The Night Watch

1 A Pale Horse Named Death - Lay My Soul To Waste
2 The Night Watch - The Night Watch
3 Mavis Staples - One True Vine
4 The Ins And Outs - Zero Gravity
5 Etran Finatawa - The Sahara Sessions
6 Organ Eyes - Marine Tantrum
7 A Tribe Called Red - Nation II Nation
8 Austra - Olympia
9 CHON - Newborn Sun
10 Rory Block - Avalon
11 RW Haller - Wasted Time
12 Vieux Farka Toure - Mon Pays
13 Amon Amarth - Deceiver of the Gods
14 Black Sabbath - 13
15 BornBroken - The Healing Powers Of Hate
16 Death Valley High - Positive Euth
17 Derek Christoff - The dark tape
18 Endemise - Far From The Light
19 Fuck the Facts - Amer
20 Insentient - Remnants
21 Jon Davis - live in studio
22 Lightning Dust - Fantasy
23 Nina Kraviz - Marcellus Pittman & Urban Tribe Remixes EP
24 Primal Scream - More Light
25 Sigur Rós - Kveikur
26 Stripmall Architecture - Suburban Reverb
27 The Idan Raichel Project - Quarter to Six - CKCU

1 A Pale Horse Named Death - Lay My Soul To Waste
2 The Night Watch - The Night Watch
3 Mavis Staples - One True Vine
4 The Ins And Outs - Zero Gravity
5 Etran Finatawa - The Sahara Sessions
6 Organ Eyes - Marine Tantrum
7 A Tribe Called Red - Nation II Nation
8 Austra - Olympia
9 CHON - Newborn Sun
10 Rory Block - Avalon
11 RW Haller - Wasted Time
12 Vieux Farka Toure - Mon Pays
13 Amon Amarth - Deceiver of the Gods
14 Black Sabbath - 13
15 BornBroken - The Healing Powers Of Hate
16 Death Valley High - Positive Euth
17 Derek Christoff - The dark tape
18 Endemise - Far From The Light
19 Fuck the Facts - Amer
20 Insentient - Remnants
21 Jon Davis - live in studio
22 Lightning Dust - Fantasy
23 Nina Kraviz - Marcellus Pittman & Urban Tribe Remixes EP
24 Primal Scream - More Light
25 Sigur Rós - Kveikur
26 Stripmall Architecture - Suburban Reverb
27 The Idan Raichel Project - Quarter to Six - CKCU

The Night Watch‘s debut album has been a difficult one for me to review. These days I’m tending towards easily digestible and clear-cut sub-genre metal, which this record is certainly not. This group of Ottawa-based musicians (which includes Nathanaël Larochette from neo-folk act Musk Ox) presents a complicated and diverse palette. It wasn’t until after several listens that I was able to form concrete opinions on what I was hearing. The Night Watch draw their sound from sources as diverse as progressive rock to black metal, jazz and post-rock. As a result this album is not a breezy, easily classifiable summer listen. This isn’t to say that The Night Watch is jarring or intense. Their album is one that plays well with others, and probably sounds great coming out of your open windows on a hot day. This first release, however, demands a lot from you. What you get out of it is largely dependent on what you put into it.

In the aptly named first track “In The Beginning,” The Night Watch provide a somewhat detailed blueprint for how things are going to play out. While metallic power chords and heavy drums make an appearance, the genre’s characteristic lead guitar has been replaced by a violin. The violin not only performs the role of lead guitar, at times it also has a wailing effect that makes the album’s lack of actual vocals all the more significant. Words are not needed here. Using the song titles as their cheat sheets, the instruments themselves spin the material from which you can craft your own tales.

The first two tracks start you out slow, drawing you into the musically-mixed sound The Night Watch have planned. “Don’t Creep,” the third track, is where the full extent of the band’s variety becomes apparent. The majority of “Courts of the East” has a very jazzy, almost swinging flow to it at times. It’s in the last minute that the first major use of blast beats appears and gives the track some additional heft. After your ears have been thoroughly warmed up, then you’re ready for the album’s last two tracks, “War Whales” and “Apocalyptic Beach.” Both tracks are as long as the rest of the album combined, and it’s within them that you can begin to hear the doom and black metal influences being brought to bear. These sub-genre elements are subdued, never overwhelming or cancelling out the vibe that has been crafted up to that point, but they do definitely lead to the record having a heavier back half.

