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

[romdrums]

8. Leave the Past Behind (4).  Parallels was my first FW purchase back in 1992.  I had seen the video for Point of View on Headbangers Ball one night, and I had read about Mark Zonder in a drum magazine from around that time, so when I saw the video, I knew I had to get the record.  This song might just be my favorite album opener of all time.  I love the moody intro, and the build into the first verse is near perfection.  Zonder's drumming is fantastic throughout.  His linear drumming style at the time was really uncommon in metal drumming.  He was taking a lot from guys like Dave Weckl and Vinnie Colaiuta and applying those types of concepts to a Neil Peart like approach to building his drum parts and making "songs within songs" as he said in a later Modern Drummer interview.  And doing it all with traditional grip?  Fucking baller!  This song is such a great example of his overall drumming approach.  Frank and Jim do an outstanding job of orchestrating their guitar parts on this song as well.  In fact, they stand out throughout Parallels, as I think this is the best example of their complimentary styles.  They instantly became my second favorite guitar duo behind DeGarmo and Wilton.  I think this is some of their best work, honestly.

[Samsara]

re: Zonder

It's funny. When I was younger, I never paid a lot of attention to the drums. As I got older, I realized just how incredible some of drummers from my favorite bands really were. Rockenfield, Zonder, etc. Zonder's playing was absolutely perfect for his era of Fates Warning. I miss it. SO much nuance and complexity that sounds simple but isn't. Great groove too.

Not being a drummer, I'm sure I'm not doing him justice. But count me as someone who holds Zonder's work, in particular on Parallels, in incredibly high regard. Listening to the album now, as a matter of fact...

[TAC]

Yeah, he is amazing. I really like him on Inside Out. His playing is so musical.

[Dublagent66]

8 Leave the Past Behind (Parallels – 5)

Appeared on 16 of 19 entries
Top 10 finishes: 5
Highest Ranking: 2 (devieira73)

This song just missed my top 10 at #11.  My top 10 mostly consists of songs from Parallels and APSOG.

[jammindude]

Nothing Left to Say was #10 for me. Just a brilliant climax to a near perfect album. Ending the song on the a cappella “…a prison” is just chilling.

Leave the Past Behind made #71 on my first list and wasn’t included on my 2nd and 3rd. Although I admit that seems a bit low now. There was a time when I was breaking away from a very dead end lifestyle when this became a bit of an anthem for me, so I feel bad now for not getting it up a bit higher.

[pg1067]

By the way, since someone asked about this, here's what y'all know so far:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.   Leave the Past Behind
9.   Nothing Left to Say
10.   The Ghosts of Home

11.   From the Rooftops
12.   One
13.   Through Different Eyes
14T.   APSOG VI
14T.   Guardian
16.   APSOG XII
17.   At Fates Hands/Fingers
18.   Eye to Eye
19.   Seven Stars
20.   And Yet It Moves

21T.   APSOG VII
21T.   Pale Fire
23.   Wish
24.   Part of the Machine
25.   APSOG IX
26.   Outside Looking In
27.   APSOG V
28.   APSOG X/XI
29.   Shelter Me/Circles
30.   Island in the Stream

31.   Another Perfect Day
32.   The Apparition
33.   We Only Say Goodbye
34.   The Strand
35.   Something from Nothing
36.   The Road Goes on Forever
37.   Left Here
38.   The Destination Onward
39.   Firefly
40.   APSOG IV

41.   Silent Cries
42.   White Flag
43.   APSOG III
44.   Chasing Time
45T.   The Longest Shadow of the Day
45T.   Down to the Wire
47T.   Handful of Doubt
47T.   APSOG VIII
49T.   Face the Fear
49T.   Don’t Follow Me
49T.   Exodus

xxxxx

52.
53.
54.   Static Acts
55.
56.   Epitaph
57.   Traveler in Time
58.
59.
60.

