Guardian – First Watch – 1989

This was the first studio album from Guardian though they did have a demo using the name Fusion and another using the name Gardian. They inked the deal for this album in 1985 with Enigma Records but the wheels of production and release moved very slowly. The album was to be produced by Oz Fox from Stryper and he wasn’t immediately available. Recording did finish in 1988 but then for some reason it didn’t get released until 1989. Quite frankly Enigma really screwed this one up. By the time this album came out they should have been on their follow up album and another tour but the screw ups over at Enigma cost themselves and the band a lot of success and the resulting money. To top this all off Enigma did a short run of the album making it difficult for people to get their hands on. This was a great metal album and if it had been properly promoted, pressed, and distributed it might have been one of the biggest Christian Metal releases. I’m not even going to bother telling you about the album, give it a listen, I know you will be impressed. Another annoying thing Enigma did was to put 2 extra tracks on the CD release. This idea wasn’t’ unique to Enigma, lots of others did it but it was a dumb idea.

Tracklist
1 – I’ll Never Leave You – 4:32
2 – Mystery Man – 4:07
3 – Livin’ For The Promise – 4:09
4 – Miracle – 4:56
5 – Saints Battalion – 3:47
6 – Kingdom Of Rock – 3:25
7 – The Good Life – 4:41
8 – One Of A Kind – 3:33
9 – World Without Love – 3:56
10 – Rock In Victory – 3:50
—CD Bonus Tracks—
11 – Hyperdrive – 4:17
12 – Marching On – 3:55

Credits
Art Direction, Design – Dean Van Eimeren
Backing Vocals [Additional Backing Vocals] – Oz Fox
Bass – David Bach (2)
Drums – Rikk Hart
Engineer [Assistent Engineer] – Allen Isaacs, Gene Eugene, Jeff Simmons
Engineer [Assistent Engineer], Coordinator [Studio Coordination] – Dave Hackbarth, Dino Elefante
Engineer, Mixed By – Dan Nebenzal
Keyboards – Brent Jeffers
Lead Guitar – Tony Palacios
Lead Vocals, Guitar – Paul Cawley
Mastered By – Eddy Schreyer
Mixed By, Engineer [Assistent Engineer] – Mike Mierau
Photography By – Steve Cooper
Producer, Mixed By – Oz Fox
Vocals – David Bach, Tony Palacios

Companies, etc.
Record Company – The Benson Company, Inc.
Made By – Discovery Systems