Merchant and Watchtower Announce Joint New Zealand Tour

Sludge-drenched, Melbourne based riff-slingers Merchant and Watchtower are gracing our fair shores on Anzac weekend. Coming this way courtesy of BoredSound, the Aussie doom mongers will be besetting their prodigious tunes and omnipotent low end on our unsuspecting isles for three shows. To top it all off, Merchant have just emerged from the studio, having recorded the follow up to their crushing debut Suzerain.

The whirlwind jaunt will see the fuzz-fuelled squads grace Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington with support from excellently crushing NZ crews such as NIISA, Sick Old Man and Ritual Abuse to name a few.

Merchant and Watchtower

Tickets available HERE at UTR and in-store at Flying Out (Auckland) and Slow Boat/RPM (Wellington).

Check out the first track from Merchant’s debut album Suzerain…

Listen to prime Watchtower cut ‘Living Heads’ from their 2015 album Radiant Moon…

PRESS RELEASE:

From Melbourne, BoredSound are stoked as to present two of the best purveyors of fine sludge infused stonerdoom...

Merchant and WATCHTOWER

On tour this ANZAC weekend the aussies and kiwis are teaming up again to storm you ear drums in a battle for your cochleas!

Merchant call themselves “a psych-drenched sludge quartet hailing from Melbourne,” but the lead track “Seed & Soil” from their upcoming full-length debut Suzerain sounds a lot less like the dreamy introspection that comes to mind when I think of psych, and more like an exhaustive trudge through the murky swamps of hell populated by the rotting putrefaction of long-dead sinners’ corpses. The sound is pure nightmare, and if you have ever found comfort in fully facing that which terrifies you, you’ll understand how beautiful that can be - metalsucks.net

It wouldn’t surprise me if Watchtower were heavily influenced by jazz; given the way these songs flow. They seem so authentic; like they were written without the band even trying. I don’t know for sure, but there seems to be something of an improvisational element at work. The jam factor works really well for Watchtower....I don’t know what’s gotten into the water in Melbourne, Australia. But it must be some kind of alchemical elixir because that city is producing some exceptional doom metal of late....definitely worth your time - nocleansinging.com