Awaken the Guardian 1986

"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). But, it grows on you as soon as you get used to it.

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