Official top 50 Fates Warning countdown thread!! - #1 Song Revealed!

[Mister Gold]

Just barely finished and submitted the list on time!

Night On Brocken - 1
The Spectre Within - 2
Awaken the Guardian - 7
No Exit - 2
Perfect Symmetry - 6
Parallels - 7
Inside Out - 3
A Pleasant Shade of Gray - 2
Disconnected - 5
X - 2
Darkness in a Different Light - 5
Theories of Flight - 6
Long Day, Good Night - 2

What's really fascinating to me is that the numbers paint a slightly different picture for what people would expect for my FW album rankings than what I'd actually say. For instance, Theories of Flight is the top album in the band's discography for me over Awaken the Guardian, Parallels or Perfect Symmetry. In fact, I'd thought that I had included all seven of the non-instrumental tracks off of TOF in my list at first and then realized that one track just barely didn't make it in.

[TAC]

@ Paul... At the end of the thread, is there any way that you can rank the albums based on the Top 50?

[pg1067]

Pretty sure we have until midnight.

The reality is that you have until roughly 8 a.m. (Pacific time) on Sunday.  If it's there when I get up and log in tomorrow, I'll count it.   

@ Paul... At the end of the thread, is there any way that you can rank the albums based on the Top 50?

Absolutely will do.


To whet your appetite, I give you Joe DiBiase's rankings of the seven albums on which he played (from the Destination Onward book):

7. Night on Brocken
6. No Exit
5. Inside Out
4. The Spectre Within
3. Awaken the Guardian
2. Perfect Symmetry
1. Parallels

His favorite of those on which he didn't play are APSOG and Theories.

And...Jim Matheos's top 10 UFO songs (not in order):

- Mother Mary
- High Flyer
- Lights Out
- Love to Love
- I'm a Loser
- Natural Thing
- Pick It up and Go
- Makin' Moves
- Venus
- Baby Blue


And last...the distinction that Tim held by himself for a while (but which is now true of about a half dozen lists) is that he was the only one to rank at least one song on every album. 

[Mister Gold]

To whet your appetite, I give you Joe DiBiase's rankings of the seven albums on which he played (from the Destination Onward book):

7. Night on Brocken
6. No Exit
5. Inside Out
4. The Spectre Within
3. Awaken the Guardian
2. Perfect Symmetry
1. Parallels

His favorite of those on which he didn't play are APSOG and Theories.

Not a bad ranking on DiBiase's part, even if I don't necessarily agree with the exact order of the Top 3.

He's spot on about APSOG and Theories being the band's best works after his tenure in the band IMO. Funny enough, APSOG only landed two songs on my Top 50, but that has more to do with the album's format being structured more as a single 'long form' song that all largely flows together throughout rather than the songs being weaker than the other albums in the catalogue that had more songs in my Top 50 list.

[Glasser]

Not sure I will be able to contribute to this one. I planned to, but been busy.

I REALLY wanted in on this as I'm a lifelong fan and love them but I saw the thread late. Not happy about it. 

[jammindude]

Just turned in my list. I’ll give a breakdown tomorrow.

But it went through the ranker 3 times. And I hit send 11 minutes before 11pm.

Good night.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Not sure I will be able to contribute to this one. I planned to, but been busy.

I REALLY wanted in on this as I'm a lifelong fan and love them but I saw the thread late. Not happy about it. 

Quickly run through the ranker! You have until PG wakes up tomorrow.

[wolfking]

Just turned in my list. I’ll give a breakdown tomorrow.

But it went through the ranker 3 times. And I hit send 11 minutes before 11pm.

Good night.

That's a long day mate, good night.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Just turned in my list. I’ll give a breakdown tomorrow.

But it went through the ranker 3 times. And I hit send 11 minutes before 11pm.

Good night.

That's a long day mate, good night.

[Glasser]

Not sure I will be able to contribute to this one. I planned to, but been busy.

I REALLY wanted in on this as I'm a lifelong fan and love them but I saw the thread late. Not happy about it. 

Quickly run through the ranker! You have until PG wakes up tomorrow.

