Arch / Matheos – Sympathetic Resonance (2011) – Review by Logan Lee

            Hi there perfectprog.com fans and users. New year and yet good music around here. But to start this new 2012 (hoping it will not be the last one as Mayans’ prophecy J ) we are still going to be talking about a 2011 release that for some reason was not mentioned before (maybe to let us start pretty well the new year).

The union (or reunion) of John Arch and Jim Matheos from Fates Warning is an event that prog fans all over the world have been looking forward anxiously for a long time and finally came into reality with this project called Sympathetic Resonance. These two legends called up their friends Joey Vera (Armored Saint, Fates Warning), Frank Aresti (Fates Warning) e Bobby Jarzombek (Halford, Riot, Sebastian Bach, Fates Warning) to join them and the result is a quite amazing album filled with prog metal top class material. All you have to do to start agreeing with me is listening to the track “Any Given Day” and then “Stained Glass Sky” which are the two songs that may reassume this album.

                Of course, after hearing these tracks you may give the other four a try, but only because they are all equally great and in each one you may find different approaches and arrangements (and hey, that’s really all we prog fans ask in an album, isn’t it?). John Arch still has a great voice and his ability to “attack” the microphone and pass emotions thru it is extraordinary and the way Jim Matheos and the others managed to create the musical atmosphere really invite all into this album.

                The composition are very technical, complex and long, but yet not boring at all (for the motives previously said). I will, as always, let the technic’s analysis aside but it is impossible not to notice a bit of the old good guitar virtuoso style that when well used is very welcome.

                While I am writing this review I am still listening this project and assure you all that for Fates Warning fans this might sound a bit as a comeback album. It might be defined as sort of time travel with new elements (added by the rest of the line-up that really kept the high level).

                To top it off: the album is amazing and very recommended to all prog fans specially Fates Warning fans and also for those who enjoyed Arch’s last solo project (A twist of Fate)which this album seems to be a chapter two. It is also a nice album to discover two of the greatest icons on prog and what Fates Warning represented for all of us.

                Great Voice + Great Guitar + Great musical composition = my first 10 on 2012!!! Hope you all like it too.  

Tracklist:

01. Neurotically Wired
02. Midnight Serenade
03. Stained Glass Sky
04. On the Fence
05. Any Given Day (Strangers Like Me)
06. Incense and Myrrh

Line Up:

John Arch: vocals
Jim Matheos: guitars
Joey Vera: bass
Bobby Jarzombek: drums
Frank Aresti: additional lead guitar