Charred Walls Of The Damned
Creatures Watching Over The Dead
(Metal Blade Records)
After releasing what I considered a landmark sophomore in Cold Winds On Timless Days, (especially seeing as I didn’t care all that much for Charred Walls Of The Dead’s debut) this New York technical power/thrash supergroup are back with their first record in five years. Oddly enough, reviews were mixed on the band’s sophomore, but from what I’ve read it seems to come from a seemingly low-attention span from most metalheads, amounting to complaints of the tracks being too long and drawn out – I thought that was the best part, personally. So this review is namely coming from an unpopular opinion in the first place. Let’s just get that out of the way, before I begin.
In any case, the band have been apparently reading those reviews as Creatures Watching Over The Dead is a much shorter album, with equally shorter songs. In fact, the record itself is only a little over a half an hour long and doesn’t even reach the forty-minute mark. It almost feels like an EP and is quickly over as soon as it begins. That being said, we’re getting a decidedly punchy performance here and that’s where the real appeal of the disc will be. Tim “Ripper” Owens belts out several meaningful lines and choruses quite like he did on the last one, but as the songs are shorter and come in bite-sized snippets, the tracks come off a bit more comercially viable and reach into the level of mainstream pop-rock dueling it out with technical progressive power metal. The longest track on the album is the five minute “As I Catch My Breath” which could literally be done in any style and comes across with a kind of mainstream rock flair, but the very fact that there’s enough technical precision in the background certainly makes for a rather electrifying performance. “Lies” continues that, with Jason Suecof dipping into some metalcore leads that unexpectedly run into something that I’d expect from nineties rock. But not every track comes off in this fashion, as “The Soulless” and “Reach Into The Light” both offer Painkiller-era Priest or Ripper era Iced Earth moments, definitely drilled into form by the extravagantly calculated drumwork of Richard Christy.
I actually have to break into another paragraph here, because Christy’s drumwork on this record simply warrants it. Most people are interested in Charred Walls Of The Dead for a few reasons, mainly Richard Christy. Death, Iced Earth – you know the bands he shined in greatest, and here we have that lightning striking again. Those who might mistakenly be under the assumption that Christy has gotten old and merely writes a few pieces here and there along with hopping on the Howard Stern show every now and again (Stern is actually a huge influence of mine as far as my approach to journalism is concerned) will definitely get a dose of reality when they hear the tremendous backbone that appears on this performance. No matter the tempo of the piece, Christy nails it – flawlessly. Creatures Watching Over The Dead is actually one of those albums in particular where you’re going to notice the drumming as soon as your press/click play. It’s literally that memorable, and proves that while these men might be getting older, their performance here is just as good as any they’ve offered prior.
That’s also where I have to mention Suecof again. Known for a couple of parody bands, (and possibly one of the greatest parody metal projects on earth, Crotchduster) he certainly plays with all seriousness on this album. Not only are the leads and riffs notable, but towards the end of the record, we’ll notice as the man literally shreds his ass off on some very powerful solo efforts. At first, there aren’t a great deal of solos on the disc, but when these pieces do finally come in, they’ll knock you on the floor. Even the opening lead for the album is noteworthy. From the minute you push/click play on the damn thing, it automatically starts with a technical melody that just feels right. That lead opens up for an absolute killer at the start with “My Eyes” which is one of the single best songs I’ve heard Owens on throughout his lengthy career. The same can be said for “Living In The Shadow Of Yesterday” which isn’t quite as metallic as one might expect, but still maintains an excellent feel as a rock song.
Once again, Creatures Watching Over The Damned feels like a more mainstream effort in it’s verse/chorus approach, and aside from the technicality of the drumming and the guitar work, as well as Steve DiGeorgio’s pounding bass leads; this disc certainly has some radio-friendly material on it and I’m not upset by that one bit. I’m going to go ahead and tell you right now that I’ve moved on to the classic rock stations, because there’s just nothing all that memorable on terrestrial modern rock stations these days. To be honest, I don’t even know what really makes up modern radio rock in 2016 and hopefully some singles from this record might find themselves displayed via that medium. Obviously there are a couple heavier cuts here that might be too much for the mainstream, but the very fact that we have a couple of tracks that seem to soar above and beyond anything I’ve heard from modern rock stations in the last two decades certainly seems a good note for Charred Walls Of The Dead.
Charred Walls Of The Damned are a rare breed of supergroup that I don’t think many people expected to last quite as long as they have, and if this record doesn’t do it for you, then I guess you might as well hang it up. In my book, Creatures Watching Over The Dead is a sign of continuing maturity for the act, despite it’s rather short length. I guess it was made for multiple listens and having listened to the thing about four times already during the writing of this review, I guess that method worked for them. These guys have made a disc that will appear to both fans of Iced Earth and Judas Priest, as well as radio rockers like Disturbed and even pop-rock music in general. It’s definitely one of my favorite records of the year and I’d play the hell out of it myself – as I am already doing, of course.
Purchase Creatures Watching Over The Dead here.
