Time Will Tell
Ah, grindcore. The haven where those who think they are angry come in search of a release and like-minded contemporaries but find themselves surrounded by nihilists armed with umbrellas waiting to rape the earth a new asshole. After one listen to Watchmaker's re-release of 'kill.fucking.everyone' this description seems pretty apt. Nineteen tracks spread over 30 minutes laced with so much vitriol Lucifer himself couldn't hack up if he tried, the Boston extremists plunder the human ears with cathartic, hate-filled, brutal, just under two minutes long declarations seeking to kill every last animal, human and living thing on mother earth.
Contrasting the ways of old school grind with the rawer melodic nature of early black metal this album is nothing but a fury-laden behemoth however this beast is not of the listenable type. Where Napalm Death and perhaps Hewhocorrupts succeed in their ways of being different yet the same, Watchmaker follow the same structure and attitude throughout. Although this description might need some explaining.
Take some Napalm Death albums and put them through a giant sieve - a large, steel netted beast of a thing - and observe what you are left with. Put what you are left with into different bowls. Hopefully you will see that on albums such as 'The Code Is Red, Long Live The Code', and 'Order of the Leech' or even the god-like (to some) opus 'Scum' the songs succeed in holding the essence of grind itself but don't bore you to tears. There is variation, a term that I can't help but stress to these American nihilistic stalwarts. Put 'kill.fucking.everyone' through the mighty sieve and it'll crawl into one bowl labelled 'boring'. Yet this isn't the 'bore you to tears' type, this is the 'I want to gorge my eyes out with a spoon' type. Sounding like he's got a mouth packed to the brim with ulcers after chomping down on some light bulbs the front man growls, screeches, yells and screams his way through songs such as 'Repent and Perish', 'Multitask Suicide' and 'The Widening Stain'. I found myself unable to listen to the album the whole way through and this might be because it isn't my cup of tea but I've listened to my fair share of grind (known and unknown) and unfortunately this LP comes under the damning criticism of plain.
A plus point of this record though is the titles of the songs and this in turn shows the creativity of this group. With headlines such as 'Conference Call Immolation', 'Wallet Sized Dental Records' and 'Mildewed Death Trap' providing a bit of a giggle but also awe for their cleverness. It's just a pure shame that the lyrics seem to be embedded in an unending screech after screech throughout. You can't hold this against them though because when it comes to pure, pissed-off vox the main man does exactly what's demanded of him time and time again and that certainly deserves credit. The musicians behind this artistic mess too need some credit for keeping up the pace. Blast beat after blast beat mixes with piercing chunks of what seems to be punk versus black metal alliance on the guitarists' part.
'Kill every dog, every cat...Kill every mouse, every bid. Kill every fish. Anyone objects, kill them too' is the cheerful quote that's placed on the album sleeve and there's never been a more suitable quote for to describe a band such as Watchmaker. They better watch out though that through all the blood and guts of their enemies they incorporate something a little more creative but as far as grind albums go yeah, it might be good but its no keeper.