Artist Page: Fates Warning

A magnificent effort by FW containing some of their best songs. Highly recommendable to any prog metal fan.

A great groovy yet progressive effort from Fates Warning, sporting both melody and "hard-hittingness". There are lots tricky and energetic of one-string riffs here as well as some strong power chord-based riffs. Some riffs are slightly reminiscent of "Perfect Symmetry" while others remind the listener of "A Pleasant Shade of Gray" - now, that's not a problem, because those are great albums. And, "Disconnected" goes beyond just being a clone of those albums, and it goes beyond just being a mixture of them. It is, in my opinion, like most other FW albums, quite original.

"The Spectre Within" is a vast improvement since "Night on Bröcken". While the Iron Maiden influences are still pretty obvious, Fates Warning have nevertheless found their own sound and style on his album (which would come to fruition on "Awaken he Guardian"), and John Arch does some superb vocal performances on this album as well.

Quite reminiscent of Iron Maiden and Mercyful Fate and, less so, Judas Priest, "Night on Bröcken" contains a number of decent tunes, some of which are actually very good. It is obvious that Fates Warning haven't quite found their own sound yet, but they're certainly on the way, and "Night on Bröcken" is certainly worth buying if you like classic metal and progressive metal. It does seem, however, that the vocals get a bit out of hand from time to time.

Very nice! It's less quirky and flashy than Dream Theater's When Dream and Day Unite, but also more intense and emotional. I really like the songs!

Musically, a very interesting and challenging album excelling in technicality and top notch musicianship. The vocals may take some getting used to, but once you're there, you can't imagine it any other way. The only problem is the production in that, as is typical of metal releases of the 1980s, there's why too much reverb in general, and specifically on the drums - the snare especially (the cymbals sound very nice though).

A must-have prog metal release which is original while at the same time blending in several elements from different types of metal which were relevant in 1988. While there is nothing wrong with the music, the production suffers from the same problem as most metal releases from the 80s - namely, the whole thing is almost drowned in reverb.

A prog metal classic, "Awaken the Guardian" certainly is recommendable as it contains several great tunes blending various subtypes of its metal.

Originally released in 1986, AtG is very much ahead of its time taking progressive metal one step further, in many ways building on what Maiden had established, blending it in with a bit of thrash metal and a lot of power metal.

The one weakness is the incongruity between the overall production and John Arch's admittedly unique and impressive voice. The problem is that the general production is rather brutal, the guitars having almost a death metal quality to them with a lot of distortion and a lot of bottom which leaves Arch's vocals often flowing about the place which in turn means that, unfortunately, one tends not to notice the vocals and focus on the music (which is a shame because Arch does a lot of interesting and unusual things).

Ignoring this, AtG is certainly a progressive metal milestone and recommendable to any prog metal head.