Watchmaker – Kill.Fucking.Everyone.

January 4, 2014

I think that Watchmaker are one of the most under-rated grindcore bands ever, which is weird considering this record was put out on Earache (through some deal that they had with Willowtip). In grind circles I never see people wearing a Watchmaker t-shirt, in fact I don’t think I’ve even ever seen one for sale. I never hear people talking about Watchmaker, or recommending Watchmaker; and this goes for online as well as in the flesh. It’s weird because, Watchmaker aren’t some one-hit wonder band; they have several CDs out, so somebody must be listening out there? If you’re a Watchmaker fan hit me back on Twitter or Facebook for the love of all that is grind-holy! You must be out there somewhere.

Ironically, after all that talk of under-exposure I discovered Watchmaker back in my ‘confusing’ teen years when I still trifled through a Kerrang! magazine if someone was daft enough to pay money for it and then leave it in the sixth form common room. There was a tiny album review for this in an issue; and I can’t remember if it was good or bad but the striking cover art and the words “grindcore” and “Kill.Fucking.Everyone.” stayed with me forever. When I got into grind properly I finally bought this from the Earache webstore, which was my first one-stop shop for grind back in the day.

At the time I thought the production was a bit muddy but with much more exprerienced ears I can retract that thought; Watchmaker play an interesting, and almost artistic approach to grindcore. This CD in particular always reminded me of a cross between Circle of Dead Children and the short-lived act White Eyes, even though vocally the bands don’t come close. I guess it’s just the vibe I get off listening to it. There’s also a lot of elements of Insect Warfare type of shit on here too, but don’t be misled to thinking that Watchmaker are one of those million-thousand carbon copy grind acts.

At a sensible 19 tracks in length, Kill.Fucking.Everyone. is actually pretty long (for a grindcore record). I implore all fans of the genre to check this band out, it’s some pretty cool stuff!