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| WATCHTOWER - Energetic Disassembly RE-MIX LP | |
HRR 1003LP, ltd 750, 300 x 180g black, 350 x golden + 100 x golden / black galaxy effect vinyl, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover with silver hotfoil embossing, insert, A5 photocard | |
| Jason McMaster - vocals Billy White - guitar Doug Keyser - bass Rick Colaluca - drums | |
| 01 Asylum (2024 Remix) 02 Meltdown (2024 Remix) 03 Tyrants (2024 Remix) 04 Argonne Forest (2024 Remix) 05 Energetic Disassembly (2024 Remix) 06 BW115 (2024 Remix) 07 Violent Change (2024 Remix) 08 Rick on Parade (2024 Remix) 09 Social Fears (2024 Remix) 10 Cimmerian Shadows (2024 Remix) 11 Instruments Of ... (2024 Remix, Bonus Song) 12 The Eldritch (2024 Remaster, Bonus Song) | |
AVAILABLE | |
Mastered by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in January 2025.
Cutting by SST Germany on Neumann machines for optimal quality on all levels... The ultimate audiophile reissue of this eternal classic!
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 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”.
But let’s start at the beginning. 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. Not many people know though that the band had another singer before him, McMaster explains: “His name was Travis Allen, but I have actually never met him. I do not recall the band ever saying they had performed with the earliest line-up that anyone on the inside can remember. It was indeed in May of 1982 that I officially joined. I had only been singing for about six months.”
In an early interview Doug Keyser, the mastermind behind Watchtower, had said that at the very beginning the band who was to turn to the metal world upside down was being influenced by the burgeoning NWOBHM over in the UK. The singer confirms: “Most definitely. The cover songs on the setlist they had hanging on the wall in Billy White’s bedroom/rehearsal space had Dio’s Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, UFO, Saxon and others prior to my joining. It was not until I joined that we added Raven, Angel Witch and eventually Accept. We covered about twelve Rush songs, and I must say we did a ton of Maiden from the DI’Anno era, and then some scattered tunes from »The Number Of The Beast« and »Piece of Mind«, and some Queensryche. It was »Breaker« and »Restless And Wild« material, and the Queensryche »Queen Of The Ryche«. And we did about four Raven covers.”
Talking about Neal Peart, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, the nearest you come to describing Watchtower compositions such as “Meltdown”, “Tyrants In Distress” or “Energetic Disassembly” is thrash metal’s answer to Rush. The singer reminisces: “My first concert at age 12 years old, was Rush, with support from UFO,1977 in Corpus Christi, Texas. Watchtower covered a lot of Rush. They were a ‘vinyl mentor’ to us. We were into loud and fast, but, the guys were also into the technical, or the obscurity of the lyrics and the advanced playing. I do not remember any of them being big Pink Floyd fans at all. But I think the ideas from bands like that, from early prog and even a bit of random obscurity, shine through in the songs being written. I still to this day love Geddy’s voice on the »2112« record. It should be apparent that John Gallagher is also a ‘vinyl mentor’.”
As time went on and Watchtower developed their own style, the band recorded a few demos and shipped them around to record companies but nobody was interested. As a result, they pressed the album »Energetic Disassembly« on their own Zombo Records (3,500 vinyls and 1,000 cassettes). “You have done your homework,” laughs Jason. “These numbers and actions are all true. I may only back pedal on the sending cassette demos to labels, I do not remember sending them directly to labels. I sent 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, and also rumblings that we were becoming a popularly traded band in the underground. I later recall speaking with William Howell, who was working for Metal Blade Records as early as 1986 to see about doing something. The reactions were fantastic, but we were so different, they felt they would not really know where to market it at the time. Were we a bit extreme? Sure. I believe.”