Too late. Rules are rules and I wanted to do it right as this is not an easy one. My bad on this. My only issue is there are no Pizza Death tunes on the list. 

[Tomislav95]

Here's my split, it's now obvious which are my favorite albums at all

Night On Brocken - 0
The Spectre Within - 1
Awaken the Guardian - 1
No Exit - 3
Perfect Symmetry - 3
Parallels - 8
Inside Out - 7
A Pleasant Shade of Gray - 8
Disconnected - 5
FWX - 2
Darkness in a Different Light - 2
Theories of Flight - 7
Long Day, Good Night - 3

[Glasser]

Here's my split, it's now obvious which are my favorite albums at all

Night On Brocken - 0
The Spectre Within - 1
Awaken the Guardian - 1
No Exit - 3
Perfect Symmetry - 3
Parallels - 8
Inside Out - 7
A Pleasant Shade of Gray - 8
Disconnected - 5
FWX - 2
Darkness in a Different Light - 2
Theories of Flight - 7
Long Day, Good Night - 3

  maybe its better I'm not in this one. I would have the entire ATG album ranked. But that's just me.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Here's my split, it's now obvious which are my favorite albums at all

Night On Brocken - 0
The Spectre Within - 1
Awaken the Guardian - 1
No Exit - 3
Perfect Symmetry - 3
Parallels - 8
Inside Out - 7
A Pleasant Shade of Gray - 8
Disconnected - 5
FWX - 2
Darkness in a Different Light - 2
Theories of Flight - 7
Long Day, Good Night - 3

  maybe its better I'm not in this one. I would have the entire ATG album ranked. But that's just me.

I had 7 from each of Spectre Within and Awaken the Guardian.

[nick_z]

And...Jim Matheos's top 10 UFO songs (not in order):

- Mother Mary
- High Flyer
- Lights Out
- Love to Love
- I'm a Loser
- Natural Thing
- Pick It up and Go
- Makin' Moves
- Venus
- Baby Blue

Yeah, I found it interesting that there were five separate top 10 UFO songs lists (Matheos, DiBiase, Vera, Jarzombek and Arduini) in the book appendix 

There's a top 10 Rush albums from Matheos too...his #1 is Caress of Steel...you don't see that every day 

[pg1067]

Alrighty!  19 lists received (including mine).  Thanks to everyone for contributing!  The top 50 starts tomorrow (possibly not until the evening).

But now...here are the 9 songs that appeared on NO lists:

106T. The Calling
         S.E.K.
         Soldier Boy
         Time Long Past
         No Exit
         Inward Bound
         Sequence #7
         Desire
         Liar

I know...I'm sure you're all shocked.

[jammindude]

Just broke mine down by album:

NOB - 1
TSW - 5
ATG - 6
NE - 4
PS - 6
Parallels - 3
IO - 1
APSOG - 8
DC - 4
FWX - 2
DIADL - 3
TOF - 5
LDGN - 2

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Alrighty!  19 lists received (including mine).  Thanks to everyone for contributing!  The top 50 starts tomorrow (possibly not until the evening).

But now...here are the 9 songs that appeared on NO lists:

106T. The Calling
         S.E.K.
         Soldier Boy
         Time Long Past
         No Exit
         Inward Bound
         Sequence #7
         Desire
         Liar

I know...I'm sure you're all shocked.

Interesting.

The Calling - This was #73 on my full list. So it would have made a top 75  Definitely not a bad song.

S.E.K. - This is just a short little instrumental of no consequence and therefore landed at #111

Soldier Boy - I had this at #80. Definitely not the worst on NOB, but not amazing either, some cool guitar melodies sprinkled throughout.

Time Long Past - See S.E.K. description. Landed at #97

No Exit - See S.E.K. description. my #113

Inward Bound - Came in at #84. It's a decent enough little ditty.

Sequence #7 - A farcry from being my #7 song. This was at the very bottom of my list at #114.

Desire - Like a lot of DiaDL, this song doesn't do much for me. It's competent and that's about all I can say about it. #89 for me.

Liar - A bit better than Desire, but still only landed at #79.

