Awaken the Guardian

Studio album by Fates Warning

Released

Late 1986

Recorded

September–October 1986 at Stagg Street Studios in Los Angeles; Preferred Sound in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles

Genre

Heavy metal, progressive metal

Length

47:57

Label

Metal Blade

Producer

Fates Warning, Brian Slagel

Fates Warning chronology

The Spectre Within
(1985)

Awaken the Guardian
(1986)

No Exit
(1988)

Alternative cover

2005 deluxe edition

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic

Awaken the Guardian is the third studio album by progressive metal band Fates Warning, released in 1986 through Metal Blade Records. The album was the band's first to enter the U.S. Billboard 200, reaching No. 191 and remaining on that chart for four weeks. It is also the band's last album to feature original singer John Arch, who was replaced by Ray Alder on their subsequent 1988 album No Exit.

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 remastered edition in 1994, and once again as a deluxe Digipak 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, New York; this being the only known video footage of the Awaken the Guardian line-up performing live.

Robert Taylor at AllMusic 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."

All tracks written by Jim Matheos and John Arch, except where noted.

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Wikipedia