Review: The Night Watch – An Embarrassment of Riches

Style: progressive rock/metal, folk, classical (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: violin in your prog
Review by: Sam
Country: Canada
Release date: 15 November, 2019

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the November 2019 edition of The Progressive Subway. If the review’s a little bit lacking, that’s because our standards were lower back then due to us using a different format than we do now.]

This album is a lot of things. The following sentence stolen from the band’s Bandcamp page does well in describing it: “An Embarrassment of Riches is a towering and richly detailed journey through external and internal landscapes, where post/progressive/black/doom and folk metal weave their way through a tapestry of post-rock/folk/jazz and classical textures.” And really I couldn’t say it any better myself. The only part they missed was the one-off acapella bit at the end of Dance of the Mountain People, but that’s minor. I was asked to review this, and honestly I’m struggling for words. It’s pretty far outside my wheelhouse. So instead of trying to describe the music in depth (the band already did that themselves adequately), I’ll focus on my enjoyment of it. 

And man, even that is hard. With most metal albums I have a canon of other things to place it in, to compare it to. With this I have no canon at all. In a sense that’s very refreshing. You don’t have to be busy with any preconceived notions about quality, but can just purely focus on your sole impression. And most certainly did I enjoy this. This band has a very wide sonic palette that far outshines your regular guitar wank instrumental band. The leading instrument is the violin, and as far as I can tell the songs are through composed. They’re very well-crafted and take you on a compelling journey. This soundscapes are rich and detailed, and the flow is organic. There are soft, laid back parts, which even become jazzy sometimes (see: Dance of the Mountain People), and more intense metal parts, all done equally well. And that makes this record so impressive. It doesn’t matter what type of music they throw at you, it always sounds natural and would still come across as well done outside of the song’s context. Most often these type of bands either sacrifice for the sake of composition or do one style better than another, but as far as I can tell The Night Watch do all well. This mentality also reflects in the production. Each instrument is audible and has its clear place in the soundscape. Heck, even the occasional xylophone sounds perfectly audible amidst all the other instruments. It’s a spacious mix with rich tones that just makes the record a pleasure to listen to.

I’m not sure how I want to wrap this up, but I just want to say that The Night Watch thoroughly impressed me with this album. Maybe this is just run of the mill in whatever genre this is, but for all I know it’s my favorite record I’ve reviewed so far this year. It’s a shame this isn’t available on CD, because I certainly would have purchased that. Huge recommend.

Recommended tracks: Land Ho!, Dance of the Mountain People, Shamaniac
You may also like: I wish I could tell you this
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page

Label: Independent

The Night Watch is:
– Evan Runge (violin)
– Nathanael Larochette (guitars)
– Matthew Cowan (fretless bass)
– Daniel Mollema (drums, percussion, piano)