JOHN
ARCH
John
Arch - vocals
Jim Matheos - guitar
Joey Vera - bass
Mike Portnoy - drums
Straight from the mind of John Arch, former front
man of the ever-popular progressive rock band Fates
Warning, comes A Twist Of Fate the new solo EP that
features some of today's most influential progressive
rock musicians. With John Arch tackling vocal duties,
Jim Matheos (Fates Warning) on guitar, Joey Vera (Armored
Saint, Fates Warning, Engine, Seven Witches) on bass,
and Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater, Transatlantic) on
drums, expect nothing short of sheer genius from this
truly all-star line up.
This
two song EP that features over 20 minutes of modern
progressive metal will undoubtedly win over fans both
new and old. Fans of Arch have been waiting for something
like this since he first departed Fates Warning in
the late 80's constantly attacking discussion boards
about when this truly amazing singer was going to
make his come back. Now add that to the eager anticipation
of all the other members' hardcore fans, and what
you end up with is music that will definitely make
a huge impact on the history of the manic Prog-Rock
scene. "This is the first time that I have done
anything on my own since I left Fates Warning 15 years
ago" states John Arch. "I feel good about
this! There are a lot of elements of the old Fates
Warning sound but with out sounding too retro 80's.
It's significantly more modern."
This
all-star project started when Jim Matheos contacted
Arch to do some vocals for a different side project
he was working on called OSI. At first Arch was a
little put back and somewhat apprehensive because
it had been so long since he had done anything musically.
Arch then made the suggestion that he write some music
of his own and then send it to Jim to check out. So
Arch made a quick recording of guitar melodies and
some lyrics and sent it off to Jim who then laid down
keyboard and drum machine tracks. One thing led to
another and the next thing you know the guys had a
rough recording and played it for Owner/CEO of Metal
Blade Records, Brian Slagel, who was so impressed
he offered them a deal. With a record deal in hand
the band started to fine-tune the tracks they had
worked on and assemble a full line up. "The recording
process for this EP was done much different then it
was in the old days," says Arch "back then
everyone would get together and jam and bounce ideas
off each other in a basement. The way we did it for
this project was Jim would record all the guitars
and then send it to me to lay down all the vocal tracks.
Once I was finished I would send it to Mike who would
lay down all the drums and then it would go off to
Joey to lay down the bass tracks." The result
of this aberrant recording process is beyond doubt
a very high energy EP that will not go unnoticed once
it reaches the listeners.
