Erased from the Memory of Man

Listen 1
Had an unbearable headache today. Caused by playing Watchmaker album while still drinking morning coffee.


Listen 2
Feel like Watchmaker play grindcore. Normally I sort of like grindcore because the riffs fly out thick and fast and the songs don’t get boring. However, I think Watchmaker hate grindcore, because they sound unreasonably angry about everything. Is that a legitimate criticism of an angry genre of music? Am I just a bitter person? Noticed the awful, ragged scream that hangs out the end of ‘Relentless Post Mortem Killing’ like a tapeworm out the anus of a hanged man.


Listen 3
Despite thinking there was no variety on Erased from the Memory of Man, I managed to get through the whole album while paying attention and found there are some differences between songs. Had to eat a whole block of chocolate for strength. Sometimes death metal riffs bulldoze out of the traps with a crusty disregard for groove; sometimes the blasts are manic straight away. ‘Gunpoint Stoicism’ goes manic and dissonant after a while of unnerving low-key guitar atmosphere. Found that ‘Therapeutic Dirt Nap’ freezes the chaos briefly to hang onto filthy drawn-out chords, while the vocalist screams like he’s trying to wrestle his 150 kilogram mother-in-law off his crushed penis. There is nothing pleasant about this album. Had to have a nap of my own after finishing. It was about 11am.


Listen 4
Had a row with the wife today. Played Erased from the Memory of Man afterwards. Apologized and bought her flowers. Nothing can be as bad as being alone with that album.


Listen 5
After I woke up today, I remembered a cool riff I had heard. Kind of a black metal one that rushes on like Aura Noir wanting to eat Immortal. Realized it was from ‘Falling Upwards’ by Watchmaker. Does that album actually have some accessible black metal songs? The main riff even repeats while the vocalist regurgitates a whole chicken. Ah, chicken! She said I would forget the dinner...


Listen 6
Starting to like some of the riffing on that Watchmaker album. Several songs have really cool extreme riffs hidden by maximum percussive destruction. Hell, ‘Swept from All Existence’ even grooves for a brief second of grind/death sunshine. Mostly just bitter ice-cold rain though, which is how this shitty winter feels. Still, I suppose that kind of weather is invigorating sometimes.


Listen 7
Was thinking about the album again while I was driving. Just realized why it’s named Erased from the Memory of Man. It’s awfully difficult to remember the details from the songs. When I got home, I played it on repeat and couldn’t even recognize the point where it started again. They didn’t really need 16 songs to give me that experience. Just like marriage doesn’t need 16 years to get old...


Listen 8
Just found an old Watchmaker album in my collection. I haven’t listened to that since I was married! (Stupid divorce. Allergic to flowers my ass...) Pretty sure ‘Oncrushing Advance’ is the best thing they wrote. Sweet thunderous riff and pounding drums, with the guitars just about on a level with the blasting. Can’t really conceive how these guys could keep going at that intensity for two minutes though, let alone 26. Am I just too old for this much aggression? Or too nice? Maybe I’ve changed... Would she give me a second chance? I’ll buy her chocolate this time...

Watchmaker displays a style that is severely mordant, being the equivalent of a distorted musical spasm, lashing out with an uncontrolled mayhem in every direction, going for an approach that spreads out like bird shot, screaming through the air and striking the listener in a multitude of quarters with a harsh, unforgiving intensity. The group has progressed a bit in terms of overall sound on this release, with grinding blasts, voracious vocal tantrums and incendiary rhythms being the order of the day.

You’ll hear that things are much better here in terms of production than on the band’s last effort “Kill.Fucking.Everyone.” The instruments are much more distinguishable, this time out you can actually make out the wildly distorted string mangling and furious hyper-blasts, although if you blink, you’re likely to miss a lot, because the sixteen tracks here speed by in less than a half-hour. What it is not as distinguishable is the actual songs themselves and as the crusty, grinding mess speeds by, it will be difficult for all but the most sophisticated grind lovers to remember what they’ve just heard.

If crust is your fave, this release will sit well with you as Watchmaker can certainly let it rip, but you really do need to be a fan to fully appreciate this style of music. As a footnote, half-hour albums are weak. Give the fans some value for their dollars. They deserve a lot more than thirty minutes of music and a band is expected to deliver about twice that in this day and age, making this the equivalent of a sixteen song EP. That aside, if you’re looking for spasmodic, relentless crust, “Erased From The Memory Of Man” should raise your interest.

Watchmaker are certainly a band that knows how to show you they're pissed off. Following up to their incredible bombardment that was Kill. Fucking. Everyone, Erased From The Memory of Man continues the inane carnage with even noisier riffs, crazier structures, and...well, pure fucking anger!

Watchmaker has been known to make crazy grinding black metal, and believe me, they're still in business. Starting from the maddening Dawn of Indifference all the way to Blood Freezing Violence, there's no stopping the insanity. From what I get from it, this album has a few different touchs that make it much different than it's predessecor. For one, it's MUCH noisier, and not by just louder. The structures are much more tweaked, and...well, it actually IS much louder, and this definitely helps with the anger. Plus, Brian's vocals are much less like evil screams, and more like barking yells, which also helps with the anger. Watchmaker still know how to fuck shit up.

As far as songs go, I personally like Mourning Breath, Falling Upwards, and Dawn Of Indifference/Nuked To Ashes. Some of the songs, like Oncrushing Advance, have a bit of that punkier vibe to it, but it's still grinding and brutal. Other than that, most of the songs are still thrashing and powerful black/grind. There're also those instances where Brian goes into really long screams, like on Relentless Post Mortem Killing, and it's indeed insane. Thankfully, this album still has the crushing force that Watchmaker is known for, and more. An excellent album for those who're seriously pissed off, or just love listening to that sort of thing.