Fates Warning

This 400-page behemoth chronicles virtually every facet of the progressive metal heroes’ 40-year history with the cooperation of every single member of Fates Warning, past and present.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Decibel. We like you like you, so we made you a playlist of metal love songs — light on the power ballads.

Fates Warning leader, guitarist and chief songwriter Jim Matheos will be living parallel lives in 2016. He’s helming the writing and recording of the band’s 12th album with the current lineup, and will concurrently assemble a lineup from the band’s distant past, including guitarist Frank “X” Aresti plus co-founders John Arch (vocals), Joe DiBiase (bass) and Steve Zimmerman (drums).

It’s big news in the metal world when an album (or EP, or whatever) arrives with John Arch’s vocals on it. His Bruce Dickinson-like tenor was a beacon in the mid-’80s U.S. metal scene when he fronted Fates Warning on their now-classic first three albums. After he left the band, however, he basically put music…