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

[Zoom E]

I also did not rank either of these songs.

[WardySI]

APSOG IV NR
Came close but NR as it truly is an album piece for me.

Firefly #17
This was Fates announcing their return and after the exceptional work Ray had been doing with Redemption it did not let us down and fit perfectly in that heavier Fates template.  Has remained a favourite since.  An excellent song off an excellent album which took my AOTY back in 2013, in fact I had this and Dream Theater selftitled back to back for months.  My then 11yr old son fell in love with both Firefly and And Yet It Moves amongst others during some lengthy road trips so some nostalgic points throughtout Darkness In A Different Light to boot


I quietly wondered if I might have Firefly at one of the higest rankings, nice to see the love and with Tomislav95 at #7 nice work!

[pg1067]

Joey's bass playing in Armored Saint is amazing. They had some sneaky intricate parts, especially during the solo sections.

AS is a band I completely skipped over back in the day.  What's a good starting point (if not the beginning)?

I quietly wondered if I might have Firefly at one of the higest rankings, nice to see the love and with Tomislav95 at #7 nice work!

You were the/a high ranker for 11 of 114 songs (although not all made the top 50).

[Glasser]

March Of The Saint. The first 4 albums are incredible. (sorry, had to chime in on this).

[pg1067]

Still in shock from the Dodgers epic collapse yesterday….


38 The Destination Onward (Long Day Good Night – 2)

Appeared on 12 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 2
Highest Ranking: 5 (Mister Gold)

Today is my day for “I didn’t rank either of these songs.”  I’m still working on finding things to like on LDGN.  It hasn’t happened yet.  The beginning of this song sounds like something from Disconnected or FWX, which is NOT a good thing in my book.  It takes almost as long as Octavarium for something interesting to happen.  The rest of the song isn’t bad, but it wasn’t enough to grab me.  Maybe next year.


37 Left Here (FWX – 2)

Appeared on 13 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 0
Highest Ranking: 13 (jammindude, wolfking)

I didn’t rank this song.  It’s ok.  I like the chorus melody, but the wordplay kind of annoys me.

[jammindude]

I usually LOVE it when Jim takes a long time to build the “atmosphere” of a song… but it just hasn’t clicked with me on TDO.  It came in at #69 on my first list, so it was left off the other two. I have a feeling that this is one of those songs that could grow on me in the future. So if you were to do the same countdown in a couple of years, I might feel differently.

Never been a huge fan of FWX, but Left Here is a highlight and by far the best song on the album. Might be one of the best openers in their entire catalog. Glad to see I was one of the high scorers.

[Lethean]

39   The Destination Onward
19   Left Here

Both great songs.  I'm a big fan of FWX but it was definitely a grower for me.  It just got better and better the more I listened to it.

[nick_z]

Both songs ranked for me, but they also mark the only remaining appearance of the respective albums on my list...

The Destination Onward - My rank: #36

I actually like the slow build on this one...then a pretty "typical" Jarzombek's drum pattern kicks in and the song gets going. Interesting guitar work. I really like the melody in the "The page forever altered" part, and the chorus is great. My second-favorite on LDGN (after Longest Shadow...), but there will be no more from it in my top 50...

Left Here - My Rank: #46

The lone representative from FWX on my list, it's a very good opener that builds nicely. A good combination of the moods the band had explored in their recent couple of albums and the more melodic approach of the early 90s (especially the chorus, which is excellent)

[TAC]

38 The Destination Onward (Long Day Good Night – 2)

Appeared on 12 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 2
Highest Ranking: 5 (Mister Gold)

37 Left Here (FWX – 2)

Appeared on 13 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 0
Highest Ranking: 13 (jammindude, wolfking)

I didn't rank either song.

I'm not doing very well. 7 in, 8 out!

50                                                                              NR
49                                                                              Handful Of Doubt
48                                                                              Chasing Time
47                                                                              APSOG III
46  APSOG VIII (Instrumental)                                     White Flag
45                                                                              APSOG IV
44                                                                              Firefly
43                                                                              The Destination Onward
42                                                                              Left Here
41                                                                              The Road Goes On Forever
40
39  The Longest Shadow Of The Day
38  Face The Fear
37
36
35
34
33
32  Silent Cries
31  Don't Follow Me
30
29
28
27
26
25
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17  Exodus
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6  Down To The Wire
5
4
3
2
1

[pg1067]

Both songs ranked for me, but they also mark the only remaining appearance of the respective albums on my list...

