Mike Portnoy comments

I can actually tell you the exact day I first heard Fates Warning. It was March 2nd 1985. I went to L’Amour in Brooklyn, New York to see Anthrax and I ended up being blown away by the opening band (some band from Connecticut called Fates Warning). I can’t believe it’s been 20 years since that Fateful night (no pun intended!)

When I saw them that night, they were in support of their sophomore release The Spectre Within which of course I immediately picked up and fell in love with. They combined the amazingly heavy riffs of Black Sabbath with the progressive, constantly shifting odd time signatures of Rush and topped it all off with these insane operatic vocals which were like a cross between Bruce Dickinson and Jon Anderson.

Around that time, I was listening to some other new bands like Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax whom were all totally heavy but not terribly progressive. Then there were bands like Queensrÿche or Yngwie Malmsteen who were kind of progressive, but never really got very heavy. Fates Warning were the perfect combination of both styles.

They were the exact sound I was looking for in a new band.

The first album they released after I had become a fan was 1986’s Awaken the Guardian. I was REALLY looking forward to hearing where they were going to go next and I was not disappointed at all... In fact, I was completely blown away! It was nothing short of a masterpiece. It took the progressive compositions and heavy riffs from their first two albums to a whole new level. I must have played this album a thousand times... knowing every single twist and turn (and there were A LOT of them) inside and out.

Every song was a musical journey. Jim Matheos’ riffs were so incredibly heavy and constantly shifting gears. The tempo changes and odd meters kept me counting and air drumming for years! And then there was John Arch’s voice... what an original! The early comparisons to Bruce Dickinson no longer applied. Arch’s voice was one in a million. Nobody sounded like him... And his melodies were so incredibly haunting and unique... you never knew what was coming next. He used his voice like a virtuosic instrument.

Shortly after this album came out, I went to see them at Sundance on Long Island, NY and passed my band’s demo tape (the 1986 Majesty Demos) onto Jim Matheos and John Arch after the show. The very next day, Jim called me and I became great friends with the band and began a long relationship which I still value to this day almost 20 years later.

Awaken the Guardian still remains an all-time classic in my book, and I consider it to be up there alongside of Metallica’s Master of Puppets, Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime and Slayer’s Reign in Blood as one of the greatest metal releases of the ‘80s.

Very often fans and critics credit Dream Theater for creating a whole new genre of progressive metal music in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s... but the truth is Fates Warning were doing it years before us.

Mike Portnoy

New York City

January 2005