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

[pg1067]

Similar to the several prior countdowns done by KevShmev, we will now do a top songs countdown for Fates Warning.  We will do a top 50.  I am not reinventing the wheel, so this is straight out of Kev’s playbook, and I owe him a huge THANK YOU for giving his blessing for me to do this!

I will count down the top 50 songs in order, and they will be taken from lists of anyone who wants to send me theirs via PM.  Do not post them on the forum here.  Send them to me via PM.  I will take all of the lists and come up with a top 50 based off all lists cumulatively and count the songs down from 50 to 1.

The rules:
-Songs must be listed from 50 to 1 in order (in reverse order), with no ties.  No having three songs at number 1 or anything like that.  50 songs, listed from 50 to 1.  DO NOT list your songs with the points total.  List them in your order (I will figure out the points on my end).  Any list submitted with the songs not numbered will be ignored.

-For the different tracks on A Pleasant Shade of Gray, I have included made-up titles along with “APSOG I,” “APSOG VIII,” etc.  When you submit your lists, PLEASE make sure to include “APSOG” and the Roman numeral track number.  Including my made-up titles is optional, but PLEASE do not submit only the title, and do not use your own made-up titles.

-The following are single entities for purposes of this countdown:  (1) At Fates Hands/At Fates Fingers; (2) Shelter Me/Circles; (3) Disconnected Part 1 & Part 2) and (4) Falling/Falling Further.  DO NOT submit a list that, for example, includes both Shelter Me and Circles.

-Anyone wanting to submit a list must do so by the end of day, Saturday, October 8th.  I will then begin the countdown the following week.  This should give anyone and everyone time to listen to the band’s songs.  Note that there may be a pause while I’m out of town between October 18-24.

-The list will be tallied numerically in a simple way.  On each list, whatever song is at number 1 gets 50 points, number 2 gets 49 points, number 3 gets 48 points, etc.

-I am adopting Kev’s No More Mr. Nice Guy rule.  PROOFREAD YOUR LISTS BEFORE SENDING THEM.  Any list with the same song mentioned twice or which otherwise doesn’t comply with these rules may not be counted!

Feel free to post in this thread as well that you have PM’d me, if for no other reason than to bump this back up for others who may want to participate who may not have seen the thread yet.

This ranking engine link below works great. You can input all of the songs, and then you pick your favorite of every 1 on 1 matchup and then it spits out your list.

https://rankingengine.pubmeeple.com/

Please use the below list of songs, no others.  Listing anything else will invalidate your list from being used.

Buried Alive
The Calling
Kiss of Death
Night on Brocken
S.E.K.
Misfit
Shadowfax
Damnation
Soldier Boy
Traveler in Time
Orphan Gypsy
Without a Trace
Pirates of the Underground
The Apparition
Kyrie Eleison
Epitaph
The Sorceress
Valley of the Dolls
Fata Morgana
Guardian
Prelude to Ruin
Giant’s Lore (Heart of Winter)
Time Long Past
Exodus
No Exit
Anarchy Divine
Silent Cries
In a Word
Shades of Heavenly Death
The Ivory Gate of Dreams
Part of the Machine
Through Different Eyes
Static Acts
A World Apart
At Fates Hands/At Fates Fingers
The Arena
Chasing Time
Nothing Left to Say
Leave the Past Behind
Life in Still Water
Eye to Eye
The Eleventh Hour
Point of View
We Only Say Goodbye
Don’t Follow Me
The Road Goes on Forever
Outside Looking In
Pale Fire
The Strand
Shelter Me/Circles
Island in the Stream
Down to the Wire
Face the Fear
Inward Bound
Monument
Afterglow
APSOG I (So Where Do We Begin)
APSOG II (Drifting in and Out)
APSOG III (Rain Falling Hours Crawling)
APSOG IV (Listen)
APSOG V (Murdered in Munich/Let Nothing Bleed into Nothing)
APSOG VI (Turn Back All the Years)
APSOG VII (Stare from the Darkness/Let Nothing Bleed into Nothing Reprise)
APSOG VIII (Instrumental)
APSOG IX (Stayed up Late Last Night)
APSOG X/XI (Instrumental/Do You Think That I Remember)
APSOG XII (This Pleasant Shade of Gray)
Disconnected Part 1 & Part 2
One
So
Pieces of Me
Something from Nothing
Still Remains
Left Here
Simple Human
River Wide Ocean Deep
Another Perfect Day
Heal Me
Sequence #7
Crawl
A Handful of Doubt
Stranger (With a Familiar Face)
Wish
One Thousand Fires
Firefly
Desire
Falling/Falling Further
I Am
Lighthouse
Into the Black
Kneel and Obey
O Chloroform
And Yet It Moves
From the Rooftops
Seven Stars
SOS
The Light and Shade of Things
White Flag
Like Stars Our Eyes Have Seen
The Ghosts of Home
Theories of Flight
The Destination Onward
Shuttered World
Alone We Walk
Now Comes the Rain
The Way Home
Under the Sun
Scars
Begin Again
When Snow Falls
Liar
Glass Houses
The Longest Shadow of the Day
The Last Song

[wolfking]

 

Cheers for running this pg!

