The second album by the Texans WatchTower, released three years after the previous "Energetic Disassembly", is dated 1989 and brings significant changes in lineup and style. The execution technique and mental distortion of these professionals of musical complication remain unchanged and endless. Billy White (guitarist and founder of the band) is no longer there, replaced by the talented Ron Jarzombek (formerly of S.A. Slayer) and the singer Jason McMaster is also gone, replaced by Alan Tecchio of the Hades, but the aggressive and high-spirited component of the band is still present. This is one of the most difficult albums you can find in the metal realm and is almost unique in its genre, both for the extreme vocal lines used by Tecchio (which can be annoying due to the high pitches reached at certain points), the complexity of the guitar riffs structures, the rhythmic parts of the drums, and the bass that almost always goes its own way and weaves a web that sometimes holds the entire track, sometimes overshadows it, and sometimes accompanies the guitar as if it were a second guitar.
"Control And Resistance" is a techno-metal album, or rather it is the starting station of techno-metal. The 8 songs are all extremely complex: bass, drums, and guitar play independently and it really seems like they go their own way resulting in chaotic and almost incomprehensible music for the many passages that are far from simple notes written on a staff and instead seem written after performing complex trigonometric calculations.
Rick Colaluca delivers a superb performance and hits his drums with power and speed (although the sound is not produced very well); Doug Keyser on bass, as already mentioned, plays lines that often serve as a second guitar and impresses with his mastery of the instrument; Ron Jarzombek excels both in the riffs written by his predecessor White and his own intricate riffs and the handfuls of surgical solos. The lyrics discuss some news events of those years, such as the Chernobyl disaster, and also address topics such as war and social life. In terms of structure complexity and execution technique, I should mention all the songs, but among the 8 tracks, the opener "Instruments of Random Murder", the dynamic "The Eldritch" with truly surprising rhythm changes, "The Fall of Reason" with the first minute and a half of delirium that gives way to a rhythmic and fairly understandable song (at times catchy, as in the chorus), broken from the third to the fifth minute with hallucinated solo inventions of the instrumental trio (which reach the highest and most difficult point of the album) and the title track: splendid in its complexity; of absolute level the central part with solos and impossible play of the various instruments. In each song, you can appreciate the intricate weaves of guitar and bass well supported by drums during the verses and the various solos of the instruments.
An album not recommended for those who only love easy and immediate music, while it is highly recommended for those willing to patiently listen to this work multiple times to enter the dense forest of riffs, rhythm and tempo changes, and almost unbelievable structures.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Instruments of Random Murder (04:06)
Music: White, Keyser
Lyrics: White
Fast, safe, aspirin-free relief
The simple end to minor discomfort
Used by millions for years
No association with danger
Scattered across the land
Arose instances of unexplained deaths
Autopsies reveal the presence of --cyanide
Then by coincidence the facts are revealed
Connections between the deaths are made
Somewhere in the chain from factory to shelf
The capsules were tainted
We must question the motive of a killer
Who kills without vengeance, without apparent reason
And leaves death upon the innocent
Was it hatred for the entire human race
Or an attempt to destroy a corporation?
The small bottle of relief - the discolored capsules
The acrid odor of bitter almonds
Goes unnoticed into the body
It is soon absorbed into the blood
And destroys the human system
The victim falls to the floor
And dies in a matter of seconds
The search begins as the shelves are cleared
The horror spreads through the press
The murderer will most likely escape discovery -
And perhaps strike again!
02 The Eldritch (03:16)
Music: White, Keyser
Lyrics: White
Twilight undisturbed - a formidable silence
The mind rampant in its solitary depression
Vacuous feelings - the sudden strike of fear
Drawn into the nocturnal empire
A shadow strikes in the absence of light
And molds the terror into insanity
Hands claw at familiar faces - running from the unknown
Is there now something real?
Resist the unseen - the obscure
Resist the panic - painful foreshadowing
Destroy yourself - inflicted apprehension
Awaken subconscious to the primal fear!
Intrusive misery - the darkness closes in
Frantic fit of self-preservation
Impulsive action - screaming confusion
Imagination overpowers reason
05 Control and Resistance (06:58)
Music: White, Keyser
Lyrics: White
Human influence shapes human thought
Few question, few answer, praising innovation
Society seeking conformity
Society thriving on regulation
Observe and repeat, observe and repeat
Maintain the standard
Life is simulation, revision and impulse
Absence through presence
Still there is crime, still there is defiance
Conscious and manner scream for diversion
Controlled by confusion, confused by control
Control and Resistance
Control and Resistance
Control and Resistance
At an early age you were forced into submission
By your elders and school administration
By your peers you are pressed to Resist
And pressed into rebellion and indecision
Now you are food for the mental machine
Breeding acts of ignorance and despair
Men plotting their own demise
Through oblivion, through greed, through hypocrisy
Some of us are blind, some of us are frightened
And some cynical
Contradiction, revolution, controversy, centumacy
Self-preservation and malevolence
Feed the fear of death
Law and resistance in accordance with uniformity
In the thick of the fray
Yet violence and change by privacy
By freedom, we must Resist
06 Hidden Instincts (03:51)
Music: Jarzombek, Keyser
Lyrics: Keyser
Maintaining a safe social order
Is one of our system's greatest chores
We're afraid to walk the streets alone at night
Our society sleeps behind locked doors
Lurking beneath the shadow's surface
Hiding under exterior silence
There exists in every individual
The potential for criminal violence
Crime after crime - conditioned criminality
Timed after time - randomized brutality
Reminds us we must live in fear
As we are held prisoner by the fear of assault
Our freedoms are compromised
As we are held prisoner by the fear of attack
Our freedoms are victimized
A psychopathic killer
A common teenage vandal
Both victims of instincts
They cannot handle
A fearful population rests
On the brink of insanity
An unfortunate aspect of human nature
Crime will exist as long as humanity
Some find they must resort
To predatory ways to survive
Some find they must kill
In order to stay alive
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