61.
62.   Prelude to Ruin
63.   Giant’s Lore (Heart of Winter)
64.
65.
66.
67T.
67T..
69.
70T.
70T.   Damnation

72.
73.   Valley of the Dolls
74.   Fata Morgana
75.
76.
77.
78.
79.
80.

81.
82.   Kyrie Eleison
83.   Pirates of the Underground
84.   The Sorceress
85T.
85T.   Buried Alive
87T.
87T.
87T.
90.   Orphan Gypsy

91.
92.
93.   Kiss of Death
94.
95.
96.
97.   Night on Brocken
98.
99.   Without a Trace
100.

101.   Shadowfax
102.
103.
104.   Misfit
105.
106T. The Calling
106T. S.E.K.
106T. Soldier Boy
106T. Time Long Past
106T. No Exit
106T. Inward Bound
106T. Sequence #7
106T. Desire
106T. Liar

[Zoom E]

I have Leave the Past Behind at #32. Surprised this was a top 10 finisher.

[The Realm]

8 Leave the Past Behind (Parallels – 5)

Appeared on 16 of 19 entries
Top 10 finishes: 5
Highest Ranking: 2 (devieira73)

Leave The Past Behind - number 11 on my list. A really great track on a great album.

[Glasser]

Am I just not seeing it or did Still Remains not rank.... Yet?

**** listening to live over europe. Ray sounds good but in Silent Cries during "Time blindly races on....!!" I was hoping he could have reached back and sang it high like the old days! He still sounds good, love his tone!

[Lethean]

I hope you're right about the "yet" Glasser

[jammindude]

Am I just not seeing it or did Still Remains not rank.... Yet?

**** listening to live over europe. Ray sounds good but in Silent Cries during "Time blindly races on....!!" I was hoping he could have reached back and sang it high like the old days! He still sounds good, love his tone!

Quit being paranoid.  Don’t get ahead of things. We all know there are a least a couple of songs that are certain to be top five. It’s just considered bad form to start mentioning them out loud too early.

We’ll get there in good time.

[TAC]

Am I just not seeing it or did Still Remains not rank.... Yet?

Nope. It still remains.

[devieira73]

The first FW's song that I heard and immediately made quite an impression! I still love when FW hits that perfect spot between acessibility, heaviness and prog, like here. All its parts are perfectly written and so inspired and the drumming alone was something totally different from my musical knowledge at the time. And Mark is still amazing and very unique! His drumming is plenty of details and complexity, but still has plenty of room for the music to breathe.

[Glasser]

Here are my favorite FW albums:
Ray:
1) No Exit
2) APSOG
3) Parallels
4) Perfect Symmetry
5) Inside Out
6) Disconnected

Arch:
1) ATG
2) Spectre...
3) NoB

[WardySI]

NR for me and not sure why wonderful opener to my favourite Fates but no real reason for it expect it would've been damn close also surprised to see this one so high nice one \m/

[wolfking]

Ranked at number 5 for me.  Just easily one of their best songs. 

In relation to the solo too, the whole thing is Frank.

[wolfking]

NR for me and not sure why wonderful opener to my favourite Fates but no real reason for it expect it would've been damn close also surprised to see this one so high nice one \m/

Did you forget punctuation existed mate? 

[pg1067]

7 Point of View (Parallels – 6)



Appeared on 17 of 19 entries
Top 10 finishes: 5
Highest Ranking: 3 (Dublagent66)

Well…I was surprised yesterday, but having Point of View rank this high is truly a shock to me.  I liked the song just fine, but I’m one of the two who didn’t have it in the top 50.  That being said, it’s one of the few songs whose lyrics had a significant impact on my life.

[The Realm]

7 Point of View (Parallels – 6)


Appeared on 17 of 19 entries
Top 10 finishes: 5
Highest Ranking: 3 (Dublagent66)

Point of View - number 7 for me so nailed it! Love this song. This was one of my picks to be on all 19 lists so I obviously failed with that choice.