[TAC]

Similar to the several prior countdowns done by KevShmev, we will now do a top songs countdown for Fates Warning.  We will do a top 50.  I am not reinventing the wheel, so this is straight out of Kev’s playbook, and I owe him a huge THANK YOU for giving his blessing for me to do this!



-The list will be tallied numerically in a simple way.  On each list, whatever song is at number 1 gets 40 points, number 2 gets 39 points, number 3 gets 38 points, etc.

Do you mean 50 points? If not my 41-50 won't get any points?

[pg1067]

Similar to the several prior countdowns done by KevShmev, we will now do a top songs countdown for Fates Warning.  We will do a top 50.  I am not reinventing the wheel, so this is straight out of Kev’s playbook, and I owe him a huge THANK YOU for giving his blessing for me to do this!



-The list will be tallied numerically in a simple way.  On each list, whatever song is at number 1 gets 40 points, number 2 gets 39 points, number 3 gets 38 points, etc.

Do you mean 50 points? If not my 41-50 won't get any points?

Damnit...I knew I was going to miss one!  Yes.  #1 gets 50 points; #50 gets 1 point.  Thanks.

[nick_z]

Fantastic! Thanks, pg, this will be fun 

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Thanks for doing this PG, I'll be submitting a list by the end of the month.

[Tomislav95]

I'll try to participate in this. I love some FW albums but didn't listen to some in a very long time. Will remedy that starting now

[T-ski]

Definitely will follow, but I don’t know much of the Arch era stuff to participate.

[Samsara]

Shit. Looking at the Arch songs...I'm not as familiar as I thought I was. I'll have to listen to those records a bit before compiling a list.

[Lethean]

I may listen to the Arch album again, but even if I do, my list is going to be all Ray.

[pg1067]

Definitely will follow, but I don’t know much of the Arch era stuff to participate.

It's only three albums - 137:43 of music - plenty of time to give each a couple spins and play (and even if you don't pick any of the tracks for your top 50, you can still play).


With that said, I started with my list on the ranker yesterday.  I didn't include EVERY song, but this has been the hardest one yet.  Nearly every match up has me pausing and saying...hmmm.  So many great songs!

[Dublagent66]

Like I said in the QR countdown, my list will only contain songs from certain albums.  In this countdown, the Arch albums won't make my top 50 anyway.  Hope that's not a problem.

[Samsara]

Yeah, there really isn't one Arch thing I like that would surpass a top-50 Alder Fates list. So it won't matter.

[TAC]

Wow!

[romdrums]

In.  I’ll get working on my list.

[pg1067]

Like I said in the QR countdown, my list will only contain songs from certain albums.  In this countdown, the Arch albums won't make my top 50 anyway.  Hope that's not a problem.

No more of a problem when I only considered two post-Empire songs for my QR list (i.e., no problem at all).

BTW, I'm expecting about a half dozen Arch-era songs in my top 50, but we'll see.

And I'm really looking forward to seeing the raw lists.

[Dublagent66]

Thank you.  Wow, this is gonna be a doozy.  Glad we still have 2 weeks to submit the list. 

[wolfking]

Yeah, there really isn't one Arch thing I like that would surpass a top-50 Alder Fates list. So it won't matter.

Hmm....I'm a Ray guy by far over Arch, but my list won't fall this way.

[TAC]

To break the Arch ice, aren't there a number of live recordings with Ray sings Arch songs?

Also, if one thinks the Arch albums sound dated, the semi recent Awaken The Guardian Live release is worth a listen.

[wolfking]

To break the Arch ice, aren't there a number of live recordings with Ray sings Arch songs?

Also, if one thinks the Arch albums sound dated, the semi recent Awaken The Guardian Live release is worth a listen.

Yeah, that was a nice pickup.  I'll probably have that in the car today.

[Grappler]

Yeah, there really isn't one Arch thing I like that would surpass a top-50 Alder Fates list. So it won't matter.

