Watchtower "Energetic Disassembly" [Remix]

When Watchtower unleashed their debut album »Energetic Disassembly« unto an unsuspecting public in 1985, the world would never be the same again. It surely was one of the most innovative and also one of the musically most extreme works in the entire metal universe up until this point in time. People did not know what to make of it, calling it “techno thrash” or even “jazz metal”. Watchtower were originally formed in Austin, Texas, in May 1982. That’s when legendary singer Jason McMaster joined Doug Keyser on bass, Rick Colaluca on drums and Billy White on guitar. Initially inspired by the NWOBHM movement and playing cover songs by Iron Maiden, Angel Witch and Raven (plus Canadian prog gods Rush of course), the band started to write their own material. As time went on, Watchtower developed their own style, recorded a few demos and shipped them around to record companies but nobody was interested. As a result, they pressed »Energetic Disassembly« on their own Zombo Records (3,500 vinyl albums and 1,000 cassettes). “These numbers and actions are all true,” confirms singer Jason McMaster. “I do remember sending out cassette demos to fanzines and wrote letters almost daily to people who were tape trading. I received letters from Gen Hoglan, Mike Portnoy, Jason Newsted and even Alan Tecchio. The reactions were fantastic, but we were so different, record companies felt they would not really know where to market it at the time. Were we a bit extreme? Sure. I believe.” As well as the re-issue of the original album, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, High Roller Records is proud to present the re-mixes of »Energetic Disassembly«, of which vocalist Jason McMaster says: “The new re-mixes were done by Jared Tuten. He is a longtime friend of mine, who is also a song writing partner in our rock band Broken Teeth. He also, at a very young age, took guitar lessons from Ron Jarzombek. Jared has done countless hours of work on the project. He was the one who digitized the original 2-inch multi-track tapes from »Energetic Disassembly« on the 15th of October 2009 at Top Hat Studio. The analog tapes have been in my possession for many years.” As a special treat, the high-quality re-mix edition of »Energetic Disassembly« also includes four bonus tracks: a short guitar piece called “BW115”, a sort of drum soundcheck by the name of “Rick On Parade” plus early versions of two songs, which later ended up on Watchtower’s second album, here with Jason McMaster on vocals, “Instruments Of Random Murder” and “The Eldritch”. Jason McMaster left Watchtower in 1988 to join Dangerous Toys. He was replaced by Alan Tecchio, formerly of Hades, who was the singer on the band’s second studio album »Control And Resistance« (1989), recorded for Noise Records in West-Berlin. MATTHIAS MADER