Copies of the demos and the album were sent to the press as well: “Yes. The demos were actually early mixes of the first time »Energetic Disassembly« would have been recorded, as early as 1984, for what was to be on Rainforest Records, out of San Antonio. S.A. Slayer’s label. The studio was struggling, if I remember it correctly. Also we were moving in a rapid progression. The songs were getting tighter and we got new equipment after we had already recorded. Some of the songs had morphed, with new sections, slightly altered things about the songs. My singing style had shifted, for the better we thought. So, it all ended up being re-recorded in Austin at Cedar Creek Studios in 1985.”
Believe it or not, I did buy my personal copy of »Energetic Disassembly« on import at a record shop in West-Berlin in 1985. Jason McMaster sounds surprised: “Wow. I believe thanks to the the small but mighty, in our eyes, power of distribution, our record made it to Europe, via ’Important Distributors’, which I believe was set up by our then manager through our suggestion. I do not remember seeing any of those European sales, until much later when I was able to play in Germany in some capacity. It was a happy memorable moment, to meet fans that had »Energetic Disassembly« and while on tour with Dangerous Toys in Europe, my first time, 1989, it was happy faces, both me and them. The fact that Watchtower had such loyal fans a world away, that was my first reality check on that fact.”
When »Energetic Disassembly« came out, the material on it was already a few years old. Did the band feel it still represented what they were at in 1985? “As I mentioned, the songs had changed a bit,” explains the vocalist. “They had gone through some small transformations. There were actually at least twelve or 15 songs the band had from as early as 1983, that had been demoed, that spawned, influenced, and were borrowed from for the »Energetic Disassembly« final versions. Not many have these early, Jurassic versions with totally different lyrics. I have some of those songs played live from our earliest shows at backyard parties.”
When I first heard »Energetic Disassembly, it totally blew me away, and I instantly loved it. It was a totally unique and revolutionary style of metal. As mentioned earlier, some people called it “techno thrash” back then … ”To confess, we felt we had to call it something different,” explains the Watchtower singer, “it was not just ‘heavy metal’ or ‘rock ‘n ‘roll”. So even on old flyers you can see we had our own spin on what we were doing. ‘Techno Thrash’ was always a good description. Even though, when we looked inward, for clarity and reflection of the songs, it was more than that. We never thought about it too much, until the fanzines confessed things like ‘what is this?’ That was as early as 1984, and maybe earlier, as I have mentioned. We had early recordings of our first original material, that is considered beyond rare.”
Some people have stated that later bands, like Dream Theater, capitalized on Watchtower’s pioneering work, finding fame and fortune. Does Jason also sees it like this? “Maybe,” he reflects, “I think to learn how to cover both sides of writing ‘weirdo metal’ but also making it have some hint of accessibility, is an art in itself. Rush did it, and before them, yes, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa and some others, had figured that out. It also was a different time, even for those artists. So for the late 1980s and 1990s, Dream Theater probably showed the world how this could be done. To be that sort, and have a song on popular radio. Those guys had to figure out how to straddle the lines. Watchtower was definitely trying to erase any and all lines, with the influences of popular ‘weirdo music’ at least. I do believe that Watchtower might have had thoughts of getting into that ‘Dream Theater’ placement of possible popularity on some later compositions with Alan. Hard to say.”
As well as the re-issue of the original album 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 is humble, and 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. Now, since 2009 the digitized stems, all on hard drives, I have also had in my possession. We did nothing with them until it was realized that the 40th year anniversary of the release of »Energetic Disassembly« was upon us. Sure, obviously the idea of a re-mix had entered our minds in what was a start of recording some demos for long awaited new material for what was early planning for »Concepts In Math: Book One«. The mastering of the new re-mixes was done by long time friend Danny Stapleton. He was a young kid of twelve years old, seeing Watchtower play live as early as 1986. Danny also took guitar lessons, not from Ron, but from Billy White. These two did a lot of heavy lifting on creating the re-mixes for the re-issues. I love them both like brothers, and they have long time relations with the group.”
