It was a cold and rainy Tuesday afternoon when I found this re-release in a local cd store. I had a ton of work to do that day when I got home... Still, I couldn't resist taking a quick listen to
Traveller in time just to see if the sound was that much better than the original, and of course I ended up listening to the whole album... :) Listening to this re-release has been a nice trip down memory lane and confirmed yet again what an amazing piece of music this album is.
I first got The Spectre Within back in 1992 along with Night on Bröcken. The Spectre Within caught my attention instantly. This was due to three reasons:
John Arch (Vocals), monster guitar riffs and a very special atmosphere.
John Arch was the singer on the first three
Fates Warning albums, Night on Bröcken, The Spectre Within and Awaken the Guardian. Through these three albums they developed their style dramatically and the songs got more and more complex and intricate. This album is sort of in between the style of power metal and progressive metal. It takes the best from both styles and and combines it into some brilliant music. In my opinion
Fates Warning have never made a bad album and it is a testament to their musical genius that not two of their albums sound alike.
The sound of howling winds and the ticking of a clock puts you in a kind of relaxed state of mind before a heavy guitar riff takes over.
Traveller in time is a mid tempo epic with many changes and interesting parts. Right from the start it's obvious that the guitar riffs play a big role on this album. Good thing then that they are all of high quality and have that excellent crunching sound to them.
Another thing you will notice at once is the voice of
John Arch, which brings another layer to the atmosphere. His way of singing is very distinctive. He gives the songs so many vocal melodies and the way he sings along with the other instruments is amazing. His way of singing makes it really difficult to understand the words of the songs without reading the lyrics though.
John Arch's voice was one of the things that made
Fates Warning a really special band to me back then, and I have yet to hear anything that sounds quite like him.
Orphan Gypsy starts out with a brilliant instrumental part that sets a perfect mood. What a great solo, nice bridge, and then the verse kicks in. A haunting and stressful riff plays through the verse and gives the song a great drive.
Without a trace is the fastest and simplest song on the album. The extremely cool riff that runs throughout the song gives it a great drive. Just listening to the guitar playing of this song makes it interesting. The song has a special atmosphere and lyrical content about criminals.
Pirates of underground starts out with another mood setting instrumental part. In fact this song has many excellent instrumental parts, but I miss something to tie the whole song together. It feels somewhat put together by many great pieces of music resulting in a song which doesn't stay in my mind very long. The lyrics are nicely weird and convoluted though.
The Apparition is my favourite song of the album and is, in itself, a masterpiece. In fact it is one of my favourite songs ever. The song is huge and the way it builds to it's fantastic climax is something to behold. With very simple means the band is able to create some truly dramatic, magical and beautiful music. I'm blown away every time I listen to this song. Even today the power it brings is incredible.
Steel Prophet made a good cover version on their album Dark hallucinations, but nothing will ever come close to the original version.
The chanting of a monk choir is broken by a slow heavy riff and
Kyrie Eleison is off. The song soon picks up speed and turns into another heavy monster. It was really cool to hear part of this song in the movie
"River's edge". Check that movie out if you are able to find it. Another excellent song.
The closer of the original album,
Epitaph is a 12 minute epic. Starting out slowly it builds to quite a song, even including a cool slow and epic part reminiscent of Damnation from Night on Bröcken. I do miss some kind of melodic link to hold the song together though. Be sure to check out the brilliant guitar solo.
One of the things that makes The Spectre Within so special is that it takes its time to develop and nothing feels rushed. Each song takes the time it needs to develop into a monster. The guitar creates a cool background for the music and the huge riffs are always there. I love being able to sit back and listen to the ever changing guitar parts. They provide the perfect background on all the songs.
If you've only listened to newer
Fates Warning albums with Ray Alder on vocals then you're probably going to find it pretty hard to get into the music on this album due to the "
John Arch way of singing", but with time it will grow on you, I'm sure.
The lyrics deal with death, criminals, the music business and other things. They are written in such a way that it takes several readthroughs to grasp what they are really about and still they have several meanings.
The production is not perfect, but doesn't destroy anything either, actually I find the production part of the charm. The production gives the album an instantly recogniseable sound which was developed even further on Awaken the Guardian. But generally I feel that the bass is too much hidden away beneath the rythm guitar. The sound on this re-release is a little better than the original, but no really extraordinary improvement.
The Spectre within was re-released in 2002 and this edition includes four bonus tracks.
First bonus track is a live version of
Radio underground. This is an early version of
Pirates of Underground with some different lyrics and arrangements recorded live. Unfortunately the sound quality is very bad and close to a C grade bootleg copy. Still, it's an interesting inclusion.
The second bonus tracks is a recording of
The Apparition during a rehearsal session. This is very interesting being my favourite song and all. The sound is very raw and
John Arch's singing is even higher than on the record. Of course there are plenty of small mistakes, but that only adds to the interest. It's a really cool inclusion and I still feel the magic of the song intact, mainly due to
John Arch's voice which is amazing as he's trying to get the feel for the song.
Kyrie Eleison and
Epitaph are included in Demo versions as well. They both have some changes from the album versions and a really annoying echo effect on the vocals.
It's great to have the album with some extra material, a must for all fans. I just wish that the sound quality of the bonus tracks had been better.
All in all this is still a fantasic album. I would call this one a classic and very important piece of music in the history of progressive metal. I would call Awaken the Guardian, No Exit, Perfect Symmetry and Parallells classics as well, but I'll get back to those later :) If you already own the original this re-release is still worth the money due to the better sound and the interesting bonus songs. If you don't own it, you know what to do.
Written by
Steen Friday, January 3, 2003
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