THE WARNING

3.5 stars. The combination of Geoff Tate's vocals, and the twin lead guitar attack of Wilton and DeGarmo is what makes this one of the better Prog-Metal debuts i've heard. These guys from Seattle were always a little different then your typical Metal band. They went outside of the genre they were in to get James Guthrie to produce their first studio album. He had produced PINK FLOYD in the past, and agreed to produce "The Warning". As a side note the band chose Michael Kamen to do the orchestration on the song "Roads To Madness" he did the orchestration on "The Wall" for PINK FLOYD.

So as much as this is pretty much a straight up Metal album with a resemblance to IRON MAIDEN, there was some twists in this one, like on "NM 156" with mechanical-like vocals and staccato guitars, creating a futuristic sound. The title track is a melodic song that is vocal oriented until after 3 minutes when we have a guitar solo. "Deliverance" is an uptempo song with passionate vocals and some scorching guitars."No Sanctuary" is a slow but heavy tune. "Take Hold Of The Flame" is a QUEENSRYCHE anthem, a concert favourite. "Before The Storm" is MAIDEN sounding with some good bass work throughout. "Child Of Fire" opens heavily and has tempo changes and great guitar. "Roads To Madness" may be the best of the lot !

Excellent debut !