Opinion: My problem with Watershed

So I was listening to Watershed again that other day (introducing my friend from university to them, she likes their Prog Death albums the most despite mainly listening to overproduced pop music in her free time). And for years I couldn't pin point the fact why I thought it was so underwhelming for me, but now I think I found out why.

Every idea on Watershed has been explored already in the Deliverance/Damnation "arc", just mashed into one album this time.

First of all Watershed's "feel" reminds me a lot of Deliverance. The drums are louder and "dryer" in the mix and the entire album has far more psychedelic passages than Ghost Reveries or BWP.

Secondly the song writing ideas are almost identical: The albums starts with Coil, which is an is a folky ballad just like Death Whispered a Lullaby. Then we get the heavy hitter which is Heir Apparent, which has the same relentlessness as Wreath (I have to admit: Heir Apparent beats Wreath. Wreath should've been cut to 7-8 mins). Then we go into the experimental side with The Lotus Eater, which is a brand new idea, yes, but Deliverance also had By the Pain... (severely underrated track btw, the riffs are fun. Pain should've ended @ 9:20 since its outro is pretty unnecessary). Burden's approach is similar to that of To Rid the Disease, but both are fantastic songs. Then we get Porcelain Heart, which is just disappointing. It sounds like they lost track of their own back catalogue and tried to re-create A Fair Judgement (a little Face of Melinda and Under the Weeping Moon is in there, as well). The second chorus of PH is also unnecessary. It should've ended at 6:11. Hessian Peel is a very good song but it also feels like they tried to recreate Master's Apprentices, just now it starts with clean vocals and then goes into harsh territory (they already tried to recreate MA by writing The Grand Conjuration). Hex Omega is the only song idea they haven't really done before, reminds me of Black Sabbath's Master of Reality for some reason.

Thirdly: The song structures itself are far weaker. I would go as far a say even more fragmented than on Orchid and Morningrise. Most of Watershed's transitions are abrupt and nonsensical (e.g. The Lotus Eater, Hessian Peel). Only 2/7 songs have coherent outros, Porcelain Heart and Hex Omega. It felt like they tried to be experimental to just add some time. Burden's outro is only interesting the first few times after that it disturbs the flow to much, same with the weird-ass dialogues in The Lotus Eater or Hessian Peel's frantic piano hammering.

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Watershed still is a good album, but I feel like they had Material for 40-45 minutes and then just added a little on top of it to make to 55. Does anybody agree with this assessment or am I alone?

Posted May 7, 2022, 3:17 PM UTC

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