On the re-mixes album there is a song called “BW115”. That’s a short acoustic guitar piece. Jason explains: “We had completely forgotten about this two-minute solo played by Billy White during the »Energetic Disassembly« sessions. It showed up in the transfers titled ‘acoustic piece’. I recalled much later, my memory serving as best as it can, that this was to be an intro set just before ‘Cimmerian Shadows’. For the original vinyl release, we were told, and believed that it would not fit on the record. So it got cut. I must confess, and excite you, about the intro to ’Argonne Forest’. This was also a surprise upon revisit. Doug and Billy do a tandem solo of harmonies and riffs that land into the first chords of ‘Argonne Forest’. This was also cut, to make time on the original vinyl release.”
And there is also a drum solo called “Rick On Parade”, which according to Jason was not planned to go onto the original pressing of »Energetic Disassembly«: “The drum solo bit was, I believe, more intended for the recording engineer to get some sort of drum tones before recording songs. They are a basic mix of Rick ‘soundchecking’ the drums in the studio before tracking any material. We thought it would be an extra treat to put this on the celebratory re-issue. I love it, as it is still a historical mark on our legacy. Just something we have to share. Rick is not really even trying to play anything specific, he is just ‘riffing’ to get tones. Personally, I think it is great, as a fan of music. Especially when it’s a legacy artist.”
The most interesting pieces are two songs which later ended up on the second Watchtower album »Control And Resistance« in 1989: “Instruments Of Random Murder” and “The Eldritch”. Were these songs which were already written at the time of »Energetic Disassembly«? Jason confirms: “Yes. These two songs, as well as most of the »Control And Resistance« material, were written with me in the band. There are live recordings of the »Energetic Disassembly« line-up playing these songs live in concert as far back as 1985 and 1986.You can hear these as demo releases as well as live recordings on anow out of print Watchtower release called »Demonstrations In Chaos«. Showcasing rare moments in the band's history, all before 1988. The two recordings of ‘Instruments Of Random Murder’ and ‘The Eldritch’ were also a little surprising. They were recorded in April of 1987 at Cedar Creek Studio, where »Energetic Disassembly« was recorded just a couple of years earlier. What we did not realize, was that these were actually tracked on the same leftover session tapes as »Energetic Disassembly«. So, when they popped up, it was pure joy. I felt they needed to show the world that in such a short time, with such a small group of people involved, we were more consistent in those early years, than maybe the world realized. I believe that these original versions are a bit darker sounding, maybe not by much, but maybe more sinister. I love Alan, and his voice. We go so far back. The »Control And Resistance« record is award winning. As a full record, it broke barriers and continues to make ‘the greatest prog records lists’ when the press compiles celebratory influential releases of insane over the top records of all time. Back to the comparisons … To compare them as far as arrangements, they are not that different. Alan’s take on my vocal melodies are only slightly different. We both have similar timbre of tone, but do not sing the same inflections, not exactly. I am biased and I love them both.”
Jason does also still remember the last recordings he did with Watchtower: “Yes, there is a 4-song ‘demo’ with Ron Jarzombek, the »Instruments Of Random Murder« demo, as it has been called. We wanted to let the world know of the line-up change. With Billy leaving in October1986, and Ron joining in January 1987, we needed to record something to leak out into the underground at least. ‘Hidden Instincts’ is the first song written with Ron and Doug collaborating. The other three songs on the demo release are the very first studio recordings of the two songs included on the upcoming 40th year re-issue: ‘Instruments Of Random Murder’ and ‘The Eldritch’, as well as the very first studio recording of ‘The Fall Of Reason’.”
Jason McMaster was involved with even more songs, which later ended up on the band’s second album: “Yes ,six out of eight songs: the title track ‘Control And Resistance’, ‘The Fall Of Reason’, ‘Hidden Instincts’, ‘Mayday In Kiev’, ‘Instruments Of Random Murder’ and ‘The Eldritch’. I want to say I might have been in the room when the beginning of ‘Life Cycles’ was being born, but I cannot confirm. Again, most of these you can hear on the internet, or from the collection on LP and CD, a release called »Demonstrations In Chaos«.”
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