[TAC]

I don't know how you could rank every song. I had a tough enough time just nominating enough songs to fill out the Countdown.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

I don't know how you could rank every song. I had a tough enough time just nominating enough songs to fill out the Countdown.

Fates Warning has been a major staple of my listening for almost 20 years now. I picked up their Chasing Time compilation on a whim in 2003 and absolutely loved it. Then picked up FWX when it released in 2004 and absolutely loved that too, then proceeded to go down the Fates Warning rabbit hole over the next year or so and bought all their albums. This was around the same time I discovered Dream Theater. I pretty much only listened to these 2 bands and Rush for about 3 years. I would really start branching out once I discovered Opeth and Type O Negative in 2005.

Long story short (too late!), I love this band and it was super easy, barely an inconvenience. 

[jammindude]

I don't know how you could rank every song. I had a tough enough time just nominating enough songs to fill out the Countdown.

I did every song (except the “intro songs” that have been covered) the first pass. But after that, I just took the top 60ish or so (songs I thought truly deserved a shot) and ran them through twice more. A pattern developed. My final list is one I’m pretty happy with. If I were to make any more tweaks, it wouldn’t be anything more than just swapping 26 for 27 or something like that.

[Lethean]

I don't know how you could rank every song. I had a tough enough time just nominating enough songs to fill out the Countdown.

But they're only competing against other FW songs, so how can it be hard to find 50 songs to fill the list?  The hard part for me is ranking them in a precise order, but not being able to have 50, 75, or 100 songs.

[TAC]

I don't know how you could rank every song. I had a tough enough time just nominating enough songs to fill out the Countdown.

But they're only competing against other FW songs, so how can it be hard to find 50 songs to fill the list?  The hard part for me is ranking them in a precise order, but not being able to have 50, 75, or 100 songs.

Well, the thing is, I love a bunch of FW songs but they're a peripheral band for me. I have all of their albums, but I have never fell in love with them as a band.

When I looked at every album, I nominated songs and the first pass netted me 44 tracks that I liked or really liked.. Then I added another 15 that were good enough.

[Tomislav95]

Here's my split, it's now obvious which are my favorite albums at all

Night On Brocken - 0
The Spectre Within - 1
Awaken the Guardian - 1
No Exit - 3
Perfect Symmetry - 3
Parallels - 8
Inside Out - 7
A Pleasant Shade of Gray - 8
Disconnected - 5
FWX - 2
Darkness in a Different Light - 2
Theories of Flight - 7
Long Day, Good Night - 3

  maybe its better I'm not in this one. I would have the entire ATG album ranked. But that's just me.

I had 7 from each of Spectre Within and Awaken the Guardian.

Tbh I didn't give them chance for a quite some time, last time I did I didn't like them that much. I'm not fan of power metal so that might not be surprising.

[TAC]

Those albums are anything but power metal.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Those albums are anything but power metal.

This ^

[jammindude]

Here's my split, it's now obvious which are my favorite albums at all

Night On Brocken - 0
The Spectre Within - 1
Awaken the Guardian - 1
No Exit - 3
Perfect Symmetry - 3
Parallels - 8
Inside Out - 7
A Pleasant Shade of Gray - 8
Disconnected - 5
FWX - 2
Darkness in a Different Light - 2
Theories of Flight - 7
Long Day, Good Night - 3

  maybe its better I'm not in this one. I would have the entire ATG album ranked. But that's just me.

Quite a few of us ranked over half of TSW and ATG, and we probably could’ve used your additional support! My complaint from the very beginning was that there wasn’t going to be enough support for the first three albums. I would like to see more people that love all areas of the band equally and give the early albums at least a fair shake.

[Tomislav95]

Those albums are anything but power metal.

Well, not similar to european power metal but still

[Lethean]

Here's my split, it's now obvious which are my favorite albums at all

Night On Brocken - 0
The Spectre Within - 1
Awaken the Guardian - 1
No Exit - 3
Perfect Symmetry - 3
Parallels - 8
Inside Out - 7
A Pleasant Shade of Gray - 8
Disconnected - 5
FWX - 2
Darkness in a Different Light - 2
Theories of Flight - 7
Long Day, Good Night - 3

  maybe its better I'm not in this one. I would have the entire ATG album ranked. But that's just me.