The Night Watch have released a challenging debut, one which initially did not work for me. Though not all the tracks stand out, it’s with repeated listens that it becomes apparent to me that the album is an exciting piece of avant-garde metal/post-rock/insert label here. Rather than approaching The Night Watch with particular expectations, give the album a listen or two (or four) and pay attention to what it has to offer. Its rewards increase with each play. - Hellbound

The Night Watch‘s debut album has been a difficult one for me to review. These days I’m tending towards easily digestible and clear-cut sub-genre metal, which this record is certainly not. This group of Ottawa-based musicians (which includes Nathanaël Larochette from neo-folk act Musk Ox) presents a complicated and diverse palette. It wasn’t until after several listens that I was able to form concrete opinions on what I was hearing. The Night Watch draw their sound from sources as diverse as progressive rock to black metal, jazz and post-rock. As a result this album is not a breezy, easily classifiable summer listen. This isn’t to say that The Night Watch is jarring or intense. Their album is one that plays well with others, and probably sounds great coming out of your open windows on a hot day. This first release, however, demands a lot from you. What you get out of it is largely dependent on what you put into it.

In the aptly named first track “In The Beginning,” The Night Watch provide a somewhat detailed blueprint for how things are going to play out. While metallic power chords and heavy drums make an appearance, the genre’s characteristic lead guitar has been replaced by a violin. The violin not only performs the role of lead guitar, at times it also has a wailing effect that makes the album’s lack of actual vocals all the more significant. Words are not needed here. Using the song titles as their cheat sheets, the instruments themselves spin the material from which you can craft your own tales.

The first two tracks start you out slow, drawing you into the musically-mixed sound The Night Watch have planned. “Don’t Creep,” the third track, is where the full extent of the band’s variety becomes apparent. The majority of “Courts of the East” has a very jazzy, almost swinging flow to it at times. It’s in the last minute that the first major use of blast beats appears and gives the track some additional heft. After your ears have been thoroughly warmed up, then you’re ready for the album’s last two tracks, “War Whales” and “Apocalyptic Beach.” Both tracks are as long as the rest of the album combined, and it’s within them that you can begin to hear the doom and black metal influences being brought to bear. These sub-genre elements are subdued, never overwhelming or cancelling out the vibe that has been crafted up to that point, but they do definitely lead to the record having a heavier back half.

The Night Watch have released a challenging debut, one which initially did not work for me. Though not all the tracks stand out, it’s with repeated listens that it becomes apparent to me that the album is an exciting piece of avant-garde metal/post-rock/insert label here. Rather than approaching The Night Watch with particular expectations, give the album a listen or two (or four) and pay attention to what it has to offer. Its rewards increase with each play. - Hellbound

Ottawa, ON-based four-piece instrumental experiment the Night Watch are a musical chimera. Grafting together elements of neo-folk, soaring classical, acoustic black metal, vibrant neo-folk and even doom, their self-titled debut creates a lush, cinematic soundscape. The songs are often driven forward by Evan Runge's dancing, daring violin, with a great deal of the muscle and momentum supplied by Nathanaël Larochette's (Musk Ox) guitars and Wurlitzer. When all of the instruments collide, however, it often results in an elemental clash that hits the listener like a progressive cloud burst. What the Night Watch are able to do with textures is this record's greatest achievements, as a traditional violin line is laid atop a bleak, buzzing riff progression or some jazzy drumming is superimposed against a tender acoustic passage. Even at its gentlest and most tentative, The Night Watch has a metallic heaviness that makes this musical experiment a success. - Exclaim!

Ottawa, ON-based four-piece instrumental experiment the Night Watch are a musical chimera. Grafting together elements of neo-folk, soaring classical, acoustic black metal, vibrant neo-folk and even doom, their self-titled debut creates a lush, cinematic soundscape. The songs are often driven forward by Evan Runge's dancing, daring violin, with a great deal of the muscle and momentum supplied by Nathanaël Larochette's (Musk Ox) guitars and Wurlitzer. When all of the instruments collide, however, it often results in an elemental clash that hits the listener like a progressive cloud burst. What the Night Watch are able to do with textures is this record's greatest achievements, as a traditional violin line is laid atop a bleak, buzzing riff progression or some jazzy drumming is superimposed against a tender acoustic passage. Even at its gentlest and most tentative, The Night Watch has a metallic heaviness that makes this musical experiment a success. - Exclaim!

