FATES WARNING — Awaken The Guardian (review)

FATES WARNING — Awaken The Guardian album cover

Album · 1986 · US Power Metal

4/5 · 2016-01-14
UMUR

"Awaken the Guardian" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US heavy/power/progressive metal act Fates Warning. The album was released through Metal Blade Records in November 1986. A lineup change has taken place as guitarist Victor Arduini has been replaced by Frank Aresti. "Awaken the Guardian" would be lead vocalist John Arch last album with the band before he too would depart.

Listening to "Awaken the Guardian" it very much feels like the natural successor to "The Spectre Within (1985)", just featuring a more sophisticated songwriting approach and an even more skillful performance of the music. Stylistically the music is on the border between traditional heavy/power metal and guitar/vocal oriented progressive metal (even bordering thrash at it´s hardest moments). In other words a very early example of progressive metal. A music style Fates Warning would further explore and develop upon on subsequent releases. The band are generally very well playing even though I´ve never found Steve Zimmerman´s drumming particularly tasteful. Instead it´s the melodic guitar leads and harmonies, the hard heavy metal riffing, and of course the high pitched and ornamented singing by John Arch, which elevate the band´s music to exceptional heights, along with the clever and intriguing songwriting.

Arch deserves a special mention and all the praise in the world for his performance here. He is gifted with one of the most unique and powerful voices on the scene but it´s how he uses his voice that makes him so special. Every note is sung to it´s limits and twisted and turned in every possible direction. Sometimes it sounds like he is improvising and if that´s true, it´s madness in this type of music. It speaks volumes of how great he is, that he has the energy to put on a performance like that in music this demanding. His performance is brilliant throughout but the highlight is his delivery on "Guardian".

All 8 tracks on the 48:04 minutes long album are very well written and performed though and it´s actually only the sound production that holds "Awaken the Guardian" back a slight bit. The guitars feature a thin sound, and the drums and bass aren´t that well sounding either. It´s not really a surprise considering the date of release, but on the other hand I´ve listened to quite a few better produced releases from the same year, so this one has always left me unimpressed. Thankfully the material and the instrumental and vocal performances are of such high quality (although the drumming doesn´t add much positive to the music), that the quality of the sound production doesn´t overshadow the fact that "Awaken the Guardian" is an excellent release on other parameters. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

more than 2 years ago
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TheHeavyMetalCat wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Classic band and album. Great review. Would rate it with a 5 personally but each to their own.

voila_la_scorie wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Yeah. I have Virgin Steele's "Guardians of the Flame". That's pretty awful production but the debut was even worse.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Well...if you´re used to 80s metal productions it may not be much of an issue.

voila_la_scorie wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I've had this on standby for over two years now. I wanted to try an earlier FW album and decided to get this one. But I haven't yet... At least your review makes it sound good. Except for the production.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I heard this one and No Exit years ago as well and enjoyed them but they didn't grab me much at the time. I guess my taste has changed though as I love this one now. If you haven't heard this one before though, you'll probably need a few listens to appreciate Arch. Even with the common high register style used on a lot of USPM albums, he's certain more of an acquired taste than most.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

All the recent talk about Fates Warning makes me want to check them out more. I've only heard No Exit, and that was several years ago so I don't remember it too well. I'll have to check this one out.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I'm thinking of making this album the next entry in my review series on classics I took ages to discover.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Yeah I noticed that, so I thought I´d dig up my backlog review and post it.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Nice review Jonas. I've been playing this one a lot lately.