Search - Fates Warning :: Still Life

Where's Fates Warning's management? :-(

I. MUNOZ | Montreal, PQ, Canada | 09/09/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

""Still Life", although well-produced, well-engineered and well-played in general, is a total failure from a marketing's point of view. Yes, I am a huge fan of Fates Warning (FW), but I do have several serious complains about this album. I would like to ask the following questions to the band's management:1- Why repeating the entire "A Pleasant Shade of Gray" album in CD1? Is this supposed to be somehow interesting? To whom? I understand that it demonstrates what the band can do live but? is it marketable -- even for fans? IMHO, that's aiming to the wrong target once more -- if you can say that there's "a target".2- Why so many cries from the crowd on the record? To fake a popularity they don't actually have? It's ridiculous!3- Why did you include precisely *that* "Monument" track in which Ray Alder sang so badly in CD2? How come the producers let that version of the song (so poorly sung) go into the final release? I saw Ray Alder singing "Monument" in Montreal millions times better than in "Still Life". I could see that he can do it so, it had to exist a better live version for the album. What happened, guys?4- Why a so colorless cover? Why is it so lacking of attractiveness? Does management has anything against FW? Who approved that cover? I own all FW albums in spite of their (in general) boring covers, but... is someone expecting that people will be hooked by their ugly covers, if they don't know them?I see FW so poorly managed and marketed that I can feel no less than rage and pain. FW, being a brilliant progressive metal band (one of the best, one of the roots, indeed!), is reduced to nothing: always pale, in a second plane, low-profile-alike, opaque, almost underground in spite of their greatness... I understand that their music is not for everybody, but someone have to make them more visible to their potential consumers (for example, to the same crowd that consumes Queensryche and Dream Theater, which finally are far more successful bands than FW -- and don't tell me that their 2003 tour with those two monsters made Fates Warning justice! I would just call to that "palliative therapy"!).In few words, "Still Life" is just worth for fans (so, for us maybe it'd be four or five stars, but for the rest of the world, just two -- sorry). Sincerely, I think that FW missed this time a good opportunity to come with the best pieces of their entire career in a live album. IMHO, just another pitfall from their faulty management, that's sadly always missing good opportunities for FW. You, guys in FW, you rock! You, FW's managers, you stink!"

Excellent

aiylyn | Washington, Mi United States | 09/07/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This might be the best-sounding live album I've ever heard. I always say that you can't truly "get" a band until you take in their live show. All kinds of tricks and cleanups can be done in the studio, but the bands who take everything to the stage and pull it off flawlessly, making it sound effortless, are the ones who stand above the rest. These two discs have me constantly in awe of the sheer technical skill and musical taste that they put on display. It might be better than the average studio release. More people should own this. You should own this."