Fates Warning
Night on Bröcken

THE REVIEW

The first discographic step of the band that is the symbol of progressive metal, the forefathers of the genre, those who gave life to all those groups that would later follow in their footsteps: Fates Warning of "Night on Bröcken", are this and nothing more.

The adventure of these (then) five musicians begins in Hartford, Connecticut, in the distant 1982 when Steve Zimmermann, Joe DiBiase, John Arch, Victor Arduini, and Jim Matheos decided to create their own band, trying to propose a genre in which power metal elements coexist in balance with the instrumental progressions typical of Iron Maiden's metal, accompanied by an exceptional execution technique.

The work, produced by Metal Blade, despite not shining for originality and still being quite far from the band's masterpieces, immediately shows a fairly mature band, capable of a song-writing that stands at appreciable levels and also denotes the professionalism of the work thanks to a good recording, for the time and for the type of work, and equally good production.

As for the purely musical side, this "Night on Bröcken", as previously mentioned, represents a meeting point between power and heavy metal set in a very technical dimension, where the particularly elaborate structures of the tracks stand out, featuring particularly powerful and rocky riffs, quick yet meaningful solos, and an extremely dynamic and varied rhythm section: an example of this is the opening of the title track where a bass solo moves along guitar lines and drum rhythms that mark essential tempos. Moreover, we find excellent compactness and a truly mighty sound wall in the first song, "Buried Alive", which if on the one hand closely recalls Steve Harris's band, on the other shows us an extremely prepared band that skillfully navigates even in bases shot at sustained speeds.

On the other hand, pieces like the short and touching instrumental featuring only guitar and bass "S.E.K.", or the penultimate "Damnation", which in its first part unfolds in gloomier and grayer tones, pacify the atmosphere, being closer to the band's current mood. The rest of the track-list instead develops a more heavy-power-prog musical theme, with less striking results compared to the aforementioned episodes, but still good, to be clear, except for the other instrumental on the record "Shadow Fax", thrilling in its cadenced yet powerful approach, in which our American friends exhibit all their capabilities on the instruments.

The lyrics mainly turn towards fantasy themes, nodding to dark topics such as death and the evil that creeps into the soul of man (in this regard, the initial phrase of the album that reads "Dark and dampness linger in body and soul" is explanatory).

Ultimately, this work, while, as already mentioned, being far from the works that will consecrate the band in the future, deserves to be listened to more for the pleasantness of the individual tracks and the historical importance of the band rather than anything else, even if finding it will not be easy. It should also be mentioned that Metal Blade decided to reissue it in 2002, with the addition of four bonus tracks named "Last Call" from the period when Fates were still the Misfit, "The Calling" taken from the 1983 Rehearsal demo, "Kiss Of Death" in a live edition and the Iron Maiden cover "Flight Of Icarus".