{"id":103521,"date":"2024-06-06T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T23:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=103521"},"modified":"2024-07-10T09:37:27","modified_gmt":"2024-07-10T08:37:27","slug":"album-review-watcher-key-to-the-unbreachable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-watcher-key-to-the-unbreachable\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCHER – Key To The Unbreachable (2024) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

WATCHER
Key To The Unbreachable<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nTurborock Productions (2024)<\/span>
Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Key To The Unbreachable<\/em> is the debut full-length album from Watcher, the solo project of Viktor Gustafsson who sang for Stockholm act Lethal Steel. Gustafsson has assembled ten songs, all of which sound as if they were recorded in 1985. If you like your heavy metal stormy and stuffy, then look no further than the dense fog bank which erupts from your speakers when you slap this on.<\/p>\n

Like a lot of European material churned out in the 80s, this record has a demo vibe which, back then, was down the fact that bands had no money, but nowadays artists are eager to recreate such lo-fi madness. When opening tune \u2018The One Who Reigns\u2019 kicks in I can\u2019t help but hear Swedish band Mercy who were fronted by one time Candlemass monk Messiah Marcolin.<\/p>\n

A misty canopy hangs over this release, but such doomy webbing cannot contain the thunderous roars of Gustafsson who boasts that wholesome, commanding nature. The album drifts between the emphatic and majestic, as well as the anthemic and straight up steel as numbers such as \u2018Fight Back\u2019 border on speed metal. \u2018Hatets Atlantis\u2019 exhibits the more extravagant side of Watcher, although with a Manilla Road stuffiness it manages to coat its armour in stodge.<\/p>\n

The production gives the album that air of 80s authenticity, but to an extent it also dampens down the heaviness as if a wet towel was cast over the sound. Even so, songs like \u2018The Lonely Kestrel\u2019 and \u2018The Hulder\u2019s Gaze\u2019 maintain that gloomy air, but when the mists become too thick brisk tracks such as \u2018The Watcher\u2019, \u2018Intill Hans Borg\u2019 and \u2018Coming Down\u2019 gallop away the cloying vapours with their confident power metal strides.<\/p>\n

With Lethal Steel on hold, Watcher has risen from the stagnant pool and with one flap of leathery wings emits a stench of damp last inhaled during a time when all these tremors were new and exciting.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WATCHERKey To The Unbreachable Turborock Productions (2024)Rating: 7.5\/10 Key To The Unbreachable is the debut full-length album from Watcher, the solo project of Viktor Gustafsson who sang for Stockholm act Lethal Steel. Gustafsson has assembled ten songs, all of which sound as if they were recorded in 1985. If you like your heavy metal stormy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5729],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-watcher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103522,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103521\/revisions\/103522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}