Review of Watchmaker - Erased From The Memory Of Man

Watchmaker are what I'd imagine life would be like if you had tubes filled with blood permanently affixed to your ear drums. I've always enjoyed these east coast madmen, but to be perfectly honest, it was because I felt I had to. Hearing something so bluntly violent and painful, I had no choice but to at the very least, have respect for the band. But why did their few releases never enter my regular listening schedule? One reason and one reason alone: their consistently flawed production that rendered them into a typhoon of confusing terror.

Erased From The Memory Of Man is the record I've always felt lurked behind the layers of unnecessary muddiness of their other material. This isn't an easy record to review as it's not an easy record to listen to, but that's not the issue. Their brand of mayhem isn't easy to pinpoint beyond the word "extreme" - it's the sort of record that once it ends, you reach up to your face to ensure your jaw is still there. Constant agonizing yells and screams handled by multiple individuals, merciless drumming, and wholly unflinching riffs - Watchmaker are to some unnamed and carcinogenic genre what Krisiun is to brutal death metal, or Marduk is to unreasonably-fast black metal. Like the bands just mentioned, occasionally even Watchmaker decides to relieve the listener with songs like, "Failing Upwards" being just graspable enough to bring those with wandering psyches back into their commitment to finish the album in one sitting. Far from an acoustic interlude or a synth-laden instrumental, the song proves that what would appear to be total madness on one album can actually provide a short-lived sense of reality when placed on another.

It's just a bitter and unpleasant listen, obviously created by masochists for masochists. I can't understand how any group of people could sit around and even rehearse this kind of thing without the session ending with someone being airlifted to a hospital. It's something fantastic and almost untouchable, sheerly for the reason that you'd have a hard time approaching something like this, much less extending a finger or an outstretched limb at it. My advice to you is to buy Erased From The Memory Of Man and even if you're tempted to throw it out the window after the first spin, eventually realize the importance of listening to it until you're forced into understanding and appreciating some of the most savage 26 minutes of your life.

Release Details

Watchmaker

Erased From The Memory Of Man

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