Night on Bröcken

Night on Bröcken is the debut on which FATES WARNING added dark narrative and a complex air atop post–IRON MAIDEN traditional metal. John Arch’s high, distinctive voice and the guitars of Jim Matheos and Victor Arduini create a youthful yet singular shadow. Hailing from Connecticut, they emerged from the early-1980s US metal scene and left their first footprint with this record. On “Buried Alive,” “The Calling,” “Kiss of Death” and “Shadowfax,” racing riffs and dramatic development intersect, and an intellectual sense of construction already buds within a traditional-metal frame. Songs like “Night on Brocken,” “Misfit” and “Soldier Boy” carry a distinctive, if rough, tension. Roughness remains in the craft, but within it a firm conceptual power that leads toward later progressive metal can be seen. Steeped in early impulse and a fantastical worldview, it is a record that stands as the band’s origin point.