[jammindude]

Ya…this is a good song, but it’s not top 10 good. That makes two songs from the top 10 that go unranked by me.

Starting to become a pretty shocking list.

[TAC]

7 Point of View (Parallels – 6)

Appeared on 17 of 19 entries
Top 10 finishes: 5
Highest Ranking: 3 (Dublagent66)

I had Point Of View at #27. It's an excellent song but #6?? Wow!


50  Prelude To Ruin                                          NR
49  Damnation                                                            Handful Of Doubt
48  APSOG IX (Stayed Up Late One Night)                     Chasing Time
47  Through Different Eyes                                           APSOG III
46  APSOG VIII (Instrumental)                                     White Flag
45  Leave The Past Behind                                            APSOG IV
44  Traveller In Time                                                    Firefly
43                                                                              The Destination Onward
42  Pale Fire                                                                Left Here
41                                                                              The Road Goes On Forever
40  Outside Looking In                                                 Island In The Stream
39  The Longest Shadow Of The Day                             APSOG V (Murder In Munich)
38  Face The Fear                                                        Part Of The Machine
37                                                                              Wish
36  Another Perfect Day                                               APSOG VII
35  The Apparition                                                       Seven Stars
34                                                                              Eye To Eye
33  Buried Alive                                                           At Fates Hands
32  Silent Cries                                                            APSOG XII
31  Don't Follow Me                                                     From The Rooftops
30  Giant's Lore
29
28
27  Point Of View
26
25  Valley Of The Dolls
24  And Yet It Moves
23
22  APSOG XI (Do You Think That I)
21  One
20  Pirates Of The Underground
19  The Ghosts Of Home
18
17  Exodus
16  Epitaph
15
14
13  The Strand
12
11  APSOG VI (Turn Back All The Years)
10  Shelter Me
9  Guardian
8  Kyrie Eleison
7
6  Down To The Wire
5
4  Something For Nothing
3  We Only Say Goodbye
2  Nothing Left To Say
1

[devieira73]

Love Point of View, super catchy and it has a rare infinite replay value, but it was "just" #12 for me.

[wolfking]

Number 30 for me.  Great song but number 6!?  Wow.

[Lethean]

#34 for me.  I'm with Wolfking on this one.

[pg1067]

I had Point Of View at #27. It's an excellent song but #6?? Wow!

Number 30 for me.  Great song but number 6!?  Wow.

It's the 6th song from Parallels to make the countdown, but it's song #7, not #6.

[TAC]

Oh, well that explains why I couldn't believe it was #6!

[WardySI]

NR for me and not sure why wonderful opener to my favourite Fates but no real reason for it expect it would've been damn close also surprised to see this one so high nice one \m/

Did you forget punctuation existed mate? 

In my 50's now mate, I forget a lot of things 

Point Of View #19
Excellent song. But I was surprised I had it that high let alone it making #7 overall 

[romdrums]

7. Point of View (3).  As I said in my post about Leave the Past Behind,  seeing the video for this song on Headbanger’s Ball one night was the reason I got into Fates Warning.  It was Queensryche with Neil Peart on drums and shreddier guitars, and I was ready for it.  Point of View will always be one of my favorite Fates tracks, and I’m stoked to see it in the top 10. 

[HOF]

I always had the impression that Point of View was kind of the FW equivalent of Pull Me Under (though I don't know that it had any real commercial success. More that it was one of the band's trademark songs).

[pg1067]

I always had the impression that Point of View was kind of the FW equivalent of Pull Me Under (though I don't know that it had any real commercial success. More that it was one of the band's trademark songs).

Fair comparison.  POV was two years earlier.  I don't remember ever hearing it on the radio, but the video got a bit of play on MTV (as did Eye to Eye).  Much like PMU, POV's video had little relevance to the song's subject matter.  If someone has a logical explanation why PMU hit big while songs like ETE and POV didn't, I'd love to hear it.

