Bastard Son

I became first acquainted with Watch Them Die back when Bastard Son originally released in 2005: My tastes for anything metal led me to Hot Topic strangely enough, where I purchased a compilation CD/DVD containing both the audio and video for the title track from Bastard Son. I liked the song well enough and judged it as one of the better tracks on that compilation, but I never got into them for whatever reason. Fast forward many years, and I now own both full-length albums produced by this band on CD simply because I feel their music deserves much more recognition. No, really, I feel like I should have taken this band more seriously when I first discovered them, considering they haven’t put out any fresh music since this album dropped all those years ago, and for a five-piece band who pushed their sound with heavy influences from crust punk and thrash metal, I’m genuinely surprised they didn’t get more popular.

The first song on this record is the aforementioned title track, opening the album with an aggressive blast where the guitars and vocals punch themselves into meaty existence. I say meaty because of the guitar tone featured throughout the album – it’s thick yet clear, audible yet not overpowering, suitable support for the production to dance above. I have little experience with music production nor composition, but I will admit to loving the guitar’s almost tangible tone as it pumps out fast riffs while expertly handling the melodic aspects of its own structure, like when the guitars emit a mid-pitched melodic riff around a minute into “Battle Lust.” I especially like how the guitars also utilize atmosphere to the music’s advantage, such as the tranquil beginnings of “Throne of Lies” and “Early Mourning” providing appropriate buildups towards the usual excitable sound.

The bass guitar’s performance satisfies the musical tendencies within me as it frantically furthers the ruthless riffage with amazing aplomb by delineating the balance between the guitar’s heightened importance and the vocalist’s crazed howls, even if I feel like the rest of the band outshines him throughout the album. This idea of the bass joining guitars and vocals together, however, probably best represents how I feel about its role in the composition: A necessary mediator between two unstable parties that can wrangle everyone together and get the most out of their performances. Speaking of vocals, they stand out for me thanks to the passion and ability displayed on this album – the singer’s pitch remains similarly raspy throughout most of the running time, but by showcasing intense screams and violent lyrics, his performance makes a perfect accompaniment to the energetic music emanating from the rest of the band. Several songs even use backing vocal tracks to good effect such as the opening sections to “Under Flames” and “Throne of Lies,” displaying interesting introductions to the listener as the music progresses into more of the controlled chaos I appreciate with this band. “Born to Suffer” even contains a symphonic section early on to punctuate its building atmosphere, giving gravitas to the penultimate track as it rolls into the rest of the song.

If there’s one aspect of this project I can confidently point at as a detectable flaw, it would be the occasional dip in riff quality. I know that sounds weird, so allow me to explain: Four minutes and five seconds into “Horizon,” the guitars play a single lower-pitched note really fast for three straight seconds. This may not sound like much at first, but when considering how most of the album flaunts these harmonic riffs where notes barely last for fractions of a second, suddenly hearing the guitars play the same note for three whole seconds sounds to me like the band committed sacrilege of the highest metal order. I exaggerate the importance of this small detail, but the issue also appears on the closing track, the Bathory cover of “Armageddon,” and to a much greater degree as the song actually ends on another one-note staccato riff. Again, this may sound insignificant, but I feel like the last moments on an album serves an integral function in ensuring the listener comes away from the music content, and when a sizable part of the final song sounds stale compared to what I got beforehand, it just makes me think the band struggled for a final song and threw together a quick cover to round out the album. Seriously, the band could have left it at “Born to Suffer,” and I would probably give Bastard Son a higher rating – it’s just a shame the final track sours the meal for me a bit. That’s not to say the final sustained note ruins the entire experience – thankfully, it retains the chunky guitar tone, so it’s not a complete tonal change, and it’s not as if they end on something juvenile like on their first album.

Indeed, the only thing that could shatter my enjoyment of this album is the knowledge that Bastard Son would be the unofficial final release from this group, a sophomore swansong that never really got its time to shine. Even fifteen years later, this band remains in obscurity alongside the myriad bands that all got their start around that same time – with stuff like Killswitch Engage, Bullet For My Valentine, and Lamb of God already dominating the rock and metal airwaves in the early-mid 2000’s, the fact this album didn’t get anywhere near enough attention saddens me. From what I’ve seen, the metal underground appreciates technicality and composition, and Bastard Son features both qualities in large amounts, even with its disappointing closer. I highly recommend this CD and band for their furious energy and intricate compositions – I don’t know if the band even sees proceeds from album sales nowadays, considering they’re not signed to Century Media anymore, but I wanted to share my joy in finding a proverbial diamond in the rough with you, the reader, to increase awareness of this awesome creation.