''Awaken the Guardian'' is the third studio album by American

progressive metal Progressive metal (sometimes shortened to prog metal) is a broad :Fusion music genres, fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified electric guitar, guitar-driven s ...

band

Fates Warning Fates Warning is an American progressive metal band, formed in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1982 by vocalist John Arch, guitarists Jim Matheos and Victor Arduini, bassist Joe DiBiase, and drummer Steve Zimmerman. There have been numerous lineup ...

, released in 1986 through

Metal Blade Records Metal Blade Records is an American independent record label founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The US office for Metal Blade is located in Agoura Hills, California. It also has offices in Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label is distrib ...

. The album was the band and their label's first to enter the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200, reaching No. 191 and remaining on that chart for four weeks. It is also the first Fates Warning album to feature guitarist Frank Aresti and the last with original singer

John Arch John Arch (born John Maurice Archambault; May 15, 1959) is an American singer most well known for his work with the progressive metal band Fates Warning. Fates Warning Arch co-wrote the majority of the band's songs with guitarist Jim Mathe ...

, who was replaced by

Ray Alder Ray Alder (born Raymond Balderrama, August 20, 1967) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist of the progressive metal band Fates Warning since their 1988 release ''No Exit''. He is of Mexican descent. He has released two albums ''Engi ...

on their subsequent 1988 album ''

No Exit ''No Exit'' (french: Huis clos, links=no, ) is a 1944 existentialist French play by Jean-Paul Sartre. The play was first performed at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in May 1944. The play begins with three characters who find themselves waiting ...

''.

Reissues

''Awaken the Guardian'' has been reissued several times. The first was as part of a double album with ''No Exit'' in 1992, followed by a

remaster Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used. Mastering A ...

ed edition in 1994, and once again as a deluxe

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edition on June 28, 2005. The latter includes a bonus disc containing demos and live tracks, as well as a DVD of a concert from December 28, 1986, at the Sundance Club in

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, New York; this being the only known video footage of the ''Awaken the Guardian'' line-up performing live.

Critical reception

Robert Taylor at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

gave ''Awaken the Guardian'' three stars out of five, calling it "a closet classic from the underground metal years of the '80s" and the song "Guardian" being noted as a highlight. As with Fates Warning's previous album '' The Spectre Within'' (1985), Taylor recommended it more for fans of heavy metal than progressive metal, remarking that "the song structures are too rudimentary to be called progressive." Jeff Wagner at ''

Decibel The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose levels differ by one decibel have a po ...

'' magazine ranked the album at number 134 in the ''Decibel'' Hall of Fame, saying it was "one of the celebrated masterworks of the genre." Adrien Begrand at ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

'', reviewing the 2005 reissue, called it the best of Fates Warning's catalog, adding that "such a stirring combination of traditional metal and progressive sounds would never be duplicated by the band", and concluding that "''Awaken the Guardian'' still resonates with life today" and it "solidifies Fates Warning's place in metal history." ''

Loudwire ''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August of 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive ...

'' named it in #4 on its list "Top 25 Progressive Metal Albums of All Time."

Track listing

Personnel

Fates Warning *

– vocals, producer *Frank Aresti – guitar, producer *

Jim Matheos Jim Matheos (born November 22, 1962) is an American guitarist and the primary songwriter for the progressive metal band Fates Warning, in which he has been the only consistent member since the group's beginning. Matheos also plays in OSI alongsi ...

– guitar, producer *Jim Archambault – keyboard *Steve Zimmerman – drums, production *Joe DiBiase – bass, production Production *Bill Metoyer –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

*Scott Campbell, Steve Himelfarb, Kevin Beauchamp, Dave Obrizzo – assistant engineers *Eddy Schreyer – mastering,

ing (reissue)

Charts

References

{{Authority control Fates Warning albums 1986 albums Metal Blade Records albums