You really have to admire a band like Overkill while feeling
\nsorry for them at the same time. For 15 years, through all the
\nphases and rising fates of heavy metal, these guys have slugged it
\nout, releasing album after album of bone-crushing music that
\noccasionally dared to make the listener think. And while they have
\nmoved away from the pure thrash base that made up discs like
\nFeel The Fire<\/i> and
\nTaking Over<\/i>, they have lost little of their power.<\/p>\n
Yet Overkill is a band who have not been allowed the luxury of
\nfixing a lineup in cement. Vocalist Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth and
\nbassist D.D. Verni are the last original members of the lineup that
\nrecorded
\nFeel The Fire<\/i>. In recent years, Overkill has gone through
\nguitarists at a rapid pace, most recently losing Joe Comeau to
\nAnnihilator (where he’ll be serving as lead vocalist).<\/p>\n
Now, once again as a foursome, Overkill returns to blow out your
\nspeakers with
\nBloodletting<\/i>, an album which suggests the band is still
\nhaving difficulties finding its footing again in a market where
\nthere are no longer any solid ground rules.<\/p>\n
It might seem like I’m ready to slam this album, which I’m not.
\nBloodletting<\/i> has many enjoyable moments to it, as did their
\nlast studio effort
\nNecroshine<\/i>. (
\nCoverkill<\/i>, the band’s last album, was merely a collection of
\ncover tunes, though it was a great disc.) Tracks like
\n“Thunderhead,” “I, Hurricane” and “Blown Away” all suggest that
\nOverkill is one of the best-kept secrets in the world of heavy
\nmetal, and has been for some time. Ellsworth remains one of the
\nmost powerful vocalists out there, going from an ear-piercing
\nscreech to a low growl effortlessly.<\/p>\n
Yet there is both an air of uncertainty on
\nBloodletting<\/i> as well as a feeling like the band chose to
\nremain in a musical “holding pattern” until they could get their
\nrecent lineup change solidified. Guitarist Dave Linsk (who makes
\nhis second appearance on CD with Overkill) does an admirable job,
\nbut throughout the album it feels like he’s not quite sure which
\ndirection he should take his solos. Possibly not having a musical
\nfoil like Comeau to feed off of is a limiting factor, and I’m
\ncertain it’s something that can be overcome as Linsk gets
\ncomfortable with his role in the band. (Keep in mind, as well, that
\nthis is the first disc of Overkill originals where his work is
\nfeatured.) There are no faults to be found with his rhythm work,
\nhowever.<\/p>\n
Musically, Overkill again seems to settle into a role they have
\nfollowed now for three studio efforts.
\nFrom The Underground And Below<\/i> was a great album;
\nNecroshine<\/i> was a shade weaker, but still enjoyable
\nmusically.
\nBloodletting<\/i> builds on what the band accomplished with
\nNecroshine<\/i>, breaking no new ground (unfortunately) but
\nfollowing a proven, stable route. Tracks like “Death Comes Out To
\nPlay,” “My Name Is Pain” and “Can’t Kill A Dead Man” are somewhat
\nenjoyable, but all in all, I found it difficult to really get
\nabsorbed in this disc.<\/p>\n
And it’s not that Overkill can’t accomplish this; when the band
\ngets a solid groove going, their power is close to unstoppable. But<\/p>\n
Bloodletting<\/i> just seems to miss capturing that on several
\nfronts – and while the effort is not poor, it’s not quite what the
\nlong-time fans would expect. Don’t be surprised if you find
\nyourself around “What I’m Missin’,” the third track on the album,
\nand you wonder where the last ten minutes have gone. Normally, this
\nisn’t bad – unless, of course, you don’t have much of a
\nrecollection of the music that just played. Maybe that’s the
\nproblem with
\nBloodletting<\/i>; it too often falls into the trap of allowing
\nitself to be absorbed into the listener’s background.<\/p>\n
\nBloodletting<\/i> should still please many fans of Overkill, and
\nis not by any meaning of the word a bad album. But anyone who has
\nfollowed Overkill for some length of time will seem to sense that
\nthe band is capable of much greater things – and hopefully, these
\nwill soon come, as well as stability with the band’s line-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5912],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-36852","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-overkill","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36852"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36852"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}