Watchmen – Fear No Evil

Watchmen
Fear No Evil
1987 (no label)
Tacoma, Washington, USA

Greg Sweet – Vocals
Kevin Antholt – Keyboards
Doug Larson – Bass
Kevin Whisler – Drums
Dave Van Liew – Guitars

Side 1:

1. Fear No Evil
2. Tug of War
3. Set Free
4. The Healer

Side 2:

1. Kingdom Come
2. Power from the Lamb
3. Christian Soldier
4. His Song

Watchmen was one of many bands that signed to a small Christian label and released one album before disappearing (in this case, it was Generation on Regency Records). This demo was pre-label, and seems to sport a heavier sound than I remember the label release having. The sound here is commercial metal with a fair bit of neo-classical metal keyboards mixed with a Dio influence. It’s a really strong demo, so I see why they got signed. I seem to remember they went for a more straight commercial sound on their label release (one review claimed it was “cheesed out by their producer (heavy on synth and sax)” – which is too bad). I did a quick check of Generation on YouTube, and several songs have a Bloodgood influence, and there is some good metal on there – but the production does push the guitars too far down, and there are too many rock/mellow/sax songs. This demo is 7 songs of straight-up metal and then one metal power ballad.