Not even Guardian?   That song took on a whole new meaning for me after reading the book.  Heavy yet beautiful at the same time.

[TAC]

Or Damnation?
Kyrie Eleison?
Epitaph?
Exodus?


There are sme great tunes on those albums.

[wolfking]

Apparition is close to my fav Arch song.

[TAC]

To break the Arch ice, aren't there a number of live recordings with Ray sings Arch songs?

Also, if one thinks the Arch albums sound dated, the semi recent Awaken The Guardian Live release is worth a listen.

Yeah, that was a nice pickup.  I'll probably have that in the car today.

I'm listening now! This is a great album. Two live performances and the band is on fire! John Arch doesn't quite have the range he did in the 80's, but I think that actually helps the tracks.

Anyone hesitant on the Arch Era needs to pull this up on Spotify and give it a listen.

[nick_z]

Revisited Awaken the Guardian (the studio album) today, after a long time...

...while I can't say it's among my favorites in FW discography, it's undeniable it has an incredible charm. Very, very unique. A big part of this is Arch voice, of course, but the songs themselves, the sound, the riffs...it's great stuff.

Love Guardian, Prelude to Ruin and Exodus, but I forgot how good Valley of the Dolls is too...

[TAC]

The album is a masterpiece. Remember, this was released in 1986. Thank about that.

[wolfking]

To break the Arch ice, aren't there a number of live recordings with Ray sings Arch songs?

Also, if one thinks the Arch albums sound dated, the semi recent Awaken The Guardian Live release is worth a listen.

Yeah, that was a nice pickup.  I'll probably have that in the car today.

I'm listening now! This is a great album. Two live performances and the band is on fire! John Arch doesn't quite have the range he did in the 80's, but I think that actually helps the tracks.

Anyone hesitant on the Arch Era needs to pull this up on Spotify and give it a listen.

Wait a second.....I don't think I have this, I just pulled out the remaster thinking that is what you were talking about.  This has the album, a cd of demos and a live DVD.  Maybe I completely missed the live one....

[WardySI]

Apparition is close to my fav Arch song.

It is mine of the Fates stuff 😁

That said I'm not as big on the Arch era but let's just say if we were including all side projects Arch Matheos would be another thing \m/

[Zoom E]

I listened to Night on Brocken earlier. it’s the only FW album I don’t own, so I had never heard NOB before. I don’t think any Arch-era tunes will make my list either.

I’m currently listening to No Exit, which was my first FW album in 1988, and is still my favourite.

[wolfking]

To break the Arch ice, aren't there a number of live recordings with Ray sings Arch songs?

Also, if one thinks the Arch albums sound dated, the semi recent Awaken The Guardian Live release is worth a listen.

Yeah, that was a nice pickup.  I'll probably have that in the car today.

I'm listening now! This is a great album. Two live performances and the band is on fire! John Arch doesn't quite have the range he did in the 80's, but I think that actually helps the tracks.

Anyone hesitant on the Arch Era needs to pull this up on Spotify and give it a listen.

Wait a second.....I don't think I have this, I just pulled out the remaster thinking that is what you were talking about.  This has the album, a cd of demos and a live DVD.  Maybe I completely missed the live one....

Wait, false alarm...I found it. 

[jammindude]

Haven’t even started my list yet, but I’m thinking my top 50 would have to include

Damnation
Traveler in Time
Pirates of the Underground
Apparition
Epitaph
Valley of the Dolls
Guardian
Prelude to Ruin
Giant’s Lore

….at the very least. If these aren’t anywhere on my first try, I’d probably have a do over.

[TAC]

Haven’t even started my list yet, but I’m thinking my top 50 would have to include

Damnation
Traveler in Time
Pirates of the Underground
Apparition
Epitaph
Valley of the Dolls
Guardian
Prelude to Ruin
Giant’s Lore

….at the very least. If these aren’t anywhere on my first try, I’d probably have a do over.

All made my nomination list, and because I had trouble nominating 50 songs, all will make my list.

[Lethean]

I will not have any trouble finding 50 Ray songs.... it's just going to be putting them in order that will be torturous. 

[WardySI]

Haven’t even started my list yet, but I’m thinking my top 50 would have to include

Damnation
Traveler in Time
Pirates of the Underground
Apparition
Epitaph
Valley of the Dolls
Guardian
Prelude to Ruin
Giant’s Lore

….at the very least. If these aren’t anywhere on my first try, I’d probably have a do over.

But no Buried Alive?🤔

[Tomislav95]

Not a big fan of Arch era but I already know at least two songs will be in my Top 50