WATCHTOWER - Control And Resistance
September 5, 2012, 12 years ago
(Divebomb Records)
Absolutely without question a prog-thrash-metal masterpiece, this 1989 album (the Texas’ band second and final to date), originally released on Noise Records, is finally seeing a reissue due to the cool folks over at Divebomb Records. No bonus tracks, but none are needed when the eight originals are this powerful: insane drumming, labyrinthine guitar work (care of Ron Jarzombeck), and near-nonsensical song structures propel this one forth, during the mellower moments approaching a kind of thrashed-out take on RUSH, at other points informing what CONFESSOR would end up doing a few years later, but mainly just operating in a world of their own. Lyrically, there’s a healthy abundance of ’80’s Russian paranoia delivered by the over-the-top wailing of vocalist Alan Tecchio, who shines loud and clear and scares off listeners in droves with his air-raid siren, perhaps the most piercing in metal history (see the legendary ‘Instruments Of Random Murder’ for the best examples of this). Nice to see this one get remastered and spit-shined and delivered again to longhairs, who hopefully will embrace this one-of-a-kind album once and for all this time out if they haven’t already.
