Fates Warning is what I like in Progressive Metal down to a tee. Hard riffs, orchestrated loudness, and lyrics as thoughtful as they are, frankly, badass. Don’t ask me to name a favorite between them and Queensryche. Perfect Symmetry versus Operation: Mindcrime is an impossible choice.

But when it comes to songs? Maybe Queensryche’s ‘I Don’t Believe In Love’ hits harder, but ‘Through Different Eyes’ by Fates Warning might be the best song between both bands. Slim, slim fucking margin it is, it all comes down to the feeling you get from the songs and how they hold up on their own.

‘I Don’t Believe In Love’ is the climax of Operation: Mindcrime, an album telling a story through music not unlike the rock operas which may have inspired it in concept. It’s the rejection of all warmth and affection for others, particularly a woman who died at the hands of the protagonist. Delivered with a hauntingly powerful crescendo at the song’s end, it’s standout work even among Queensryche’s best. But, it’s partly as effective as it is because Mindcrime is a whole. You don’t listen to one song off the album. You put the record on at the beginning and one hour later your mind’s blown for the umpteenth time.

‘Through Different Eyes’ on the other hand is standalone. It’s an expression of loss and loneliness not borne of acute tragedy, but the march of time. ‘Through different eyes we keep/Looking for what we lack’ is the start of the refrain, and that lyric it sums up the greatest fear any who have lived life have: that one day, they’ll look back on that life lived and not be ready for its encroaching end, but at the same time want nothing more than to see those who didn’t make it that far.

The lyrics are as chilling as they are compelling, but it’s not just that. The riffs are staccato, yet coming with so little time between each that it rides the line between a continuous wail and something closer to marching. Time marches on, and we’ll all get older no matter how much we live in the past. Ray Alder’s melodic, unflinching vocals round off a stellar audio masterpiece that after dozens, if not hundreds of repeat listens (sometimes several in a row) hasn’t gotten old. It’s gotten better. The music video is the icing on the cake, interpolating the band’s factory-based performance with clips of an old man whose eyes tell in an instant the story that unfolds throughout the video: that they’ve seen so much, but now see only a better, happier past.

Call it silly, but ‘Through Different Eyes’ left an impact on me when I first heard it. A gentle reminder each listen that as good as life can be in a given moment, it’s important to know that things will change. Downturns happen, and eventually there might not be much left–good or bad. Death comes for us all, and whether we fail to make it to middle age or are jogging past 100, we’ll all eventually face a moment where we’re looking at less road ahead of us than what we’ve walked already. Memories of happier days can keep us afloat, can give us the food for the soul we need to keep going, but when you’re looking at that shortening road? It’s important to make the most of it. Don’t wait until you’re old and set in your ways to change your outlook.

I swear I’m not dying or anything. I just was listening to prog metal and thought ‘hey, why don’t I articulate my thoughts.’