Author: Urban Bolta
Artist: Overkill
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2012
Length: 50:27
Rating: 3.5/5
After just two years, Overkill are back with a new album. This is a band that never chased big commercial success or threatened the »Big Four of thrash«, even though they easily outdo the much-hyped Big Four in plenty of ways. Overkill are all drive, power and willpower. They don’t know the meaning of a break, so a new record every two or three years has become a constant over the decades. They’re one of those steel-tough bands in the vein of Saxon or Motörhead who have never left their fans high and dry. The album »The Electric Age« is no exception. It’s a 100% Overkill album.
The famous New York »Bats« have played in the same lineup since 2005, already the longest-running Overkill lineup in their entire history. Knowing each other inside out, a relaxed vibe in the band and chemistry that just works are the reasons for their incredible pace, still cranking out new albums like on an assembly line in the autumn of their career. After the warmly received predecessor »Ironbound« (2010), which many critics even declared Overkill’s best release of the last two decades, came the tough task – meeting the sky-high expectations of loyal supporters by jumping into the age of electricity.
The opener Come And Get It holds all of Overkill’s trademark language: an ambient instrumental intro that only then unfolds into uncompromising, half-step-tuned aggression. Throughout the album, Overkill deftly maneuver between those two elements. Thrashy outbursts of rage via cranked-up guitars and Bobby’s screaming wisely give way to a more melodic approach in stretched-out instrumental passages, forming a listenable whole around five-minute tracks. With »The Electric Age« Overkill have once again proven themselves at fitting multiple ideas into a single composition, so the songs easily keep the listener on their toes. A great example of the symbiotic blend of aggression on one side and instrumental play on the other is, for instance, Drop The Hammer. The two guitar lines stay clearly separate the whole time, and it’s precisely the twin-guitar playing that successfully delivers a full, rich sound. With this album Overkill have finally shaken off the last remnants of the aggressive groove lines they started trendily working into their sound at the turn of the millennium, when bands like Machine Head or Soulfly briefly conquered the metal world, which will of course please the most conservative Overkill followers above all. For a farewell, Good Night strikes, a textbook case of a typical Overkill element: multi-voice singing in the verse between choruses, which can come out damn good!
The legendary Bobby »Blitz Ellsworth is unbelievable! At fifty-two, over three decades into his career and thousands of gigs played, the frontman stays true to the path he laid out in 1980. Bobby pretty much screams his way through most of the album, and his caustic, almost grating timbre keeps ringing in the listener’s ears long after the record has run out of playing time.
The final sound is excellent too. Sonically the album follows the production blueprint of »Ironbound«, with D.D.’s venomously cranked bass line and a really emphasized rhythm section overall. It’s a trendily modern thrash production which, together with the old-school musical foundation, forms a model blend of the seemingly incompatible – classic sound meets newer production.
The music will please all the fans, even if by entering the age of electricity Overkill aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel. With »The Electric Age« the New York Bats march down the well-trodden path of the rock-solid old-school thrash metal school. Naturally, you can’t (and shouldn’t) expect anything else from them in 2012. Sturdily following their own legacy is what Overkill shine at, and it’s reason enough that they’ll keep filling clubs across America and Europe with ease. Truth be told, with all those constant new releases they struggle to shake the charge of being generic, but you have to know that the line between generic and oversaturated is still clearly drawn. As long as they don’t cross it, new albums will be more than welcome!
Lineup
Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth – vocals
D.D. Verni – bass, backing vocals
Dave Linsk – guitar, backing vocals
Derek “The Skull” Tailer – guitar, backing vocals
Ron Lipnicki – drums
Tracklist
1. Come And Get It
2. Electric Rattlesnake
3. Wish You Were Dead
4. Black Daze
5. Save Yourself
6. Drop The Hammer
7. 21st Century Man
8. Old Wounds New Scars
9. All Over But The Shouting
10. Good Night
