This album is the 10th studio album from Overkill, this album delivers plenty of heavy and brutal riffing, pounding drumbeats, and grinding bass lines. Overkill is a band that seems to not be affected by the mainstream, the material on this album does sound pretty similiar to some of their earlier stuff, but there are some wierd sounds and vocal parts on this album though.
There is a new line-up on this record and the new crew members are, Joe Comeau on guitars, Sebastian Marino also on guitars and Tim Mallare on the drums. And we also have the two original members Bobby Blitz and D.D. Verni.
And here is the Track-By-Track review
Necroshine (6:02)
The song starts with some strange riffs that increases in speed and fast turns into a classic "Kill riff. It stops and some wierd computer sound starts to play and it oddly sounds like a chopper, the shredding riffs kicks but the song slows down to a heavy pounding song. The vocals are also wierd here, some times it sounds like a duck, it just sounds childish. The song is good but the vocals lowers the rating, a good opener song. 4/5
My December (5:01)
This song is also a slow song with a bit odd vocals, Blitz sings lot of harmonic parts and his original stuff. The intro riff is not catchy and unfortunatly the rest of the riffs does not get the listeners attention. After about two minutes the song changes its tempo and some sweet double bass drums kicks in along with heavy riffing but not a highlight though. 3/5
Let Us Prey (6:40)
The intro is played with a medium paced bass and some guitar chords, the song gets more heavy but it has a boring flow, a bit deppressing actually. But the song do get faster and more thrashier and a bit catchy, the only problem with this song is the long intro and the outro is basically the same as the intro. 3.25/5
80 Cycles (5:50)
Yet another slow and heavy intro and the tempos are switching time to time. The song has an evil feeling to it but this song is boring. The slow tempo and Bobby"s vocals does not make a work here. 2.75/5
Revelation (4:39)
The song starts with this strange riff the reminds you of the sounds from a Nintendo game, anyway this song is a fast song with shredding riffs and faster drumming. The guitars solos are great and there is also a guest appearence here, a female singer but I don"t know her name.
This is one of the better songs but it doesn"t make it to the top. 4.5/5
Stone Cold Jesus (5:18)
Any Metallica fan would say that the intro sounds like a part from Cliff"s bass-solo song Pulling Teeth and I am 90% that it is too. This song kicks a**, the song is slow but the riffs feels heavier and the vocals are good. The song is slightly catchy and is worth checking out. 5/5
Forked Tongue Kiss (4:02)
This song is one of the fastest songs of the album and it is also one of the catchiest. The vocals are dark at the beginning but later changes to it normal sound. The riffs are heavy but they sometimes sound a bit wierd, the chorus are good and catchy but the verse is not so good. 4/5
I Am Fear (4:30)
The intro is very thrashy along with some screachy guitar riffs, there are also some nice bass-lines or mini solos or fillers whatever you call them. Good solos and good vocals but this song does not make any impression. 3.25/5
Black Line (4:43)
This song has fast drums but not as fast as Slayer-drumming, great shredding riffs but the vocals is not some of the best here, personally I don"t like when others sings along with Blitz as the do in this song. One annoying thing with this song is a yell scream that you can hear in the background when no one sings. One good thing is at the end, when D.D. plays a short melodic bass section, but otherwise this song does not catch the attention from the listener. 3/5
Dead Man (4:13)
This song starts off with some fast drums and heavy riffing, they stop and D.D. plays this creepy bass-line along with Blitz"s more calm vocal style. The song is heavy but it reminds pretty much of the previous songs, same song structure with tempo variations and a bit vocal variation. 4/5
This album was hard to review, I that this album was boring to be totally honest. There was poor energy in the songs, many of the songs were heavy but almost to heavy and the song structures reminded my of other songs that Overkill has written. I can only recommend this album to serius Overkill fans but if you really want to listen to this album go ahead. Personally I think that this was one of there less good albums, but there are some good songs here so I will not rate this to low.
PROS
+ Lots of heavy riffs and shredds
+ The guitars are a bit louder on this album
+ Good production
CONS
- The songs would easly bore people (unless you are a Overkill fan)
- The songs are to long
- The energy and speed has been reduced pretty much
RECOMMENDED TRACKS
" Stone Cold Jesus
" Forked Tonque Kiss
" Necroshine
Overall album rating will be: 3/5
