Metal Blade
2005
Awaken The Guardian
About This Album
Recorded in 1986, Awaken the Guardian was not Fates Warning's first album -- it was actually their third. Awaken the Guardian was, however, the first Fates Warning album to chart in Billboard -- and it was an album that turned a lot of headbangers into Fates Warning fans. Nineteen years after the original LP release of Awaken the Guardian, Metal Blade provided this special collectors' edition -- and what started out as a vinyl LP in 1986 became, in late June 2005, a three-disc set (two audio CDs and a live DVD video). While disc one is a straight reissue of Awaken the Guardian (it contains the same eight songs in the same order) and disc two consists of both live material and demos, the DVD focuses on a December 28, 1986 show in Long Island NY (where Fates Warning perform a combination of songs from Awaken the Guardian and their two previous albums Night on Brocken and The Spectre Within). Unfortunately, the DVD isn't a professionally filmed video, but its inclusion is still a good thing because it gives headbangers a rare chance to actually see (as opposed to simply hearing) the band during their John Arch era. Arch's high-pitched lead vocals are -- much like the vocals of Rush's Geddy Lee -- an acquired taste.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 2,3,4,5 and 7)

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Disc 2

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Disc 3

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