Description
When Watchtower unleashed their debut album ‘Energetic Disassembly’ unto an unsuspecting public in 1985, the world would never be the same again. It surely was one of the most innovative and also one of the musically most extreme works in the entire metal universe up until this point in time. People did not know what to make of it, calling it techno thrash or even jazz metal.
Watchtower were originally formed in Austin, Texas, in May 1982. Thats when legendary singer Jason McMaster joined Doug Keyser on bass, Rick Colaluca on drums and Billy White on guitar. In an early interview Doug Keyser, the mastermind behind Watchtower, had said that, at the very beginning, the band which was to turn to the metal world upside down was being influenced by the burgeoning NWOBHM over in the UK.
The singer confirms: Most definitely. The cover songs on the setlist they had hanging on the wall in Billy Whites bedroom/rehearsal space had Dios Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, UFO, Saxon and others prior to my joining. It was not until I joined that we added Raven, Angel Witch and eventually Accept. We covered about twelve Rush songs, and I must say we did a ton of Maiden from the DIAnno era, and then some scattered tunes from ‘The Number Of The Beast’ and ‘Piece of Mind’, and some Queensryche.
As time went on and Watchtower developed their own style, the band recorded a few demos and shipped them around to record companies but nobody was interested. As a result, they pressed ‘Energetic Disassembly’ on their own Zombo Records (3,500 vinyl albums and 1,000 cassettes). These numbers and actions are all true, confirms singer Jason McMaster. I do remember sending out cassette demos to fanzines and wrote letters almost daily to people who were tape trading. I received letters from Gene Hoglan, Mike Portnoy, Jason Newsted and even Alan Tecchio, and also rumblings that we were becoming a popularly traded band in the underground. I later recall speaking with William Howell, who was working for Metal Blade Records as early as 1986 to see about doing something. The reactions were fantastic, but we were so different, they felt they would not really know where to market it at the time. Were we a bit extreme? Sure. I believe.
As well as the re-issue of the original album, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, High Roller Records is proud to present the re-mixes of ‘Energetic Disassembly’, of which vocalist Jason McMaster says: The new re-mixes were done by Jared Tuten. He is a long time friend of mine, who is also a song writing partner in our rock band Broken Teeth. He also, at a very young age, took guitar lessons from Ron Jarzombek. Jared has done countless hours of work on the project. He was the one who digitized the original 2-inch multi-track tapes from ‘Energetic Disassembly’ on the 15th of October 2009 at Top Hat Studio. The analogue tapes have been in my possession for many years.
As a special treat, the high-quality re-mix edition of ‘Energetic Disassembly’ also includes four bonus tracks: a short guitar piece called BW115, a sort of drum soundcheck by the name of Rick On Parade plus early versions of two songs, which later ended up on Watchtowers second album, here with Jason McMaster on vocals, Instruments Of Random Murder and The Eldritch. Jason McMaster left Watchtower in 1988 to join Dangerous Toys. He was replaced by Alan Tecchio, formerly of Hades, who was the singer on the bands second studio album ‘Control And Resistance’ (1989), recorded for Noise Records in West-Berlin.
Mastered by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in January 2025.
2CD version.
Tracklisting:
CD1:
1. Violent Change (Original Mix)
2. Asylum (Original Mix)
3. Tyrants in Distress (Original Mix)
4. Social Fears (Original Mix)
5. Energetic Disassembly (Original Mix)
6. Argonne Forest (Original Mix)
7. Cimmerian Shadows (Original Mix)
8. Meltdown (Original Mix)
CD2:
1. Asylum (2009 Remix)
2. Meltdown (2009 Remix)
3. Tyrants (2009 Remix)
4. Argonne Forest (2009 Remix)
5. Energetic Disassembly (2009 Remix)
6. BW115 (2009 Remix)
7. Violent Change (2009 Remix)
8. Rick on Parade (2009 Remix)
9. Social Fears (2009 Remix)
10. Cimmerian Shadows (2009 Remix)
11. Instruments Of… (2009 Remix, Bonus Song)
12. The Eldritch (2009 Remix, Bonus Song)
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