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Awaken the Guardian

Fates Warning - Awaken the Guardian Audio CD

A fair review of the Fates Warning "Awaken the Guardian" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Fates Warning reviews here, or go back to the Fates Warning tabs.

Band: Fates Warning
Title: Awaken the Guardian
Rating:

Release Date: 2005-06-28
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: The Sorceress 2: Valley of the Dolls 3: Fata Morgana 4: Guardian 5: Prelude to Ruin 6: Giants of Lore Heart of Winter 7: Time Long Past 8: Exodus 9: The Sorceress (DEMO) 10: Valley of the Dolls (DEMO) 11: Prelude to Ruin (DEMO) 12: Fata Morgana (LIVE) 13: Damnation (LIVE) 14: The Apparition (LIVE) 15: The Sorceress (LIVE) 16: Guardian (LIVE) 17: Die Young (LIVE) 18: Sundance 19: Valley of the Dolls 20: Pirates of the Underground 21: Orphan Gypsy 22: Fata Morgana 23: Traveler in Time 24: The Sorceress 25: Guardian 26: Prelude to Ruin 27: Damnation 28: The Apparition 29: Die Young 30: Kiss of Death

mandatory listening for metal-prog fans
Absolutely worth a listening, even for everyone who loves to rock. This release proved to be one of the first metal-progressive masterpieces. John Arch is one of the greatest voices of rock, along with Ronnie James Dio or David Coverdale.

2 star edition of above 5 star record.
If you like the genre, get it. For those who haven't heard this record, this is one of the best metal records of all time and also one of the first progressive metal albums(released in 86, years before Dream theater's I&W).

The CD has been re-mastered and it sounds way better than the original release. The bonus cd has 3 demos and 6 live tracks. You can probably guess the quality of demos but the live tracks are beyond bad. It sounds like your downstair neighbor playing it and you're listening with your ears on the floor. Turning up the volume only makes it worse.

The dvd is no better, home video footage with mostly still cam shots. At one point the image gets invisible and worst of all it happens during "Prelude to ruin", the best song on this album(IMO)

So unless you are a die-hard fan of FW and collecting every single stuff of the band, get a regular re-mastered version(I believe there is).

I gave two stars, not one because of Mike Portnoy's comments in the liner notes, acknowledging and crediting FW for being the first prog-metal band!!.

Progressive METAL
Problem is, none of these bands are very Metal (well, Dream Theater is at times, but also has a lot of less metal stuff). When people mention progressive metal, the top names are Rush, Queensryche, and Dream Theater. Fates Warning is every bit as metal as Iron Maiden and Metallica, but with crazy meter shifts and unique vocal phrasing to give them a good claim to "progressive". They remind me (on their first 3 albums, the ones with John Arch on vocals) of Symphony X in that regard - with consistently fantastic metal riffage to please any metal fan, but complex enough to be classified as prog. In fact (kind of like peak Metallica) the unusual and complex progginess makes it heavier and more metal.
Although not having the big studio budget and production of the aforementioned bands, this actually works out fine for Fates's underground-metal style and sound. John Arch's vocals are at a peak here (sadly he didn't sing on another album until his solo effort "A Twist Of Fate" almost 20 years later, which is excellent, however) - he manages to combine the classic metal influences of Dickinson, Halford, and Ozzy while having a very unique and distinctive style and delivery. His phrasing is unusual and adds to the progressive appeal. Also, his lyric writing is very poetic and he's up there with Bruce Dickinson as one of the best metal lyricists I know of. Kind of fantasy-oriented lyrics, but not as escapist as the European power metal of the 90's and today.
Much of "Awakening the Guardian" (especially the first couple tracks) is their best work ever, although some of the slower parts in the second half make this album a little less satisfying than the previous "Spectre Within". The following album "No Exit" keeps up the metal and progressive edge, although the new singer's voice doesn't quite work as well with the sound and the overall sound isn't as good. They then driften into a more Queensryche-y (e. g. less metal) sound, although "Disconnected" (from around 2000) is pretty metal and prog (with a more modern sound).
The bonus discs of live CD and DVD aren't really great quality and may be mostly of historical interest, but considering you're only paying a single-disc price, I can't complain (compare Metallica's 20-year old classic albums, priced at an outrageous $19 with no remastering or extras).

Awaken the fantasy within!
Queensryche and Dream Theater have their own pluses and minuses, but it seems that Fates should have at least half the success the others have had. When it comes to progressive metal bands, Fates Warning is often mentioned THIRD when it comes to the "biggest" names in the genre, that is when they're mentioned at all. They are relatively comfortable, but there are many who still have not heard the excellence that this band has been about for years.

As far as the band's fans themselves, a lot of them seem to fall into two camps: One being with an almost cult-like adoration of the John Arch era, another camp not quite as fervent preferring the Ray Alder era. Well both camps can count me out, as I like everything the band has done, at least up to and including Pleasant Shade of Gray. They kind of lost me after that when they tried to follow it with their last two albums, decent attempts but missing alot of what I liked about them back in the day.

