recited on top of it.  I do usually skip over it, but it certainly isn't bad.  "Oh, you say you went to art school?  Well I NEVER!"  This is why their sense of humor is important, I think other bands would probably do this, except they would be 100% serious.

Dancing is yeah, I guess kind of dancey.  I skip over that one too.  There's lots of horns and shit. Makes me think back to a time when this album came out... I was 3 years old and all those cool older people were wearing crazy glasses and striped shirts, doing too much coke and hopping around to this type of thing.   Not bad, but not my style I guess.

Now that we've skipped over those two, it's time to get creepy.  REALLY creepy.  Hollow Hills is just simply badass.  David J uses that fretless bass like nobody's business with just one riff for the entire time.  The drums go "DUH DUH" every few seconds, and good ol' Danny is doing some low level screechy guitar in the background.  Peter Murphy does his thing, in this case his low and ominous voice.  This is really where Bauhaus comes unto their own, everything stripped to the absolute bone and it creates atmosphere the nobody else can replicate.  It's like Halloween every time you pop it in the player!  The album version is great, but I think the live version on Press Eject... and Give Me the Tape is even better. 

In Fear of Fear goes back to the horn-ey early 80's dance sound of the earlier track Dancing.  There is some FUNKY ass bass on this one from David J, but yeah, I skip over this one too.

Muscle in Plastic is also kind of dancey, but doesn't have all the horn business going on.  It's pretty speedy, a good combo of rocking, dancing, and weird ass, over the top vocals by Peter.  I usually don't skip over this one, but now we're getting to the last two tracks which are where this album really shines.

The Man with the X-Ray Eyes starts with some great arpeggios by Mr. Ash, which he more or less continues with throughout the song.  I fucking love the sound and style of the moving octave based riffs in this song, and I am not ashamed to say I have more or less ripped them off on more than one occassion in my musical "career".  It's not like somebody is going to come up to you after the show and say, "Duuuude, that totally sounds like the guitar riff in that Bauhaus song near the end of Mask!"  If they did I would surely buy them a beer and congratulate them on having exquisite taste in music.  On the aformentioned live album there is a waaaaay slower version of this song, which is cool, but not nearly as good as this version.

Now, it's time for the end of the album, and what a fucking way to close it.  The song Mask is hands down the most awesomely creepy thing that has ever been recorded, period.  I swear, if there could be a horror movie that could match the intensity of this song it would be the most badass movie ever.  If I were to try to summon a demon in my garage I would just blast this LP and read the bible backwords. The main portion of the song is just a pounding tom drum, a fuzzed out fretless bass playing two notes, some fucked up guitar noise, and Peter Muphy in top dramatic form.  In the latter portion of the song the clouds part and it opens up into some beautiful 12 string guitar plucking and more operatic singing, it is really a great turn around.  The video is pretty creepy as well...

It's important to keep in mind that Bauhaus were only around from about 79-82, during which they released 4 studio albums, and a ton of radio recordings, b-sides, etc.  Even though they do have songs that I like to skip over, the overall quality and sheer variety of their output is really mind blowing.  Like many other bands in '81 they were really venturing into unexplored musical territory, not only with electronic sounds, but also across many genres such as dub, punk and even blues.  Their minimalist experimentation (sometimes successful, sometimes not so much) is why we can listen to their music 30 years later and it still sounds vital and fresh.