Hmmm...interesting point.  One of the albums is done in the overall countdown.


BONUS SUNDAY SONG!




36 The Road Goes on Forever (Parallels – 2)

Appeared on 15 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 0
Highest Ranking: 11 (Zoom E)

I love this song and, in almost any other discography, I’d probably have it higher than #39.  I’ve often said that it’s the song I’d like to have played at my funeral.  Sort of sounds like a production number, but I was fortunate enough to be in attendance the first time it was played live, and it sounded GREAT.

[jammindude]

Juuuuuust missed my list. All 3 lists had it just outside the top 50. Scores were 53, 54, and 57.

[TAC]

0 for 3 today! 

[pg1067]

Both of you will fare better tomorrow (Tim in particular).

[wolfking]

Never been a huge fan of FWX, but Left Here is a highlight and by far the best song on the album. Might be one of the best openers in their entire catalog. Glad to see I was one of the high scorers.

I like FWX, but I agree it's easily the best song.  Glad to see another rate it so highly.

I had TDO at 24, wonderful song.

[wolfking]

I had TRGOF at 35.  I love the Leave the Past reprise at the beginning but the whole thing is beautiful.

[Zoom E]

I didn't rank Destination Onward.

I had Left Here at #15. I rate FWX quite highly and this is my highest ranked album from FWX.

I’m surprised that I had the highest ranking for The Road Goes On Forever, which is ranked #11 for me.

[The Realm]

38 The Destination Onward (Long Day Good Night – 2)

Appeared on 12 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 2
Highest Ranking: 5 (Mister Gold)

37 Left Here (FWX – 2)

Appeared on 13 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 0
Highest Ranking: 13 (jammindude, wolfking)

The Destination Onwards - I love this song. My number 8. Really interesting how people can have different opinions on music - this intro is something special to me. Just love the guitar arpeggios and melody and the vocals when Ray come in are just superb. The song then turns into a very powerful and catchy heavy song which really works for me.

Left Here - number 35 so pretty close to consensus. Great vibe to this track, strange verse rhythm which feels like it shouldn't work but then continues to build this tension which is released with a great chorus.

 

[The Realm]

36 The Road Goes on Forever (Parallels – 2)

Appeared on 15 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 0
Highest Ranking: 11 (Zoom E)

Number 49 so just got this one in. I love the Parallels album. This song could have been much higher. A beautiful track.

As a side note is this the highest amount of lists a song has been ranked on so far? 15?

[TAC]

Joey's bass playing in Armored Saint is amazing. They had some sneaky intricate parts, especially during the solo sections.

AS is a band I completely skipped over back in the day.  What's a good starting point (if not the beginning)?

March Of The Saint. The first 4 albums are incredible. (sorry, had to chime in on this).

To get the foundation, yes, the first 4 albums..
March Of The Saint ('84)
Delirious Nomad ('85)
Raising Fear ('87)
Symbol Of Salvation ('91)


Symbol Of Salvation is their most iconic album, and is generally considered their best album. I can't argue with that.
I LOVE Raising Fear though. Book Of Blood is my favorite song by them, and features a great solo by Dave Prichard,. He passed away at 26 of Leukemia in 1990.

 

[Glasser]

Tim, I personally like Raising Fear the best! Dude, that guitar riff and those bass runs in Frozen Will/Legacy ICONIC!! (Sorry pg , no more AS talk in your thread)

[TAC]

Tim, I personally like Raising Fear the best!

So do I. 

[Zoom E]

Tim, I personally like Raising Fear the best!

So do I. 

Hmmm. I've never heard Raising Fear. I skipped right over that one because Delirious Nomad didn’t do much for me.

[TAC]

Tim, I personally like Raising Fear the best!

So do I. 

Hmmm. I've never heard Raising Fear. I skipped right over that one because Delirious Nomad didn’t do much for me.

You need to go back and check it out.

Half of Delirious Nomad is Excellent, especially Aftermath.

[Zoom E]

Tim, I personally like Raising Fear the best!

So do I. 

