Warning - Watching From A Distance: Live At Roadburn (Cappio Records)
Some albums are released to a huge fanfare, surrounded with expensive PR and marketing. Some albums are released quietly, and spend years slowly building a following. The reasons why some albums get huge support, while other albums rely on word of mouth is far more to do with how commercially successful an album is expected to be, rather than how musically or artistically successful. Large, wealthy corporations tend to be very risk averse, so many groundbreaking bands, bands that changed the genre they are part of, aren’t often signed or supported by big record labels. So, some of the most important albums in Heavy Metal have been released on small labels without any kind of marketing budget, and it’s taken years for the musicians behind groundbreaking albums to gain the recognition they deserve.
Sometimes years after the album was released and the band have disbanded. These days social media allows fans to make lots of noise about amazing new albums that were not deemed commercial enough to get a marketing budget. Fans themselves can provide the promotion though Blogs, reviews and by simply posting love for a new album on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube or TikTok. Before this bands were reliant on commercial marketing or on Fanzines and Tape Trading (Fanzines and Tape Trading was very important, but couldn’t hope to reach as many people as social media does today). This is why many passionate Metalheads are constantly discovering classic older albums, as well as new albums, as so many amazing genre defining albums came out very quietly, and aren’t that well known.
One such album was Warning’s 2006 masterpiece Watching From A Distance. Originally released on small label The Miskatonic Foundation, Watching From A Distance gained mixed reviews. Looking back at the reviews now, there was no middle ground; reviewers either loved it and recognised its genius, or hated it. Having a quick look on Metal Archives you’ll see a lot of 10 and 9 out of ten reviews, but just as many 1 and 2 out of tens. One of the main problems for the haters was the lyrical tone of the album, the lyrics and vocal performance are unashamedly emotional and deal with heartache or grief. The lyrics talk about love and what losing love felt like due to the breakdown of a relationship or from bereavement.
Watching From A Distance put emotional pain front and centre in what it was about, and this pain is palpably present in the lyrics, and in how lead singer Patric Walker sang those lyrics. The music was also deeply melancholic; very slow, sad riffs and melodies, that were closer to Funeral Doom (albeit Funeral Doom with clean vocals) than the traditional Doom of their debut. The album also features a lot of beautiful, mournful guitar harmonies that, despite the misery, were lush and very affecting. Musically WFAD has been a huge influence on the Doom scene, I can hear WFAD on so many other bands material. I feel that bands like Cross Vault or Pallbearer would be very different bands without this influence.
Some reviewers clearly found this uncomfortable listening for a genre that has a reputation for unreconstructed macho posturing. Those reviewers have hopefully either learned from their discomfort, or have run off to big up albums by Five Finger Death Punch and to masturbate over pictures of Phil Anselmo Nazi Saluting. For the rest of us who have an emotional age greater than 8, Watching From A Distance has become a classic, a Masterpiece of emotional melancholy. Not just a great, important album in the development of Heavy Metal, but on a personnel level, this album means SO much to so many fans, myself included. WFAD is so full of such powerful emotions that listening to it when you are not happy, and aren’t dealing well with not being happy, is a deeply cathartic experience.
It’s an album that has become an important way for many people to deal with depression and unhappiness. In the research for this review I have found a huge number of posts and articles stating this, as well as many people who claim this album has pulled them back from suicidal thoughts. I know how powerful it is as I have had this experience myself. As a Clinical Depression sufferer who has a habit of making bad decisions, I have leaned on this album very heavily for support on a number of occasions, as have many people I know. It’s so filled with grief and sadness that you feel as if someone understands, it stops you from feeling alone and by the end of the album, even though nothing in your life has changed, you feel closer to acceptance of what is making you unhappy.
Warning were founded in 1994 by Patrick Walker in Harlow, Essex. The band released their first album, The Strength To Dream in 1999 to favourable reviews. The album is closer to traditional Doom musically and lyrically than their later work. The band toured the album for a couple of years before going on hiatus in 2001. The band reconvened in 2005 for several European Festival appearances, which must have gone fairly well as a year later Warning released their groundbreaking album Watching From A Distance. The band continued to tour for the next 3 years, but disbanded in 2009. Over the years that followed Watching From A Distance slowly built a huge following and became a far bigger album than it had been when band was active.
In 2016 Warning announced that they would be reforming for a few performances in 2017 and 2018, where they would perform the whole of WFAD, so people who had discovered the album after the band had disbanded would have an opportunity to see the material played live. The line up that played those gigs was; Patrick Walker on Vocals and Guitar, Andy Prestidge on Drums, Wayne Taylor on Guitar and Marcus Hatfield on Bass.
I went to two of those performances; Damnation Festival in Leeds at the end of 2017 and then again the following May at Desertfest, the bands final performance in the United Kingdom. Due to the things I associate with this album, both of those gigs were very emotional experiences for me; I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried through most of the Damnation gig (as did several other people I could see). (I was a mess - Ed)
I was very excited when I found out that Roadburn were releasing a recording of the first of these performances from the 2017 Roadburn Festival. Excited and when I read the details of the release, slightly freaked out. I mentioned leaning heavily on WFAD for support over two specific painful situations in my life. Well, one of those situations came to a head on the 22nd of April 2017, the day Warning played Roadburn Festival. The fact that this live album was recorded on what I see as one of the worst days of my life is very spooky synchronicity. It’s definitely just a coincidence, but the fact that I was falling apart and having panic attack on top of panic attack as Warning were performing this album has just reinforced how important it is for me; it’s almost as if they knew what I was going through, and were trying to help.
After writing an intro to this review that is over a thousand words long, I should deal with an important question: is this live album any good?
Well, Yes it’s really good. Musically the album sounds very close to the original, studio album; the Guitar and Bass tones are very thick and full, the harmonies sound pretty much perfect and the drum sound is fantastic. The music is slightly lower in the mix than on the 2006 original, however as the vocals performance by Patrick Walker is central to the power of this album and as he manages to be even better than on the original recording of WFAD, this is actually a boon. Patrick has changed a few of the vocal lines, adding more melody and making his renditions slightly more emotional. It’s a fairly subtle change, but one that has a great effect on the overall sound, this is genuinely one of the best vocal performances I have ever heard, it goes strait for your emotional core, despite how sad and melancholy this is, it makes my soul happy.
The pacing of the songs is slightly slower than on WFAD. In many ways I think this is the same effect, albeit in the opposite direction, too fast bands playing faster when they play live; like Motorhead playing Overkill even faster when they played live. This slight slowing of the material has made it more melancholy, more sorrowful and more effective. The centre point of the album; the song Bridges, which is the saddest song on the saddest album, benefits from this slight slowing the most. The song is about bereavement, and means an enormous amount to me and many other people, is given a faltering feel, as if the song itself is aware of how powerful it is, and is trying to temper the grief, not avoid it, but make it bearable. It acknowledges the staggering pain of losing a friend, and allows the listener to deal with that pain. The line “I wish you were with me tonight” is one of the simplest expressions of grief, but it gets right to the crux of the pain of bereavement. Hearing it live is amazing and devastating simultaneously, it reminds you of your grief, but also helps you to deal with it, which is pretty much the definition of catharsis.
As you can probably work out from what I have already written, I am way too close to this album to judge it objectively. To me Watching From A Distance is a perfect album, it’s a 10 out of 10, which is what this perfect live version of a perfect album gets as well; giving it any less would be like tearing my heart out. 10/10
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