Watchtower (Band)
Watchtower is a progressive metal band from the United States, which is considered a pioneer of the genre. However, unlike the other two pioneering bands Queensrÿche and Fates Warning, they have only two albums recorded and were therefore only style remains influential in the early days of the genre.
History
The band was formed in 1982 by guitarist Billy White and drummer Rick Cola Luca with Jason McMaster on vocals and Doug Keyser as a bass player. Their first album Energetic Disassembly of 1985 is often referred to as the first progressive metal album ever. Although it was remixed later, the band self attested the album in retrospect after selbigem remix a very bad sound, which is based in part on the low-budget character.
Billy White left the band in 1986 to pursue other projects. He was replaced by Ron Jarzombek. The next exit followed in 1988, Jason McMaster left Watchtower in favor of the band Dangerous Toys, where he had been involved for some time in parallel because there he saw a greater future for themselves. With the follow Mike Soliz Watchtower were then on the Doomsday -2 sampler of their label Noise Records, which should also publish Watchtowers second album later represented. Mike Soliz remained only briefly in the band and was replaced before the recording of the second album by Alan Tecchio, former vocalist of Hades, who had recently disbanded.
The second album Control and Resistance eventually appeared in 1989, and is regarded as a formative style of the genre. In the rhythmically complex passages of these recordings, the music in a certain relationship to the music of King Crimson. In addition, the album could come up with a professional production, in contrast to its predecessor. Despite the media echo Alan Tecchio left the band in 1990 due to his frustration that no booking agency Watchtower wanted to undertake in the U.S. for a tour. 1994 Watchtower dissolved.
In 2000 there was a reunion of the band in the Composition of Control and Resistance, with the exception of re-entry by Jason McMaster. As part of this unification, the plate demonstration was in 2002 added to the chaos, which contains only two new songs. But some songs will first sung by Jason McMaster. An unannounced album titled Mathematics and occasional live performances (2004 in San Antonio ( Texas) and Amstelveen (Netherlands) ) have fans and a continuation of the band hope. In 2010, the band played a highly acclaimed appearance at the Keep- It- True Festival in Lauda- Königshofen with Alan Tecchio on vocals. After the concert, the band parted from him.
Ron Jarzombek has another instrumental project called Spastic Ink, which released two albums on their own for some time. Alan Tecchio founded with former Hades member Dan Lorenzo non-fiction, both reformed then Hades and took this name back albums. They appeared in 2010 on the Bang Your Head Festival in Balingen.