Winter Ethereal

I’ve been deliberating for a long time on what to say about Winter Ethereal, the second album by former Fates Warning bandmates Jim Matheos and John Arch. I liked the first one they did, and have even grown to like the latter-day Fates Warning material. But in terms of the sheer scope of songwriting, the depth of this music and the dizzying heights these guys can reach, Winter Ethereal really just blew me away.

It’s not exactly the clinical Rush-esque prog that Matheos has been peddling out for the last few decades – it’s nothing like the calculated, pleasant climes of Theories of Flight, and it’s not even really reminiscent of the amped-up Dream Theater-isms of Sympathetic Resonance. Instead it’s just like they played from their hearts. It’s music that doesn’t fit into one box easily, with some of the more simple, driving riffs Matheos has done in a while, and Arch being his usual inimitable self, belting out these insane concoctions of vocal lines that twist and weave around each other like vines on an ancient ruin. A rotating team of bassists and drummers and other session guys adds in the kind of spice and vigor that maybe Matheos needed to reinvent his writing.

The music on here is complex and careful enough to be called prog, sure, but it has as much in common with traditional old-school power metal, too. Although it also avoids sounding like a retread of the old Fates Warning albums – see, I said this was hard to really classify. But although the riffs are more direct, the songwriting is labyrinthine. It’s tremendous, evocative stuff, building and building like a cathedral of sound and might. I’d say they know exactly where to put the climactic moments, but the brilliant thing is that pretty much all of this is made up of climactic moments. These are furious, winding tomes of melody and heavy riffs, and they waste no time building up or putting in little interludes. Every song is full of dizzyingly acrobatic melodicism and crushing moments. “Vermilion Moons,” the nine-minute opening salvo, will make your head spin with Arch’s soulful lamentations and the riffs woven into this absolutely alchemical structure that no other band would try. It’s like being caught up in heavy, unrelenting waves, is what it feels like.

Other tracks like “Wanderlust” with its Maidenesque epic power metal base contorted as if on acid, and the claustrophobic, rumbling prog of “Solitary Man,” like Rush on steroids, show what kind of an album this is; sort of running through all of these guys’ influences in a panoramic manner. “Wrath Of The Universe” deserves praise, as it’s the best song here and also one of the best metal songs I’ve ever heard. Just listen to that apocalyptic, fiery riff and Arch bellowing out crazy shit like “Children of the sun / what have you done?!” It’s just so wild and lively. When they slow down near the end and go into this gorgeous melodic part with Arch crooning “Sunrise, a gift to grace our tired eyes...” and then get back to that heavy, destructive riff for the last chorus section – God, it’s so fucking good.

I could write about all of these songs, frankly. They slow down for a bit with the ballad “Tethered” but it’s a nice little emotional respite. The simple biker-metal anthem “Straight and Narrow” is a change of pace for guys usually focused on erudite prog, but even this song has Arch’s breathlessly intense vocal theatrics and is elevated to something more. The closer “Kindred Spirits” is 13 minutes long and over-indulgent for sure, but it’s got enough soul to carry it along. I just like hearing these dudes play, and they deserve it after so long – the song remains enthralling throughout, particularly the way it builds up into a cavalcade of hard-hitting, garroting riffs in its climax section. And the lyrics, here and everywhere, are so well written, as much as they ever were with Arch taking care of them. This song is about loving animals, which doesn't sound very metal, but he sells it pretty damn well. He’s just such a great, evocative storyteller. As a writer myself, it’s just so damn interesting to me to read this stuff, on every song.

Winter Ethereal is hard to write about because it just exists like a living thing all its own. It’s some of the more emotional and satisfying music I heard last year. The level of writing skill on this thing is just massive and shows a great bunch of musicians playing easily as good as they ever did, only now unencumbered by youth or expectations. They’re just doing what they want to, and this is a soulful, powerful collection of songs. I haven’t stopped going back to this since it was released, and it has not lost any power. Go hear it if you haven’t. It’s an experience.