Fates Warning
Long Day Good Night

Over 35 years of career and still managing to surprise. Of course, it is possible, as the indomitable Fates Warning show us. They created the first non-definitive form of progressive metal and have never ceased to evolve. However, the recent “Theories of Flight” didn’t add much, it was almost a compendium of all the souls of Fates Warning of the last 25 years and I feared that this new work would be the same. Instead, “Long Day Good Night” was decidedly a pleasant surprise, never before so much variety of solutions, never a sound so dark, never a sound so refined and challenging, never an approach so expansive and atmospheric, perhaps the most difficult album to assimilate by the band, needless to say, it requires several listens to fully grasp it... always assuming you don't have an ear already predisposed.

It's no joke when I say that in an attempt to renew themselves, this time Fates Warning even venture into Tool's territory, while always remaining Fates Warning. Yes, exactly, repeatedly there are dark and harsh parts that immediately bring Tool to mind; slow and tormented rhythms with abrasive but calm guitars and metallic and hypnotic bass characterize songs like “The Destination Onward,” “Alone We Walk,” “The Way Home,” tracks that start slowly but then, much like with Keenan and co.'s band, reveal their aggressiveness with tight yet somewhat claustrophobic riffs; however, these sounds appear gentler and smoother, they sound like softened Tool, while when the metal guitars kick in, they do so more intensely, fiercely, and technically, without particular restraint. The apex of these influences manifests in the long and sprawling “The Longest Shadow of the Day”: here bass and guitar engage in edgy interweavings accompanied by dry and precise percussion, while in the second half we find the opposite, an extremely slow and tormented part where electronic inserts also surface, but noteworthy is also the almost fusion-like bass solo in the beginning as well as a more classic heavy section that even recalls the early Fates Warning.

In general, however, a melancholic and intimate mood characterizes the entire album, there is indeed a good handful of soft tracks with a rather gray atmosphere. In “Now Comes the Rain,” the distorted guitar remains light, is provoked just enough to keep the sound prickly, and blends beautifully with the overlapping clean guitar strokes, there are few harsher turns, a truly fitting and brilliant bittersweet track in its simplicity. More gray and dim despite the title “Under the Sun,” led by deliberately faint acoustic strums and characterized by the unusual addition of violin and cello, also intentionally subdued and dark; rhythmically and in intensity reminiscent of “Another Perfect Day” but in a darker guise and without metal inserts. “When Snow Falls” (with Gavin Harrison on drums) is delicate and lulling, with barely audible guitars, minimalist and essential percussion and unusual bell sounds, a delicate and gathered track, almost as if played by a cold and dark room with a fireplace, I don't believe the title is there just for aesthetics. The concluding “The Last Song” is an acoustic gem once more quite unusual for the group, with always delicate and melancholic phrasings, rather rural in connotations yet not translating into real folk, imagine a wheat field overshadowed by gray cloudy bodies and you'll have the perfect setting for the track.

In any case, don't think that the aggressiveness is put aside, on the contrary, it remains an important element of Fates Warning's music, after all, they are still a metal band. There are therefore powerful and direct tracks capable of appealing even to the least experimental metalhead. In “Shuttered World,” the aggressiveness still allows space for Jim Matheos' technical nuances while in “Scars” they limit it to hammering the strings for the smoothest and most direct of metal tracks; when it was released as a preview, I found it rather bland but, as always, when inserted into the context of the album, an apparently bland piece can gain significant value, and so here's that carefree track that sets aside whatever's most challenging and intricate for a light yet heavy moment. The most frantic track is however “Glass Houses,” fast and lively, a bullet shot along the asphalt, seems to have come out of a Redemption session, in addition Ray Alder raises his voice showing himself once again in great shape; despite the energetic charge, it was the track I took the longest to appreciate, and we know that finding it harder to appreciate a more immediate track rather than a more complex one is quite normal for a progger. However, I still haven't found a meaning to “Liar,” a track neither fish nor fowl that wants to be immediate and effective but instead leaves no mark, it has a subdued aggressiveness expressed with much indifference, it doesn't go anywhere, it has no identity, and it's hard to define it, it’s a filler in every respect and when there are 13 tracks, it’s easy to find an uninspired one.

Mention then for “Begin Again,” which more than Fates Warning appears blatantly like a Porcupine Tree track, those halfway between acoustic suggestions and the metal shifts of the second phase; it behaves exactly so, a calm and composed rhythm, dark and regular acoustic strokes in the verses and precise metallic slashes in the chorus, easily recalling tracks like “Shallow” and especially “Open Car.”

Overall, however, the approach is heavily influenced by Jim Matheos' recent experience in his side project Arch/Matheos: the ingredients seem more or less those that characterized the work released in 2019, it seems like its natural continuation, here too you notice something leaden and slightly cavernous that characterizes both the slowest and the heaviest parts, and here too the technique seems to blend well into the sound network; in essence, anyone who appreciated the challenging “Winter Ethereal” will not struggle to appreciate this work. Then deserves to be mentioned once again is the performance by Bobby Jarzombek, who reconfirms himself as one of the best drummers around, while the live-added guitarist Mike Abdow appears as a guest on some tracks.

A comprehensively versatile and unexpected album, one of the most surprising of 2020, Fates Warning age chronologically but not mentally.