Hmmm. I've never heard Raising Fear. I skipped right over that one because Delirious Nomad didn’t do much for me.

You need to go back and check it out.

Half of Delirious Nomad is Excellent, especially Aftermath.

Will do.

[TAC]

Tim, I personally like Raising Fear the best!

So do I. 

Hmmm. I've never heard Raising Fear. I skipped right over that one because Delirious Nomad didn’t do much for me.

You need to go back and check it out.

Half of Delirious Nomad is Excellent, especially Aftermath.

Will do.

I would also highly recommend the Saints Will Conquer live album, recorded on the Raising Fear tour. It's not a full set, but the two Delirious Nomad songs on it, Nervous Man and Long Before I Die really come alive as compared to the tame studio versions.

Oh...and Book Of Blood!!!!

[Tomislav95]

Just to update on a few:
APSOG III (9)
Heard it live, great atmosphere. Even though it's pretty simple I absolutely love every second of it.

Firefly (7)
Song that got me back into (newer) FW. Again, got into it because of live show supporting that album. Love the emotion it brings, Ray is awesome here. Listen to acoustic version on Youtube if you didn't.

The Destination Onward (16)
Most memorable song on the latest albums for me. It is one of the peaks of modern FW. Love the buildup.

48 Silent Cries
35 Face the Fear
30 The Road Goes on Forever
27 Down to the Wire
25 White Flag
20 Don’t Follow Me
16 The Destination Onward
9 APSOG III (Rain Falling Hours Crawling)
7 Firefly

[WardySI]

The Destination Onward #26
Wow, a top5 vote fantastic Mr Gold
Love this one but admittedly it took me time to get past that long ass intro but fully appreciate it now and the song rocks.  A fantastic opener and like I said a couple pages back, LDGN is the album that surprised me the most on return listens for this countdown, and The Destination Onward was on of the true standouts once it kicks in after the 3min mark and Ray comes in is just brilliant!

Left Here NR
Really taken by the love for this one. I did include another FWX song but thinking it may well be the album we've seen the last of anyway clearly wasn't this one   May just be me but do think Left Here sounds more APSOG than what would expect of a followup to Disconnected, but yes can appreciate the love for it great song.

The Road Goes On Forever #45
A damn fine song!

[Mister Gold]

Still in shock from the Dodgers epic collapse yesterday….


38 The Destination Onward (Long Day Good Night – 2)

Appeared on 12 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 2
Highest Ranking: 5 (Mister Gold)

Today is my day for “I didn’t rank either of these songs.”  I’m still working on finding things to like on LDGN.  It hasn’t happened yet.  The beginning of this song sounds like something from Disconnected or FWX, which is NOT a good thing in my book.  It takes almost as long as Octavarium for something interesting to happen.  The rest of the song isn’t bad, but it wasn’t enough to grab me.  Maybe next year.


37 Left Here (FWX – 2)

Appeared on 13 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 0
Highest Ranking: 13 (jammindude, wolfking)

I didn’t rank this song.  It’s ok.  I like the chorus melody, but the wordplay kind of annoys me.

My apologies for having been quiet on my votes up to now, but I definitely feel like I need to bring up my ranking for The Destination Onward and why the song made it all the way into my Top 5. While I certainly don't dislike the latest album from FW, I've been surprised by how rarely I revisit it... safe for TDO. That song has gotten frequent and regular rotation from me whenever I go on a Fates Warning binge every few weeks.

There's just something about the song. The lyrics are some of the finest Ray's ever written and his vocal melodies in the song- especially that chorus- are utterly sublime.

Also, as a tease for everyone: The remainder of my Top 5 consists of one other song from the 2010's, two songs from the 1980's and one song from the 1990's. Also, my Number 6 was another song from the 2010's era.

[Awaken]

I've missed a whole bunch of this, just catching up.  So far I've had a few from my list close to the final rank and a whole bunch that missed my list completely. 

The Destination Onward:
My highest ranked song from LDGN at #30, love the build up - love the chorus call/response - Ray sounds great on this one.

Left Here:
Not my highest ranked song from FWX, but it did come in at 16.  Loved this song from the first spin and that hasn't waned one bit with time.  Great FW tune!!  If it wasn't for the connection I have with another song, this would have been the highest on FWX for me.

