THE ART OF BLEEDING

The Watch from Italy is one of the more famous Genesis tribute bands. Besides touring with early material from that classic prog band the Watch also releases albums of original material in the Genesis style. 'The Art of Bleeding' is their first concept album, with a loose concept based on crimes of passion. The band mixes its influences (perhaps closest to 'The Lamb Dies Down' here) with a sound pallet of eighties wave synths. That works really well for me on especially the first two tracks of the album. Vocalist Simone Rossetti has that Peter Gabriel timbre, but besides that he is quite limited in putting the variety of emotions into the music. His heavy Italian accent doesn't help much either. The Watch also has the same muddled sound as the early albums of Genesis and I would have preferred a more 'open' production sound. The compositional style of the band is actually quite complex, with a lots of variations on all musical themes. It does require some extra listens to acquire to all the songs, almost none of the material is an instant 'hit' so to speak. The more concise song 'The Fishterman' being the only exception. The songs do eventually open up a bit and I like the often dark atmospheres. Still I can't help but feeling something is missing here, which I'm guessing has much to do with the mixing. This album still comes warmly recommended to fans of Genesis and IQ. It's also a step up from their previous record 'Seven'.