Guardian

    Guardian

    Los Angeles, California18 reviews across 10 releases

    acoustic rockglam metalhard rockmelodic rock
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    Guardian is an American Christian hard rock band formed in the Los Angeles area in 1982 under the name Fusion, changing its name before its first album and adding guitarist Tony Palacios in 1986. The 1989 debut First Watch used polished melodic metal, with bright guitar leads, clean vocals and arena-sized choruses. After a personnel change, the band moved toward bluesier hard rock on Fire and Love, then broadened its sound on Miracle Mile with R&B grooves, horns, acoustic guitars and character-based songs such as "Shoeshine Johnny" and "Mr. Do Wrong." The acoustic and roots-rock turn that followed unsettled some listeners, but Buzz brought heavier guitars back into music shaped by modern rock, odd rhythms and denser lyrical writing. Bottle Rocket combined those alternative structures with the pop-metal hooks of the earlier records.

    In 1990, Paul Cawley and Rikk Hart left Guardian, and Jamie Rowe and Karl Ney joined David Bach and Palacios for the Fire and Love period. The band later entered a semi-hiatus as its members pursued other work, though it returned for festival appearances and recording projects. A 2001 Cornerstone performance revived the four-piece lineup, while a planned 2005 comeback with John and Dino Elefante did not produce the proposed new album. Cawley and Hart resurfaced separately as Guardian1 with the 2011 Empire EP. Rowe, Palacios, Bach and Ney later recorded Almost Home, released in 2014 after a crowdfunding campaign, and Rowe and Bach joined Whitecross members for the 2017 Revival project. The original four-piece reunited again for a televised performance in 2019.

    10 releases reviewed