WATCHMAKER

"The common denominator of the universe is not harmony; it's chaos, hostility, and murder. The quote taken from Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man" that is listed in the liner notes of WATCHMAKER's "Erased from the Memory of Man" CD explains a lot about the grindcore razor fight that awaits the listener. There is grindcore that chips teeth and knocks fillings loose, and then there is grindcore that turns otherwise law-abiding citizens into demented and murderous madmen. You guessed it; WATCHMAKER's incendiary grindcore would fall into the latter category.

To be perfectly blunt, "Erased from the Memory of Man" is disconcerting as hell. I wouldn't recommend it as background music for major surgery or as musical accompaniment for SAT study sessions. Through all the schizoid rhythms and noise-bomb strafing Brian Livoti screams his ass off (described as "Vocal Fucking Sawblade Terror" in the liner notes…again, a dead-on description). Sometimes it is a matter of pure dissonance and noise assassinations ("Therapeutic Dirt Nap") and on occasion you'll hear spurts of thrash and crust ("Lice Crawling Humanity" and "Visiting Plague / Blood Freezing Violence"),spiced up with the occasional nifty lick ("Failing Upwards" and "Swept From All Existence"). But mostly it is just mental fucking torment.

So yeah, technically speaking, "Erased from the Memory of Man" is some violent shit. I will probably be in the minority (at least in grindcore circles) for saying so, but none of what I heard on "Erased from the Memory of Man" ever sunk its claws into me. That is not to say I don't like it or that some fans of the genre won't lap it up, as the conviction and calamity levels register high readings. I just tend to get more out of bands like CATHETER and ANTIGAMA. To each his own I suppose.