Ray Alder
Person · male · United States · San Antonio · born 1967 · recording since 2019
musician
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Listen on SpotifyYouTube Music
Also known as Ray Adler · レイ・オールダー
Timeline
1960s
2010s
· Debut release
Debut release: What the Water Wants
First documented Album in the MusicBrainz discography.
source: musicbrainz
2020s
Biography
Biography
Ray Alder (born Raymond Balderrama, August 20, 1967) is a Mexican-American musician. He is the lead vocalist of the progressive metal band Fates Warning since their 1988 release No Exit.
He has released two albums Engine in 1999 and Superholic in 2002 with Engine.
He also sang on Redemption's albums The Origins of Ruin, The Fullness of Time, Snowfall on Judgment Day, This Mortal Coil, and The Art of Loss, having produced their debut self-titled release in 2002.
He has recently worked with underground emcee/producer Necro for his album entitled Death Rap.
Alder was featured at a show with the band Dream Theater in Los Angeles on May 18, 1998.
On March 16, 2010, Fates Warning released a deluxe edition of their 1991 album, Parallels. This edition has been fully re-mastered and contains over three hours of music and live footage. Parallels was one of Fates Warning's most successful releases due to the commercial success of the singles Eye To Eye, Point of View and We Only Say Goodbye. According to Metal Blade records (2010) Parallels has proven to be one of the most influential albums in the prog and metal genres, despite its hotly debated status among fans as a "commercial" sounding album. Commenting on the album, Ray Alder is quoted on the "Metal Blade Records Website". as follows, "I think it's one of the best albums we ever put out and I'm happy that fans have the chance to take a second look at this important record. The lineup, the songs and the cover art all came together to make a great package when originally recorded and the bonus DVD really adds a fresh perspective to the album."
With Fates Warning
No Exit (1988, reissued and expanded 2007)
Perfect Symmetry (1989, reissued and expanded 2008)
Parallels (1991, reissued and expanded 2010)
Inside Out (1994, reissued and expanded 2012)
A Pleasant Shade of Gray (1997)
Disconnected (2000)
FWX (2004)
Darkness in a Different Light (2013)
Theories of Flight (2016)
Long Day Good Night (2020)
With Redemption
Redemption (2003) (only vocals on track: Desperation Part II)
The Fullness of Time (2005)
The Origins of Ruin (2007)
Frozen in the Moment - Live in Atlanta (2009)
Snowfall on Judgment Day (2009)
This Mortal Coil (2011)
The Art of Loss (2016)
As a guest
Various Artists - Slave to the Power (2000)
Pentesilea Road - Pentesilea Road (2021) - Lead vocals on "Shades of the Night" and "Noble Art"
Figure of Speechless - Tunnel at the end of the light (2022)
Discography & profile
Normalised profile
Percentiles are computed over every artist in the database, so a tier-3 artist can still sit in the 95th percentile on a single axis.
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 11 | 61.8th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 2 | 75.7th |
| Studio albums | 2 | 78.8th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 4 | 75.9th |
| Recording span (years) | 4 | 17th |
| Genres | 6 | 91th |
Percentiles are computed at render time; missing values mean the artist has no data on that axis.
Discography (2 release groups · 2 studio albums)
Albums · 2
2019 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 11 tracks
1Lost2Crown of Thorns3Some Days4Shine5Under Dark Skies6A Beautiful Lie7The Road8Wait9What the Water Wanted10The Killing Floor11The Road (acoustic)2023 · studio album
Search SpotifySearch YouTube Music
Tracklist · 10 tracks · 57:14
1This Hollow Shell6:032My Oblivion4:373Hands of Time6:084Waiting for Some Sun4:295Silence the Enemy4:426Keep Wandering5:517Those Words I Bled5:528Passengers5:529Changes7:4510This Hollow Shell (acoustic version)5:55
Stats & PK
Percentile within all 23,672 published artists.Put Ray Alder head-to-head →
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 11 | 61.8th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 2 | 75.7th |
| Studio albums | 2 | 78.8th |
| Awards recorded | 0 | 0th |
| Timeline events | 4 | 75.9th |
| Recording span (years) | 4 | 17th |
| Genres | 6 | 91th |
Awards & honours
Line-up
| Name | From | To | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Sea Echoes(band) | — | present | lead vocals |
| Fates Warning(band) | 1987 | present | lead vocals |
| Engine(band) | 1999 | 2002 | lead vocals,original |
| Redemption(band) | 2005 | present | lead vocals |
Where this record comes from
portrait—Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ray_Alder_%28Fates_Warning%293.jpgaliases/urls—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/ec920960-da2e-4949-af8d-401e2e0b386ediscography—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/ec920960-da2e-4949-af8d-401e2e0b386ecore—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1757060genre—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1757060seed-list—wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Alderbiography—wikipedia-en · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Alder
Why this artist is in the database
- List of singer-songwriters
Tier rule: curated genre/region list
Image: rjforster · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata: Q1757060 · MusicBrainz: ec920960-da2e-4949-af8d-401e2e0b386e
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