Watcher - Mistress of our Time - CD

Hailing from Sweden, WATCHER was formed in 2023 by singer Viktor Gustafsson, initially as a one-man band. With Gustafsson handling everything, two recordings resulted in 2024: the rough ‘n’ ready debut album Key to the Unbreachable and the similarly styled EP Glory or Agony, which was released early the next year. Truer than true, these two recordings presented WATCHER as skillful disciples of first-wave Swedish heavy metal. In late 2024, guitarist Max Warnby and drummer Jakob Nilsson joined forces with Gustafsson, and WATCHER released a second EP, Chains of Crystal, in the spring of 2025 and soon afterwards played Muskelrock. In late 2025, second guitarist Timmy Lindgren joined the band, and the recording of a new full-length began.

If Chains of Crystal hinted at the fantasy-cloaked adrenaline that could flow through WATCHER’s veins with a fuller lineup, then Mistress of Our Time takes that proposition to a big, velvety boil. Thankfully, the ingredients are pretty much the same – said first-waveSweden legends like Heavy Load, Gotham City, Axewitch, Torch, and even Hot Records-era Europe along with the equally cult likes of Ostrogoth, Grim Reaper, and Sortilège – but where previous WATCHER recordings aimed to take the listener back to 1984, Mistress of Our Time truly does time-travel there with some unique, mystical magick. Energy, hooks, and atmosphere are all in harmonious lockstep here (with the emphasis on ENERGY), and the quartet gallop into the fray with triumphant poise and copious power. Unlike the oncoming thrash era, though, WATCHER wisely don’t try win the speed stakes; their swords & sorcery-bound anthems simply don’t need that. Authenticity is the riddle of steel they’ve mastered, by Crom.

If WATCHER’s goal has always been to keep the old heavy metal spirit alive, then Mistress of Our Time captures it with pinpoint poignancy!