[pg1067]

6 The Ivory Gate of Dreams (No Exit – 2)



Appeared on 16 of 19 entries
Top 10 finishes: 9
Highest Ranking: 1 (pg1067, Dublagent66)

No surprise that THIS song is in the top 10 (although a bit of disappointment that it wasn't higher).  No Exit was the first Fates album I bought.  Knowing me, it's reasonably likely that, when I first played it, I started with TIGOD after seeing that it was a 20 minute long 8-part song.  This piece is just incredible.  It's 2112 on steroids.  The acoustic "Innocence" is a nice intro to Ray's incredible performance on "Cold Daze" and the pounding bass drum of "Daylight Dreamers."  The piece really hits its stride with the incredible harmony guitars of "Quietus," followed by the seemless time shifting of "Ivory Tower."  The whole band slows it down and Ray displays his range on "Whispers on the Wind."  The climax of "Acquiescence" features one of my favorite melodies ever, and we close it out with the bookend acoustic piece "Retrospect."  Just an incredible climax to he album that announced Ray Alder as a seriously heavyweight vocalist.

[Glasser]

The Ivory Gate of Dreams I hoped would be number 1. I guess I need to take my old school ass and just STFU.

[wolfking]

Didn't rank for me.  Could never take to it.  I always thought it was an incoherent mess with just random pieces stuck together.

[TAC]

6 The Ivory Gate of Dreams (No Exit – 2)


Appeared on 16 of 19 entries
Top 10 finishes: 9
Highest Ranking: 1 (pg1067, Dublagent66)

I had The Ivory Gate Of Dreams at #4.

No Exit was the first FW album I bought. I only bought it after I knew they changed their singer. Kerrang! had a floppy 45 of Anarchy Divine, which I thought was cool, so I bought the album. Ivory gate blew me away. Still love it..
I'm honestly shocked it's this high though. I had given up hope that we'd see it.


50  Prelude To Ruin                                          NR
49  Damnation                                                            Handful Of Doubt
48  APSOG IX (Stayed Up Late One Night)                     Chasing Time
47  Through Different Eyes                                           APSOG III
46  APSOG VIII (Instrumental)                                     White Flag
45  Leave The Past Behind                                            APSOG IV
44  Traveller In Time                                                    Firefly
43                                                                              The Destination Onward
42  Pale Fire                                                                Left Here
41                                                                              The Road Goes On Forever
40  Outside Looking In                                                 Island In The Stream
39  The Longest Shadow Of The Day                             APSOG V (Murder In Munich)
38  Face The Fear                                                        Part Of The Machine
37                                                                              Wish
36  Another Perfect Day                                               APSOG VII
35  The Apparition                                                       Seven Stars
34                                                                              Eye To Eye
33  Buried Alive                                                           At Fates Hands
32  Silent Cries                                                            APSOG XII
31  Don't Follow Me                                                     From The Rooftops
30  Giant's Lore
29
28
27  Point Of View
26
25  Valley Of The Dolls
24  And Yet It Moves
23
22  APSOG XI (Do You Think That I)
21  One
20  Pirates Of The Underground
19  The Ghosts Of Home
18
17  Exodus
16  Epitaph
15
14
13  The Strand
12
11  APSOG VI (Turn Back All The Years)
10  Shelter Me
9  Guardian
8  Kyrie Eleison
7
6  Down To The Wire
5  Something For Nothing
4  The Ivory Gate Of Dreams
3  We Only Say Goodbye
2  Nothing Left To Say
1

[The Realm]

6 The Ivory Gate of Dreams (No Exit – 2)

Appeared on 16 of 19 entries
Top 10 finishes: 9
Highest Ranking: 1 (pg1067, Dublagent66)

The Ivory Gate of Dreams - number 26 for me. Never been a favourite of mine but it is still great.