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WatchTower - Control And Resistance

Tuesday, 11 December 2007

Editor's rating

9.5

out of 10

Reviewed by:
Chad Coup
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Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Music Information

Track Listing:
01. Instruments Of Random Murder
02. The Eldritch
03. Mayday In Kiev
04. The Fall Of Reason
05. Control And Resistance
06. Hidden Instincts
07. Life Cycles
08. Dangerous Toy

Artist: WatchTower
Title: Control And Resistance
Genre: Progressive Metal
Release Date: 01 August 1989
Record Label: Noise Records
Format: Full-length
Country: United States of America
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Re-released in August 2003.

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Editor review

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Overall rating (weighted)		9.5
Musicianship		10.0
Composition		9.0
Experimentation		10.0
Production		8.0
Value		10.0

This is refreshing. It's progressive metal that isn't melodramatic and goes for the balls. It's also over fifteen years old. Right before the big technical metal explosion of the early '90s came around, WatchTower was this little band from Texas with a lot of creativity and even more talent. WatchTower nailed the progressive thrash movement of that time period with this absolute classic record. It's their second album to date and is a big step up from the previous album recorded four years prior. This record is unbelievably deep and intense, especially for 1989. Along with Fates Warning's early albums, 'Control And Resistance' is a cornerstone of tech music.

What's really cool about this record is the appearance of Ron "Spastic Ink" Jarzombek with his expressive-but-brief solos, fills and leads. Former guitarist Billy White and bassist Doug Keyser pretty much formed the sound for the band and they did a great job. Jarzombek only co-wrote the music (with Keyser) for three of the eight songs, and lyrics for the last one. To give you an idea of the diseased genius of these musicians, I present an excerpt from Jarzbombek's solo album that details how he and Keyser came up with writing music. "During WatchTower's 'Control And Resistance' tour way back in 1990, Doug Keyser [Tower bassist] and I came up with this ridiculous system for writing tunes. We assigned the letters of the alphabet on the guitar, starting with the letter A as the open low E on the 6 string, ascending chromatically to the letter Z on the 1st fret of the high E string. We would spell out various words, thus creating melodies."

In all the time that has passed, what's up with the record? Drummer Rick Colaluca used electronic triggers and this dates the highly groundbreaking material a bit. The drums sound kind of cool in a retro sort of way, but the toms sound so slappy and cheap in comparison to today's drums. Vocalist Alan Tecchio took over from original vocalist Jason McMaster for this CD with mixed results. His voice is too high and uncontrolled for me. He does sound a little bit like McMaster, but there isn't much anchor to his performance. Some of his delivery is pretty bad as well ("Mayday In Kiev") but it's sometimes very effective ("Life Cycles," "Control And Resistance"). Some of the lyrics are pretty infantile ("Mayday In Kiev," "The Fall Of Reason") but that hardly detracts from the manic execution of the music present. Of course, Jarzombek and Keyser are incredibly attuned to their surroundings. No pun intended.

If it wasn't for bands like Fates Warning and WatchTower, mega-bands like Dream Theater wouldn't exist. Technical metal fans need to buy this album, as WatchTower is still a very rewarding vault treasure. Do your ears a favor. Put down 'Images And Words' for a while and listen to some real progressive metal.

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