I have a soft spot for anything from my local area, especially considering Chicago never really had a "scene" per se. Nothing like thrash in the Bay Area or death metal in Florida or the emergence of melodeath in Gothenburg. Nope, Chicago and the surrounding midwest area seems to have none of that. But I go on this same tangent whenever I review something from my area so maybe I'm just talking out of my ass (most likely). Regardless, this here is the three song demo of local thrash outfit, Clocktower.
Like the last low budget three track demo I reviewed (Executioner), this unnamed demo consists of two originals and closes with a cover. Of the two originals, "Undeserving of Life" is probably the better one, consisting of really strong thrash riffing with a hint of death metal in some of the percussion and melodies. The vocals seem to wander between harsh, Mille Petrozza styled snarlings and a rough yell, but they always seem to fit, so there's nothing wrong with them. "Pseudo-Sapien" is actually probably the better song in a technical sense, with more challenging arrangements for each member, but it's less memorable. On most listens it just seems to blur into the grand scheme of things and doesn't really stand out unless I make a concerted effort to analyze it.
The demo closes out with a cover of "Nosferatu" by the mighty Coroner, and it's by all means a solid cover, and fortunately it isn't the best track. This shows that Clocktower's songwriting skills are certainly up to snuff and they'll likely only get better as time goes on. The cover ends with an extremely stupid sample from an episode of Spongebob Squarepants, but knowing Eddie and Allen's other band, Smash Potater, silly humor just seems to be their thing, so I suppose I won't hold it against them too hard. So on the whole it's pretty solid, nothing particularly new or ear catching, but it's competent and intense and everything death/thrash should be. Give it a listen.
RATING - 71%
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