FATES WARNING

With Awaken the Guardian, the magicians from Fates Warning closed their so-called classic trilogy with excessive perfection, those three initial albums were influenced by the most conventional Heavy Metal, with an important British imprint, and in all cases with the extraterrestrial John Arch to the microphones. With Awaken the Guardian they recorded their most complete and complex album to date, maintaining, of course, the same roots and the same concepts shown in their two previous works, but on this occasion going one step further in terms of themes, artistic developments. and conceptual designs. Awaken the Guardian is a tremendously mystical and esoteric work, an absolutely magical album in its entire design, surrounded by an aura of contemplation and spirituality worthy of mention. It is a delight to be able to enjoy absolutely immortal songs from this album such as "Guardian", "Exodus" or "Prelude To Ruin", without forgetting equally important, darker and more mystical pieces, like "Fata Morgana" or "The Sorceress" In short, another classic from his discography, another album of incalculable value, a work that undoubtedly helped to consolidate the progressive metal scene with absolutely clear and marked postulates. Without a doubt one of the most resounding and definitive albums in the history of Heavy Metal.

FWX has an attractive title but finds the band in the music identity crisis. Though it does have a couple of good melodies such as on the Incubus-like sounding "Another perfect day" it's hard to attribute the recording to Fates Warning without hearing the voice or having the cover album in front of you. The band has never been that close to alternative rock that sometimes pretends to be metal because of chugging guitars. The sound is more polished without progressive decorations letting more traditional rock composition to dominate. Even having said all that, it's far from disaster. The material is average, playing is decent. Definitely a let down for progressive metal listeners and an opportunity for the new generation of FW fans or maybe their girfriends to start accepting this band?

Shrinking down to 3 full-fledged band members, Fates Warning continue with what they designed with their previous album and they still succeed. The band could update its sound to absorb alternative metal, even with an industrial metal keyboard texture (in the second track, "One"). The band also got heavier, a lot of riffing is present. Keyboards are more present, act as a normal band instrument. Untypical to the band, there are several laid-back keyboard driven instrumental moments, someone would call them dull, the other one an important atmospheric element.

After the first instrumental into, the second track offers a waving rhythm that sticks with you and suits the melody. It is well developed and kudos to the ornate drumming style. "So" is a slow heavy ballad and quite dramatic thanks to the synth texture. The long tracks belong to the better half of long FW output mainly thanks to good playing. Another solid FW progressive metal album.

While I'm not convinced that this is my favourite FW album, it is their most progressive one and no wonder it's so highly rated among prog-metal fans. I used listen to FW in a random track mode and since the main motive is spread around the album, it started to get on my nerves at some point. If you can get past this subjective melody appreciation, you still have a lot to explore here - a concept album that isn't necessarily coherent among songs but contains some of the best variety on a FW album. The addition of a keyboard player (Kevin Moore) adds half of a new dimension, Kevin never overshadows the original band (well he does in the part VIII where he plays a piano solo) but it creates a mightier sound. A good addition to any prog-metal collection.

This is the recommended Fates Warning live album capturing band at the top of their powers just after they released their most progressive and ambitious concept album. I was curious to see if there are any pre-Alder era and unfortunately, nothing like that. It's a small complaint though for we still have 5 albums to choose from. Also, guitar playing is handling by one person only. The sound is good and playing tight with singing better than on some studio records in my opinion. I prefer the second side with more tracks variety but both CDs are of high quality. Go for it if you can! ;)

Agree with most of reviewers who call it "Parallels 2". The sound is the very similar, there are strong progressive moments and on the flip side, the weaknesses of the previous album such as certain awkward radio-friendly (fortunately) short compositions. After many years, we don't have any song overlapping 7 minutes. Ironically, I'm not able to pick one song that stands above the pack; it's rather proficient drumming and versatile electric guitar playing that draws your attention from the first track onward. Having said all the above, there isn't a significant drop of quality either, having this album about half a star lower than Parallels.

The modified sound signatures continue on the "Parallels". The first track is really promising as there is not only virtuoso playing present but also a well defined track behind despite the lack of catchy melody.

The next song "Life in still water" shows the first sign of a general problem - the band is stretching a 30-second idea to almost 6 minutes trying to execute it multiple times and decorate it with drums. It's OK if you just focus on playing but it also shows sloppy songwriting. The problem continues to reappear until the end of the album. How do longer pieces fare on this album? Well. they are not epic and filled with notes any longer as during the classic metal era. They are no less ambitious though, as you can hear progressive playing with little repetition and shifts in dynamics. Fates Warning, more than on the previous album, flirts with commercial appeal as observed in quieter moments such as "We only say goodbye" and in particular "The road goes on forever". To me, the singer's voice does not fit this style of music because it remains disruptive. I have mixed feelings about this album but would generally recommend it to FW fans.

First thing you notice with this album is the radical change of drumming sound and strategy. The sound is dry and quite thin. I don't hear the bass drum that well. When it comes to technique, there aren't any Iron Maiden elements any more, in fact, solely by listening to the drum track, you would attribute it to a progressive AOR metal band. As a consequence, the album feels slower than any other previous output. FW reached the critical point when playing gets superior to the material. Though they try at experimenting with variations and there is even a violin-led part, they fail to make a cohesive impression. The best track is the drum overplayed "Part of the machine" although the most complex track comes with the overblown "At fates hands" with almost five (apart from the bass player) showing off at the same time.

While I do recognize this as a step in the FW evolution, I could never memorize more than a few motives off this album rather than an entire track. For progressive metal heads, this is the 80's FW feast to digest.

While "Awaken the guardian" was still with one foot firmly rooted in heavy metal, on the simply titled "No exist", the music is elevated to another level, called accessible 80's progressive metal without excesses of the 90's prog-metal. Instrumental playing is robust, tight and heavy. Compositions are rhythmically varied, the drummer excelling in hitting irregular fills here and there. The guitar tandem crafting a lot off riffs, alternating between heavy, prog and trash but fortunately mainly heavy and prog. Unfortunately, the singer who sings as if he were crying at the microphone, ruins the performance. I liked the previous singer more and this one had yet to command his voice. My favourite song is the ultra-heavy "Shades of heavenly death" that really anticipates some dark 90's prog metal. The long epic is solid and remarkable mainly for its instrumental playing, less for the contents itself.

This album belongs to the top prog-metal releases by Fates Warning, however I doubt it would have had so much traction had it been released in the 90's.

Contrary to the majority of reviewers, I see only a small difference between this and their previous effort. Playing is more refined, the band feels more comfortable in a proggy heavy-metal clothing but still it remains a sophisticated heavy-metal album with ambitious twists. Vocals are top-notch, all over the album. The band have their first half-ballad on the acoustically supported "Guardian". The next track has a top start with 2-minute prog instrumental mark and then the trademark falsetto intro. This is one of the best and perhaps rhythmically the most diverse track by then. Not the melodic one but exploring different chord moods. "Exodus", the longest track, proves how the band improved in the instrumental sections, which is not about overplaying but rather finding the right balance of playing, music development and not forgetting the feeling.