AWAKEN THE GUARDIAN

"Awaken the Guardian" was a revolutionary record for heavy metal, one of those records that helped to change the way of considering the genre forever, as well as one of the albums that literally started Progressive Metal. Along with the coeval "Rage for Order" of Queensrÿche, but, unlike the latter - who experimented on a hi-tech and futuristic sound, - Awaken the Guardian went deeper, effectively breaking the classic heavy metal form and deflecting it towards the Baroque of progressive. A Baroque intended not as empty pomposity, but as an artistic idea instilled in the music. In 1986, simply no one in metal (apart from the thrasher Watchtower, but in another way, more on the rhythmic deconstruction typical of fusion) sounded like Fates Warning. A heavy/power metal transcended in progressive metal: complex, articulate, difficult, twisted and quite unique. The remains of Maiden (audible in songs like Fata Morgana) are precisely such: reflux, remains, echoes of a classic heavy metal that is, in practice, transcended, exceeded and diverted (see - for example - the emblematic Prelude To Ruin).

Fates Warning had already started their progressive revolution with their previous record, the relevant "The Spectre Within" (1985), in which heavy metal was taken to excess, with songs that formed complex mini-suites composed of numerous time changes and daring vocal lines. However, although it was already an unusual and particular album, it was still too conceived in the classic heavy metal style (halfway between heavy metal and prog metal) and the singer John Arch, although he managed to find his own style, still too much debtor - in some songs - of Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden. But it's with "Awaken the Guardian" that the decisive leap takes place, an incredible leap that definitively projects us into the world of progressive metal (the style can be defined as progressive power metal), in the concrete sense of the term: the songs present a twisted and convoluted structure (forming a configuration of "songs in songs"), complicated riffs follow one another over many time changes (on odd time signatures) and intersecting with abstruse, tortuous and imaginative vocal lines (John Arch is halfway between Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden and Jon Anderson of Yes, using his voice as a real instrument to create a specific mood), the lyrics are symbolic, allegorical and profound (with the use of figures of speech such as alliteration); but everything manages to flow in a fluid way, a shimmering becoming between arcane and nostalgic, magical and dark , dreamy and melancholic moods. Although the album is not openly a concept, it is almost a thematic concept with the idea of the "Guardian" that goes through (almost) all the songs. The "awakening of the Guardian" would probably mean the strength to continue living despite everything, to face the fears and adversity, both concrete and existential (finding the meaning of being in the world).

Basically, an absolute masterpiece of Progressive Metal and Heavy Metal (as well as US Power metal), a unique and unmissable record that has helped to change the world of metal forever.