However, now we speak about favorite albums, albums that surpass genre, time period, and time itself in general. Definitely contained in my top twenty or thirty albums of all time, would be this opus, an opus I discovered ten years ago, probably to the month (this one).

Fates Warning (or whats left of them) may be "embarrassed" by this album(recent interviews with Jim Matheos stating as much as it reminds him of old yearbook pictures), but they couldn't deny the impact it has had and offered us this plush, deluxe edition which also reminds me of the work Metal Blade Records has done with the Psychotic Waltz reissues (a very similar band). The dvd is indeed pretty raw, but as Arch era footage is scant, it still provides us a raw glimpse into a band that was inventing a whole new genre of music as they went along, that being progressive metal (just ask Mike Portnoy, who wrote the booklet!)

Now, some prog (metal) snobs may laugh at the lyrical content, it being more based in fantasy, but I ask, is the Lamb Lies Down On Broadway about "real subjects and interpersonal relationships"? You look a little bit deeper and there are metaphors and real life stories contained within the shell of fantasy John Arch weaves around us.

Indeed, Fates Warning has almost been a metal version of 70's Genesis with their rich textures and atmosphere.

This 1986 album is the one where odd time signatures were first used to the forefront as much within the metal genre (well also Voivod and Watchtower were doing similarily at the time as well), and the epic, almost maze like song structures gleaned from a heavy dose of early Mercyful Fate (think Satan's Fall) and other bands such as Rush.

The other influence that reviewers often fail to point out is that of Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath type riffs are all over the place, such as the Children of The Grave styled (and D tuned) riffs in the Sorceress.
Despite his naysayers who only think Arch was a nasal version of Bruce Dickinson (only partly true), Arch's vocal melodies are ahead of their time, going up full scales even when the song's riffs were more simple! Listening to this album, one can hear Phrygian scales of various types, among other scales, all done within a single vocal melody!

Sometimes, it does sound like Arch was pushing the limits of his own voice. If he (or the band would have let him) would've stuck around, I'm sure that he would have progressed even further as a vocalist.

Like Jimi Hendrix, James Dean, Syd Barrett, or others, since Arch's musical career (not as adversly affected as those previously mentioned, he just became a carpenter and started a family), was cut short; and since the music he helped create was so legendary and epic, he is seen as a legend as much as he is.

In other words, Arch was a genius, and despite some Prog Metal Snobs who have no sense of history, Awaken The Guardian towers over many albums, even by the same band.

No other album (Perfect Symmetry and Parallels come close) in this band's discography was as consistently powerful, melodious, epic, and majestic as this one, while also being groundbreaking in the early use of Prog hallmarks like odd timings, strange intervals (especially the vocals), acoustic guitars and keyboards creating atmosphere, and the afore-mentioned maze like structures.

If you don't own it, or haven't given it a chance, I plead with you to do so. We need this album to sell more, so that maybe John Arch will come out with more music once again, more than the recent John Arch EP contained.

Ok, so maybe I'm in the Arch cult to some extent it turns out. Future reviews of Fates other releases should show that I am very into the band in general, but there was definitely something special about this album.

Indeed, when we talk about earliest fully formed progressive metal albums, we can speak of:

Watchtower - Energetic Dissasembly -1985

Fates Warning - Awaken the Guardian -1986

Queensryche- Rage for Order - 1986

Voivod- Killing Technology - 1987 (give it a chance even if you've only heard the recent two).

Honorable Mention: Crimson Glory - Transcendence (but only if you consider them as progressive, great band though).

Feel free to comment with more albums that fit this description, because its research worth discussing.
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Apparition
I didnt know the name of it and always asked people if they new the name of the song with the words "I wanna know what". I was first introduced to this album in the late 80's after hearing the song"Apparition". Of course people looked at me crazy and didnt know what i was talking about. Although it was hard to understand the lyrics,the song jammed. It was one of those songs you could here over and over, especially if you were high. haha Luckily my boyfriend was a guitar player for a local metal band and knew of this band and introduced me to this album. I was blown away. My boyfriend would play of couple of the tracks on his guitar for me so you know i was happy. when i finally got the lyrics I fell even more in love. Arch's voice and the stories he told in his music were beyond imagination. Back then we had the wonderful cassette tape, and I was finally able to listen to a whole cassette front and back without having to rewind and fast forward to my favortie song, which on most cassettes, was in the middle. Of all the great bands in the 80's, they were definitely one of my favorites and still are today. Some sixteen years later i find myself downloading the songs, but i'm a little rusty on the lyrics. I was devastated over the departure or Arch but didnt have the heart to abandon the band. Alder's voice was great but in no way did he have the imagination and creativity of Arch. This is definitely one of the albums i'll be listening to in the nursing home 30-40 years from now.

You can see a complete list of all Fates Warning discography, or go back to the Fates Warning tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.