BANDS

Watch Tower

Quite a few bands have mentioned Watch Tower as one of their influences. Watch Tower’s impact on progressive rock and metal can be heard on their debut record, Energetic Disassembly. This CD is a fairly short listen, clocking in at under forty minutes, but it is definitely worth the time spent.

Not only did Energetic Disassembly launch the careers of Jason McMaster (Dangerous Toys/Broken Teeth) and Billy White., it also influenced the sound of many future progressive metal acts, including Dream Theater.

This Texas quartet’s music is best described as technical thrash. Think early Metallica style thrash with a bunch of progressive style time changes. Those of you who are familiar with Jason McMaster’s work in Dangerous Toys, have never heard him sing like this. Most of his vocals are sung at a higher, ear splitting register. His vocal approach was a lot more common by the speed metal acts of the 80’s.

The musicianship is nothing short of stellar on this disc. Not only does Billy White’s guitar work shine on this disc, but Doug Keyser’s bass work really stands out. Watch Tower’s sound may be a little on the experimental side, but fans of early 80’s thrash, will most certainly like this. If there are any downfalls with this disc, it would be with the production. The production quality is a little on the thin side, but this doesn’t hurt your listening experience.

Watchtower named as one of the 'Greatest Metal Bands in Texas Music History" on Houston Press - Click here to view

Gahdzilla Motor Company

GMC, as the band was come to be abbreviated as, formed in 97 in Austin Tx. and literally gave it their all in a handful of fast years, a few annual SXSW Music Showcases with excellent response from industry pundits who later coined the band as sounding like a 'Sci-Fi Metallica',as well as opening for Suicidal Tendencies,WASP, and other touring acts, the band had a strong following regionally in the south, and made appearances in a handful of international metal magazines with reviews and publication compilation cds.

The songs and style were heavily influenced by members fave bands from youth,starting with UFO and Thin Lizzy, to Black Sabbath and Slayer, with lots of heavy dirge valley's,and peaking with super speed metal blast beats.

Originally spelled, Godzilla Motor Company, by 2000 the 4 piece metal outfit changes the spelling after receiving a stack of faxes from the Japanese production company (Toho Limited) who claim to own the word 'Godzilla'.

The original players and key songwriters consisted of Bobby Landgraf-guitars,Chris Conley-guitars,and Jason McMaster-bass and vocals. The whirlwind of drummers started with original member-Ben Burton, who left the band by 1999. An excellent replacement followed/didn't work out to say the least,and then finally, the most recent recordings that month to 17 tracks existing,two of them that you hear on this site, drums were recorded by Erick Tatuaca. The band seemed dysfunctional with the spinning chair or drummers, but,owning up to a heavy hand in keeping metal alive in central Texas during the late 1990's on into 2000's.

The plan to at least release two full length CDs worth of GMC material is in the works,although the band more than likely, will not tour.

Update on GMC members
Bobby Landgraf tours with southern fried boogie heavy rock band, Honky, as well as session work.
Chris Conley does session work and front of house sound for touring acts.
Erick Tatuaca works as a session/touring drummer.

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Evil United

With EVIL UNITED, Jason McMaster (BROKEN TEETH, WATCHTOWER, IGNITER, DANGEROUS TOYS) can add one more band that's not exactly like any of his current/past bands to that ever-lengthening parenthetical notation of hard rock and heavy metal acts. Rivaled in quality terms — at least in recent years — only by the last BROKEN TEETH album ("Viva la Rock, Fantastico!"),EVIL UNITED's self-titled debut is one hot and thrashing, Texas metal son of a bitch! And it is just different enough — thanks in large part to McMaster's distinctive vocal attack — to set itself apart from the thrash metal mediocrity heap.

In creating this molten metal ruckus, McMaster is joined by bassist Don Van Stavern (RIOT, S.A. SLAYER),drummer Shakes West (MURDERDOLLS, NEUROTICA, SEBASTIAN BACH),and flame-throwing guitarists T.C. Connally (PB/DC, CULT TO FOLLOW) and John Valenzuela (PB/DC, URIAL).

REVIEW- EVIL UNITED self titled release-

You heard the phrase "bringin' it?" Well, this bunch done brought it with 10 butt-kickin' originals, two ominous instrumental interludes ("Dark Serenade" and "Lost Dream"),and a fuel-injected cover of THIN LIZZY's "Massacre". Of the 10 originals, much of what you get is well played, well written, and goddamn electric thrash metal that falls somewhere between OVERKILL and DESTRUCTION, yet with a smattering of dynamics that keeps the material fresh and flowing at any point along the way. You just can't argue with the methods of annihilation utilized by the group on "Dawn of Armageddon", "Wargod", "Spoonfed", the absolutely murderous "Hexorcism" and blazing opener (complete with SLAYER snippet) "Blasphemer", but neither can you argue with those used on any of the others. Included in that second batch are two rather PANTERA-like cuts in "Speak" and "Rise and Fall of Earth and Man", the former one of several that features McMaster's clever — and sometimes odd — vocal changeups, in this case a falsetto layer on the chorus.

McMaster's vocals do take a bit of getting used to and could stand to be turned down just a smidge in the mix, but ultimately become a staple of the EVIL UNITED sound. Though the most prominent vocal style on the album, McMaster doesn't stick exclusively to his lunatic shriek either, shifting in inflection and range with some regularity. In addition to the above mentioned left turn on "Speak", he also moves into a kind of epic, low register singing on "Wargod" and in somewhat similar manner on "Spoonfed". The low-register layer on the superb "Walking in Sodom" is peculiar, yet still appealing and after a couple of spins you'd not be able to imagine it any other way.

The flaying riffs and pummeling rhythms in combination with smart arranging make EVIL UNITED's debut a beast in uncertain terms, but when you throw in McMaster's vocal treatments it becomes much more of a memorable one. But what makes this album worthwhile is the fact that there isn't bad tune on here. That includes the instrumental pieces, although neither is long enough to have much of an impact anyway. Nitpick if you must and then buy the damn thing. This is genuine, true, and 100 percent Texas metal aggression. That's reason enough.

Taken from BLABBERMOUTH.NET

Click here for band information and to purchase Evil United Vinyl

BANDS

Broken Teeth

Dangerous Toys

Watch Tower

Gahdzilla Motor Company

Ignitor

Evil United

Hot Shot