Label: Metal Blade Records
Year of release: 2017
Genre: Progressive Metal
Let’s not mince words: “Awaken the Guardian Live” (DVD/2CD) is one of the highlights of this year when it comes to live document releases, if not the highlight outright. Not because the album “Awaken the Guardian” by progressive metal icons Fates Warning is now seen as one of the central, most important, even cult achievements in the rich, long-lived career of this highly respected band, but simply because it’s played so well (especially technically) and because the recording is exceptionally good. Both of them. Audio and video.
Last year Fates Warning celebrated 30 years since the release of “Awaken the Guardian”. Of the lineup that recorded the album back then, only guitarist Jim Matheos is still in Fates Warning today. Three decades ago, though, he had famous vocalist Jon Arch, drummer Steve Zimmerman, guitarist Frank Aresti and bassist Joe DiBase alongside him. Not only did “Awaken the Guardian” hand fans a heaping helping of the band’s “folk hero” classics in the years after its release, songs that are forever etched in the hearts of the faithful, it’s also the first album that got the band onto the Billboard charts.
For the occasion Matheos managed to reform Fates Warning in the “Awaken the Guardian” lineup, the one described in the paragraph above. He also booked two dates where the band played the album in full. From start to finish. The chosen stages were Germany’s Keep It True XIX festival (venue Lauda-Königshofen), where Fates Warning played on 30.04.2016, and then the no less traditional American ProgPower festival, held every year in Atlanta, on 09.09.2016.
At both festivals the band played the album live in its entirety, just as it was recorded on the studio original, in the exact same track order, and on top of that threw in a few cult classics from the debut “Night On Bröcken” and from “The Spectre Within”: The Apparition, Damnation, Night On Bröcken (replaced by Kyrie Eleison at ProgPower) and Epitaph.
Immodestly put: an investment that pays back at well over 100%. This lineup, reunited for just two shows, really does pull off a miracle. They should never have broken up, because the way they play, you’d think the members had never parted ways. Both gigs are played superbly. The icing on the cake is the final audio mix. The sound was reworked afterward by the excellent and experienced Bill Metoyer, a legendary specialist in American old-school speed metal, though when you compare the sound on the DVD, the recording from Keep it True is a shade better. That’s why the band decided to put the entire concert recording from Germany on both audio discs. Jon Arch was of course the biggest question mark in all of this. When he arrived on the scene in the eighties, he set new qualitative foundations on the international heavy metal scene of the day, with his distinctive approach and his incredibly piercing, commanding voice, which really laid the mood and expressive groundwork for the band’s first three albums of the eighties. His input was hugely influential. What fans will be happiest about, and really the key reason this live performance of the album fires on all cylinders at 100% even after 30 years, is the discovery that Jon Arch still sings with the same undiminished fire and hunger as on the cult “Awaken the Guardian”, and still credibly bridges all the extreme vocal registers. Those heights that are frankly unbelievable to the ear, where he launches himself with an excellent transfer of power from the mid to the high and highest registers, remain signature and unblemished. Without losing a speck of power. That’s why all the songs have kept the expressive and atmospheric power and the stamp they had on the original studio version. As the guy handling the main contact with the crowd, too, Jon nailed it with incredible class, as if he’d never taken a longer break in his musical career. Born for the stage.
Fates Warning are a byword for perfectionism, and all their records are consequently a byword for high quality. In all these years of defiance the band has spoiled its fans rather too much in this respect, so expectations are always sky-high. This time too, Fates Warning literally deliver the best they know and can. Anyone who knows the studio original of the cult “Awaken the Guardian” well will be blown away by how evergreen it is and how incredibly expressive and punchy this album still is after thirty years. The same goes for the stage performance, which in this case is flawless, no two ways about it.
by: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 9.5 / 10
Track list:
DVD
Live at Keep It True XIX
01. The Sorceress
02. Valley of the Dolls
03. Fata Morgana
04. Guardian
05. Prelude to Ruin
06. Giant’s Lore (Heart of Winter)
07. Time Long Past
08. Exodus
09. The Apparition
10. Damnation
11. Night on Brocken
12. Epitaph
Live at ProgPower XVII
01. The Sorceress
02. Valley of the Dolls
03. Fata Morgana
04. Guardian
05. Prelude to Ruin
06. Giant’s Lore (Heart of Winter)
07. Time Long Past
08. Exodus
09. Damnation
10. The Apparition
11. Kyrie Eleison
12. Epitaph
CD1.:
Live at Keep It True XIX
01. The Sorceress
02. Valley of the Dolls
03. Fata Morgana
04. Guardian
05. Prelude to Ruin
06. Giant’s Lore (Heart of Winter)
07. Time Long Past
08. Exodus
CD2.;
Live at Keep It True XIX
09. The Apparition
10. Damnation
11. Night on Brocken
12. Epitaph
Lineup:
John Arch – vocals
Jim Matheos – guitar
Frank Aresti – guitar
Joe DiBase – bass
Steve Zimmerman – drums
