CONTROL AND RESISTANCE

Watchtower's Control and Resistance is a clearly-seminal work which laid foundations for technical and progressive extreme metal. It took steps beyond bands like Iron Maiden, Queensrÿche, and Fates Warning, who merely used progressive structures to create suites, and committed to technical virtuosity, wild alternations of meters and syncopations, and the use of jazz theory. It balances harsh, dissonant riffs with melodic beauty in a way that would become ubiquitous a few years later, and creates a sonic journey, bouncing across your ears. As wild as it is, it's still concise, listenable, and memorable. Like in Rush, every instrument is treated as an equal in terms of both mixing and play style, and every intricacy is easily heard. The bass playing, especially, is mind blowing on its own. However, the praise I express only applies to the instrumental aspect of the album. An issue in both the progressive rock and metal communities is that older releases are often reviewed in comparison to its influence and influences, which can cloud glaring flaws from view. The glaring flaw here is the vocal arrangement and lyrics. On a surface level, the vocals are technically impressive and the lyrics are poetic and satisfyingly political. However, in execution they just don't work; while the instrumentals DO leave room for sound vocal hooks, Alan Tecchio doesn't take advantage, and throws his voice into notes that don't make melodic or rhythmic sense. This turns the lyrics to short, grating blurts- operatic but atonal all at once. This aspect his hard to ignore and spoils the enjoyment for me personally, but I respect its influence and all it tries to achieve. Therefore, it's still an excellent addition the prog metal library, especially if you're like me, in which your music library is slowly turning into a prog history lesson.

P.S. - The Fall of Reason is an exception to the flaws I listed. That one's a bop.