Awaken the Guardian
| Awaken the Guardian | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Fates Warning | ||||
|
Publication |
November 14, 1986 |
|||
|
admission |
September and October 1986 |
|||
| Label (s) | Metal Blade Records | |||
|
Title (number) |
8th |
|||
|
running time |
47:47 |
|||
| occupation |
|
|||
|
Fates Warning and Brian Slagel |
||||
|
Studio (s) |
Stagg Street Studios and Preferred Sound |
|||
|
||||
Awaken the Guardian is the third studio album by the American progressive metal band Fates Warning . It was released on Metal Blade Records in 1986 and is considered to be the trailblazer for the development of the genre.
Creation and publication
After some USA concerts as a result of the release of The Specter Within , Fates Warning recorded their third album in September and October 1986, now with Frank Aresti instead of Victor Arduini as guitarist. Jim Archambault played the keyboards, the band and Brian Slagel produced the album, Eddy Schreyer mastered it. After the release of Awaken the Guardian in November 1986, John Arch left the band and was replaced by Ray Alder .
A remastered version of the album was released in 1994, and another with a bonus CD and DVD in 2005, which mainly contained live recordings.
Track list
- The Sorceress - 5:43
- Valley of the Dolls - 5:22
- Mirage - 5:25
- Guardian - 7:33
- Prelude to Ruin - 7:23
- Giant's Lore (Heart of Winter) - 6:50
- Time Long Past - 1:50
- Exodus - 8:31
style
Awaken the Guardian is the band's last album with lyrics influenced by fantasy and musically already goes noticeably beyond traditional heavy metal . Fates Warning play atmospheric progressive metal with complex structures, changing rhythms, unusual melodies and harmonies, variable guitar playing and high vocals. The pieces are held at a medium tempo and often have a mystical or oriental atmosphere.
reception
The album was positively received by the press in 1986 and is now considered a pioneering and classic of Progressive Metal. Ilias von vampster sums up: "Never before has a band succeeded in such a captivating, [sic!] Combination of classic heavy metal and technically demanding structures, which - not least thanks to the imaginative lyrics - was able to come up with an extremely dense atmosphere." For Georg Heep from the Babyblauen Seiten , the album is "still today a reference work for fast, but always melodic Heavy Metal whose progressive ambitions never succumb to the charm of undercooled technical demonstrations". Jörg Schumann describes it as "an important album that essentially co-founded a new form of progressive rock". Boris Kaiser from Rock Hard thinks it's “pure, pure magic” and the magazine chose Awaken the Guardian as its most important progressive metal album; eclipsed magazine also included the album in its list of milestones in the genre.
Web links
- Awaken the Guardian at Allmusic (English)
- Reviews of Awaken the Guardian on the baby blue pages
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Baby Blue Prog Reviews: Fates Warning. Awaken the guardian , Baby Blue Pages , accessed December 7, 2012.
- ↑ a b Iliad: Fates Warning: Awaken The Guardian (Hell of Fame) , vampster , accessed December 7, 2012.
- ↑ Rock Hard No. 270, p. 96.
- ↑ eclipsed No. 144, p. 31.