Did not rate:
Face the Fear
Don't Follow Me
Exodus
Chasing Time
APSOG III
White Flag
Firefly
The Road Goes on Forever

[Samsara]

AS is a band I completely skipped over back in the day.  What's a good starting point (if not the beginning)?

Symbol of Salvation gets my vote. GREAT record.

[Samsara]

Still in shock from the Dodgers epic collapse yesterday….


38 The Destination Onward (Long Day Good Night – 2)

Appeared on 12 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 2
Highest Ranking: 5 (Mister Gold)

Today is my day for “I didn’t rank either of these songs.”  I’m still working on finding things to like on LDGN.  It hasn’t happened yet.  The beginning of this song sounds like something from Disconnected or FWX, which is NOT a good thing in my book.  It takes almost as long as Octavarium for something interesting to happen.  The rest of the song isn’t bad, but it wasn’t enough to grab me.  Maybe next year.


37 Left Here (FWX – 2)

Appeared on 13 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 0
Highest Ranking: 13 (jammindude, wolfking)

I didn’t rank this song.  It’s ok.  I like the chorus melody, but the wordplay kind of annoys me.

APSOG IV - unranked for me. Not much to say.

Firefly - came in at #20 on my list. LOVE this song. I by far prefer the long version. IIRC, Jim said the label wanted a single, so they agreed to hack off the end section. I think that was a mistake.

The Destination Onward - had this at #31. It could climb higher for sure, but I didn't spend enough time with it. It is my favorite off of LDGN. I just think the album suffers from not having a tour and listening to it be performed live. Plus LDGN was released and then just...nothing, because of the pandemic. Really hurt the ranking of those songs for me.

Left Here - I had this at #30. Love this tune. Great opening track in an odd way. It's midtempo, but works because of the moody and angry feel that Ray delivers. I will say it again, FWX is criminally underrated.

The Road Goes on Forever - #36 for me. Great end to Parallels.

[romdrums]

Catching up:

40. APSOG IV (NR).  Just missed the cut at #52 for me. Another song that works best as part of the whole for me.  Mark does some really cool drumming on this.

39. Firefly (NR).  If I were to redo my list, this would make the cut over some of the other DIADL songs that made my list.  I really like the extended version, as well. 

38. The Destination Onward (50).  Just made the cut.  Once it gets going, this is a great song.

37. Left Here (NR). Left off my list.

36. The Road Goes On Forever (NR).  Great closer for Parallels, but I'm not a huge fan of the electronic drum sounds Mark uses on the verses.  Adds an unnecessary layer of cheese, IMHO. 

[pg1067]

A quick housekeeping note:  I likely will not be doing any reveals tomorrow.  I'm getting on a plane at 6 a.m. Pacific time and will be driving for about four hours after I land.  However, I now have a bunch of Armored Saint to listen to on the plane, so thanks for that!

Moving on...


35 Something from Nothing (Disconnected – 1)

Appeared on 9 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 3
Highest Ranking: 4 (Lethean, jammindude)

The first appearance of a song from Disconnected.  I didn’t rank this song, and this album was a big disappointment on the heels of APSOG.  They played a few songs when I saw them on the DIADL tour, so one song actually made my list and another came close.  But this wasn’t either of those songs.  There's the makings of a decent song here, but you'd have to peel back to much other stuff to get to it.  Obviously, three very high rankings made up for the fact that it made fewer than half of the lists.


34 The Strand (Inside Out – 3)

Appeared on 12 of 19  entries
Top 10 finishes: 1
Highest Ranking: 9 (Zoom E)

This is the first big surprise for me among songs that made the top 50.  I believe this was Frank Aresti's last writing contribution to Fates until one small contribution on DIADL.  This song is fine.  The chorus is nice, but I generally consider it the weak link in the first half of Inside Out.  I didn't figure it would fare well, but it kept turning up on more and more lists, with 6 of the 12 lists that included it having it in the top half.

[Samsara]

Safe travels P!

Something From Nothing - unranked for me. Not a bad song, but just didn't crack my top 50.

The Strand - #40 on my list. Good song, Aresti has such a distinct writing style. I like it.

[jammindude]

I want to point out that I am tied with Lethean because I ranked SFN at #4 as well. I will comment later, as I am at work now.