Instrumental metal bands can be a mixed bag, as there are no set boundaries for what a band should do. One band that is taking this approach is the Ottawa, ON band The Night Watch. With influences that are as wide-reaching as their sound, as evidenced on their self-titled debut, The Night Watch is a band to watch for if you seek something a little different in the instrumental metal scene.

As mentioned earlier, The Night Watch have a wide array of influences, and with elements of jazz, post rock, classical, neofolk, and metal music present on the self-titled album, it would take a lot of hard work and skill to make this arrangement work, and The Night Watch do just that. The quartet makes music that is not only great, but also quite fun to listen to, as there isn’t a moment where it gets boring, especially on songs such as “In the Beginning” and “Don’t Creep.” However, it isn’t just the upbeat tracks that define The Night Watch, as they can also get serious with the best of them, as evidenced on “War Whales,” which is a more somber song that shows their ability to develop emotion they desire within the songs. The Night Watch likes to describe themselves as “the loudest silent movie ever,” and with every track having its own unique identity on the album, it almost sounds like seven different short silent films. Though every band member has their part in making the songs worthwhile, it is violinist Evan Runge that makes the songs on the album special, as proven on “Apocalypse Beach,” which is one of the best songs on an album full of great songs. The songs do provide a challenge for the listener to stay on top of what’s going on, since it is strictly an instrumental album, but it sounds so much better as something to put on as background noise, as it doesn’t force the listener to think too hard about what is going on within the music. The ease in which a listener can get into the music indicates that even with the myriad of influences on display, The Night Watch finds a way to have all of them in there without making a mess of itself, a testament to their abilities in music writing.

Most instrumental bands exist solely to show off what they can do rather than make music that will keep the listener’s attention for the duration of an album. Along with last year’s breakthrough instrumental band Scale the Summit, The Night Watch is a band to pay attention to because they make music that not only keeps the listener, but also has them coming back for more. On their self-titled debut, The Night Watch only leaves the question of what they will do for an encore because debut albums don’t come any better than what The Night Watch just produced. - Metal Psalter

Instrumental metal bands can be a mixed bag, as there are no set boundaries for what a band should do. One band that is taking this approach is the Ottawa, ON band The Night Watch. With influences that are as wide-reaching as their sound, as evidenced on their self-titled debut, The Night Watch is a band to watch for if you seek something a little different in the instrumental metal scene.

As mentioned earlier, The Night Watch have a wide array of influences, and with elements of jazz, post rock, classical, neofolk, and metal music present on the self-titled album, it would take a lot of hard work and skill to make this arrangement work, and The Night Watch do just that. The quartet makes music that is not only great, but also quite fun to listen to, as there isn’t a moment where it gets boring, especially on songs such as “In the Beginning” and “Don’t Creep.” However, it isn’t just the upbeat tracks that define The Night Watch, as they can also get serious with the best of them, as evidenced on “War Whales,” which is a more somber song that shows their ability to develop emotion they desire within the songs. The Night Watch likes to describe themselves as “the loudest silent movie ever,” and with every track having its own unique identity on the album, it almost sounds like seven different short silent films. Though every band member has their part in making the songs worthwhile, it is violinist Evan Runge that makes the songs on the album special, as proven on “Apocalypse Beach,” which is one of the best songs on an album full of great songs. The songs do provide a challenge for the listener to stay on top of what’s going on, since it is strictly an instrumental album, but it sounds so much better as something to put on as background noise, as it doesn’t force the listener to think too hard about what is going on within the music. The ease in which a listener can get into the music indicates that even with the myriad of influences on display, The Night Watch finds a way to have all of them in there without making a mess of itself, a testament to their abilities in music writing.

Most instrumental bands exist solely to show off what they can do rather than make music that will keep the listener’s attention for the duration of an album. Along with last year’s breakthrough instrumental band Scale the Summit, The Night Watch is a band to pay attention to because they make music that not only keeps the listener, but also has them coming back for more. On their self-titled debut, The Night Watch only leaves the question of what they will do for an encore because debut albums don’t come any better than what The Night Watch just produced. - Metal Psalter