Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Overkill
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2017
Runtime: 111:26
Rating: 5/5
Who else but Overkill, one of the longest-chomping thrash metal behemoths in our galaxy? The legendary thrash metal matadors from New Jersey, going nonstop since 1980, have for years been considered probably the hardest workers in their whole genre. From regular drops of fresh studio albums, of which there are now, count ’em, 18 as of this year, to nonstop touring, with several separate runs every year. Overkill play all over the globe, all the time. Summer festivals, headlining tours. Spring, fall, summer. Time is irrelevant. Or is it? Because now it’s time to celebrate and mark historic, landmark moments in the band’s career. So Overkill have slowly crept up to the 25th anniversary of the album »Horrorscope« (1991) and the 30th anniversary of the debut »Feel the Fire« (1985).
The band picked none other than Germany to record a show in which they played both cult albums in full, back to back, from head to toe. Overkill have enjoyed incredible support and devotion from the crowds there for years. On April 16, 2016, Overkill played in Oberhausen, Germany. In 2014, the hall there, Turbnenhalle 2, where this live recording comes from, was renovated on a budget of two million euros and its capacity was expanded, so today it can hold up to 1,800 concertgoers. And on that April night, Turbinenhalle 2 was packed to the rafters. Think back to Overkill’s past stops in Ljubljana or Graz, Austria: here at home or with our northern neighbors, a gig like that draws around 500 people, but once the whole circus moves onto German soil, you have to talk in multiples of those numbers. The setting of Turbinenhalle 2 surely boosted the band’s motivation too, even though it’s well known that Overkill always play flat out, whether one person is watching or a crowd of several thousand.
This live document is phenomenal in every respect. Now 58 years old, Bobby Blitz roars and rages like a 20-year-old stallion off the leash. So the meds clearly aren’t wearing off! He’s backed by a ridiculously tight gang of bandmates with some serious harmony among them. For this show, the band’s drum tech Eddie Garcia jumped in to help out. Eddie otherwise drums for a band with the funny name Pissing Razors. He also helped the band out at shows in 2017, and we caught him on stage with Overkill in Graz in November 2016. Eddie stepped into the boots of the band’s then-official drummer Ron Lipnicki, who had to bail on these gigs because of urgent family obligations. Later it turned out Overkill had already brought in a new drummer. That’s Jason Bittner (Flotsam And Jetsam), with whom they’ve already started recording a new studio album, but that’s another story. Back to the Oberhausen show.
Brilliant execution, no letting up, a performance that knows only top gear, pedal to the floor! An incredible dose of high-octane adrenaline torture, where the energy flux just keeps giving the listener goosebumps. Bobby Blitz is again incredibly commanding when talking to the crowd, who are literally eating out of his hand. Mixing in the »gang« vocals from the rest of the crew and backed by the crowd’s wild singing, Blitz remains the true king of his doctrine: great stage commander and one-of-a-kind vocal executioner. The chemistry of the quintet is unreal, and even after 36 (and counting) years, the band shows no sign of wear on the tooth enamel, which is obviously tempered from stainless steel, the stuff this fantastic Overkill machine chomps and tears with so mercilessly. A thrash metal beast delivering a new document that, modestly put, is proof of this band’s extraordinary live punch.
It’s also a joy to revisit these two iron-clad classics in the band’s discography, the ones with which Overkill, way back in the early days of their career takeoff, planted a granite monument on the thrash metal map of the world. It’s incredible how flintily both albums still grab 25 and 30 years later. The energy of this document also conjures up those times when the band was young, potent, tempestuous, hungry to prove itself, untamed, with a glimpse of the band’s rapid artistic growth in its first phase. I hate repeating myself, but it has to be said that even in its mature years the band keeps all the potency, wildness and savagery that defined its essence in its pioneering days, when, together with their contemporaries, they were building thrash metal’s image around the world.
True fans will definitely want the DVD too, which is available just like this double CD. Sixteen long years we waited for a proper new live document from Overkill (»Wrecking Everything« came out in 2002). The wait more than paid off. »Live In Overhausen« is an authentic imprint of the essence of an incredibly mature and seasoned lineup of pioneering stock, one that, with its supremely convincing, hard-hitting live execution, proves that Overkill’s live form is still out of reach for many a much younger band, and at the same time assures all of us that Overkill won’t be slowing down anytime soon in their famous thrash metal mauling. With the kind of fire Overkill show on »Live In Overhausen«, you wouldn’t be all that surprised if Bobby and the gang were still at it thirty years from now, celebrating the 60th anniversary of their studio debut.
Lineup
Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth – vocals
Dave Linsk – guitar, backing vocals
Derek “The Skull” Tailer – guitar, backing vocals
D.D. Verni – bass, backing vocals
Eddie Garcia – drums
Production
Overkill
Track list
CD.1 (album “Horrorscope”)
01. Coma
02. Infectious
03. Blood Money
04. Thanx For Nothin’
05. Bare Bones
06. Horrorscope
07. New Machine
08. Frankenstein
09. Live Young Die Free
10. Nice Day – for a Funeral
11. Soulitude
CD 2. (album “Fell the Fire”):
01. Raise The Dead
02. Rotten To The Core
03. There’s No Tomorrow
04. Second Son
05. Hammerhead
06. Feel The Fire
07. Blood And Iron
08. Kill at Command
09. Overkill
10. Fuck You