Quite a few of us ranked over half of TSW and ATG, and we probably could’ve used your additional support! My complaint from the very beginning was that there wasn’t going to be enough support for the first three albums. I would like to see more people that love all areas of the band equally and give the early albums at least a fair shake.

I've given them a fair shake and have even seen Fates live with Arch for the Awaken the Guardian reunion.  I enjoyed it and liked him better live than I do on the albums.  But I just don't like those albums that much.  It's not all him - I think they became a better band with some albums under their belt.  I can appreciate the early stuff and I own all of it, but I don't love it like I do the Ray era.

[wolfking]

Here's my split, it's now obvious which are my favorite albums at all

Night On Brocken - 0
The Spectre Within - 1
Awaken the Guardian - 1
No Exit - 3
Perfect Symmetry - 3
Parallels - 8
Inside Out - 7
A Pleasant Shade of Gray - 8
Disconnected - 5
FWX - 2
Darkness in a Different Light - 2
Theories of Flight - 7
Long Day, Good Night - 3

  maybe its better I'm not in this one. I would have the entire ATG album ranked. But that's just me.

Quite a few of us ranked over half of TSW and ATG, and we probably could’ve used your additional support! My complaint from the very beginning was that there wasn’t going to be enough support for the first three albums. I would like to see more people that love all areas of the band equally and give the early albums at least a fair shake.

Being a fan for a long time, I've always given them a fair shake, I just found more later FW tunes get into the 50 over them.

[Mister Gold]

Quite a few of us ranked over half of TSW and ATG, and we probably could’ve used your additional support! My complaint from the very beginning was that there wasn’t going to be enough support for the first three albums. I would like to see more people that love all areas of the band equally and give the early albums at least a fair shake.

Yeah, almost all of Awaken the Guardian made it on my list, save for Time Long Past. While Night on Brocken and The Spectre Within don't have nearly as much rep in my list, I can say that there would have been a LOT more Arch material in my list if we were including the two Arch/Matheos albums for some reason. I got into Fates Warning to begin with through the first A/M album and AtG, but as I've gotten older, I have found myself listening to the Alder albums far more regularly than I do NoB or TSW.

[pg1067]

I'll provide some stats regarding the Arch songs later, but it's really no different than Rush or Maiden.  If I recall correctly, Vapor Trails got only one song or maybe no songs on the countdown.  Same with the Bailey albums for Maiden and a couple of the QR albums.

[TAC]

Alrighty!  19 lists received (including mine).

But now...here are the 9 songs that appeared on NO lists:
......

How many songs were on every list. I think we were down to just three.

  The top 50 starts tomorrow (possibly not until the evening).

So..Tuesday morning for me.

[Glasser]

Here's my split, it's now obvious which are my favorite albums at all

Night On Brocken - 0
The Spectre Within - 1
Awaken the Guardian - 1
No Exit - 3
Perfect Symmetry - 3
Parallels - 8
Inside Out - 7
A Pleasant Shade of Gray - 8
Disconnected - 5
FWX - 2
Darkness in a Different Light - 2
Theories of Flight - 7
Long Day, Good Night - 3

  maybe its better I'm not in this one. I would have the entire ATG album ranked. But that's just me.

Quite a few of us ranked over half of TSW and ATG, and we probably could’ve used your additional support! My complaint from the very beginning was that there wasn’t going to be enough support for the first three albums. I would like to see more people that love all areas of the band equally and give the early albums at least a fair shake.

Being a fan for a long time, I've always given them a fair shake, I just found more later FW tunes get into the 50 over them.

I totally get that. I listened to Fates years before Ray was in the band. I love Ray, I'm literally gay for the dude! (Joking). Saw Ray on his first 2 FW tours and was blown away.

[pg1067]

Alrighty!  19 lists received (including mine).

But now...here are the 9 songs that appeared on NO lists:
......

How many songs were on every list. I think we were down to just three.

Yes.  Only three made every list.

[TAC]

I'll say it again. That is mindboggling.