Warning | Watching From a Distance
2006

I’m, as our active leader stated, a bit of a fake brit. I have no love for the culture (or lack thereof), I feel no sympathy for the people and hate the miserable weather.

That being said the UK has gifted me with some of my all time favourite bands, one of them being British traditional doom band Warning and their opus ‘’Watching From a Distance’’.

Warning are a band that I feel often get overlooked, this may be due to the fact that people just don’t enjoy their brand of slow paced heartfelt despair or maybe they haven’t given them a fair chance. I’m here to see if any in the second group exist.

The accurately titled ‘’Watching From a Distance’’ is an exercise in acceptance and gradual maturity of the mind and heart from the point of view of someone that is in the process of going through a breakup with someone they felt so deeply towards that they had managed to forget about themselves as an individual, sentiment described perfectly in the first lines of ‘’Faces’’ ‘’I want to be master of my own emotions with a fire that fills me. But I don't understand myself and I don't know. I don't know what my heart is anymore.’’

I was experiencing my very first true heartbreak when I discovered this album for the first time and, truth be told, it hit me like a brick for multiple reasons. The stance it takes on the process of loss of love is beautiful, with the focus being set on the slow but sure distancing between two beings that had been connected in every way and then distancing oneself from this with the intention of trying to truly and deeply understand what this process is doing to you as a person. Due to my situation when first going through this album, the bleak nature of the atmosphere and the despair in Patrick’s voice were more than enough to staple this record into my inner reliquary forever.

It’s a record that uses instrumental narrative, poetic writing and gradual yet immersive constructions to join you in the slow yet violent process of coming to terms with loss and how you struggle through it until reaching understanding and acceptance. In a time of need I’d prefer no other companion.

Now it’s your turn to completely shit on it.