Fates Warning
Disconnected

Release Date: 2000 | Tracklist

“Disconnected” is the ninth studio album of Fates Warning and was released in 2000. The line up on the album is Ray Alder, Jim Matheos, Kevin Moore, Joey Vera and Mark Zonder.


Fates Warning was founded in 1983 and is seen by many as the band that started the progressive metal genre. They’re one of the quietest progressive metal bands around. They have a good strong following of fans, but they aren’t very well known and popular by listeners of mainstream metal, like Dream Theater. Fates Warning is a true progressive metal band that values the music first. These guys are into making solid songs and albums, effectively using their individual talents without however, showing off in the process. This is really a very special and unique progressive metal band.

Fates Warning has made a habit to change their sound between albums, and very few of their albums sound alike, although they all sound unmistakably like Fates Warning. “A Pleasant Shade Of Gray” was yet another intriguing new stylistic change and an almost hour long conceptual album to boot. Not surprisingly though “Disconnected” sees Fates Warning change direction again, although the shift isn’t as dramatic as it was between the last two albums.

Like its predecessor, “Disconnected” is a conceptual piece. It’s not some head-trip, just another album about life and society, so most should be able to relate to it. What is interesting is that the band refrains some of the material on the album, almost as if it were once cycle that begins and ends in largely the same, dull pallor. This is manifested by the two parts of “Disconnected”. The album’s theme is about being disconnected from people and society and so the feeling of being lonely and abandoned runs throughout the entire album. Therefore you shouldn’t expect a lot of joy and happiness, either lyrically or musically, when you are listening to the album. There’s a lot of atmosphere on this album as well as heaviness. It’s amazing music that can be described as intelligent and where each note is where it belongs.

As far as music is concerned Fates Warning writes progressive rock songs full of melodies, emotion, attitude and groove on this album. Interestingly, “Disconnected” has its share of heavy moments, which of course are always welcome, in a band like this. The music of “Disconnected” is truly progressive in nature as it connects with the listener well. The mood effectively changes from one song to the next. “One” and “Pieces Of Me” are the up-tempo tunes of the album, thus being in a way the two potential hits. “So”, “Something For Nothing” and “Still Remains”, are much closer to the standards set by the progressive metal genre both in feel and length. Personally, I find both, lengthy and shorter songs, to work well together, allowing “Disconnected” to have a wonderful flow, when listened from beginning to end.

“Disconnected” contains some of the lengthiest and most complex tracks Matheos has ever penned. As always, his compositions are intelligent and the band behind him is equally competent. It’s quite hard to describe each piece on the album individually but it seems “Disconnected” made a unified statement with lyric heavy songs and emotionally charged instrumentation. Vocalist Alder again proves to be a key element in the unique sound of the band. The band’s solid rhythm section, consisting of Zonder and Vera, invests a different level of credibility to the song craft of Matheos and the trio successfully create the musical tapestry surrounding Alder’s vocals. Zonder’s odd-metered drumming once again relying heavily on intricate cymbal work is further developed by Vera’s throbbing bass lines. Matheos seems to experiment with Fripp’s influence adding more riff-based textures to his songwriting. He doesn’t play any extended guitar solos, but his work is dense and blends nicely with other instruments. Again, Moore plays keyboards, as well as piano and computer synthesizers, and his atmospheric touch creeps into each track and gradually blankets them adding a blurry grey colour. I always was a great fan of his amazing keyboard work and again he shines with this band.


Conclusion: “Disconnected” has excellent compositions and where “Something From Nothing” and “Still Remains” are the absolute highlights. There’s a sad note to most of the songs, but never to the point of becoming depressive. Production and sound quality sometimes have a bit of a mechanical quality to them, but I think this is in keeping with the line of the album and thus is probably intentional. I can admit “Disconnected” is a hard album to get into, but it’s dangerously perfect and contains millions of variations and textures as major ingredients which other bands could only dream of let alone incorporate in their own songs. This album blends all the elements that I love about progressive rock music. Obviously, this is a band very concerned with songwriting and arrangement unlike so many of today’s prog metal bands, who take guitar riffs, double bass, drums, speed and so-called complexity as starting points and worry about the quality and originality of their songwriting, only later. Overall, it still remains a truly impressive album for me.


Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)

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4 excellent

Rank: #0 for 2000