Fates Warning – Parallels (Special Edition)

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The gradual remastering and expanding of the Fates Warning catalogue on Metal Blade continues, this time with a three-disc re-issue of the album responsible for many of the band’s most popular concert mainstays like Eye To Eye and The Eleventh Hour. A typically good remastering job has been done on the album itself, and this occupies the first disc of the set. The second combines a live show from Hollywood in 1992 with five of the original demos for the album. As with almost all of the archive Fates Warning live material released on these expanded re-issues, the quality is not particularly special. Akin to an ordinary soundboard bootleg in this case, which is better than some of the dreadful quality tracks included on some of the other releases, but still not really good enough. The demos on the other hand sound superb and although not markedly different to the album versions do benefit from a certain authenticity. The final disc is a DVD containing another live show, this time from New Haven 1992, with a brand new documentary and old interviews from the tour for the album. Again, the quality of the live material is poor. While the video is better than the one in the Awaken The Guardian set, the audio isn’t. The new and old interviews will be of interest to die-hard fans, but not to anyone else and probably only bear viewing once. All together this is a necessary re-issue to highlight and make available again this excellent album but waiting another year to release this would have coincided with the record’s 20th anniversary, and given them the opportunity to record and include a show on this year’s tour where the Parallels line-up have reformed. An opportunity missed and it’s a weaker product because of that.

Written by Andy Lye
More: 2010, Albums, Progressive, Quick.Play Reviews, Re-release, Fates Warning