Overkill - The Electric Age (2012) (Japanese COCB-60049)

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Overkill - The Electric Age (2012) (Japanese COCB-60049)

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Nearly two years ago, when I reviewed the early album of OVERKILL, "Ironbound", I was pleased to find out that they chose to get back to their old 80s classic era. Even though that I didn't have any issue with their groovy approach that they began planting in their material since the mid 90s, the old school fist will always be on top of everything else. With the mixing of the old and late realities, the NY based OVERKILL kept on preserving their own little niche in US Thrash Metal. There might be a few similarities but their musical output has often rather different than the famous Bay Area style. Now the wrecking crew is back with a new album under Nuclear Blast Records, "The Electric Age". Have no mistake, there is seemed to be nothing that can stop them for bombing with great Thrash music even if it wasn't as big as the previous album.

What I have always liked about OVERKILL is their sound consistency. While many bands tend to make modifications in their production, which mostly end in a direction that entirely different and not necessarily good like SEPULTURA for example, OVERKILL pretty much have been savoring the same sound, though in the process of two decades it has been renewed with a modern backbone, of "Feel The Fire" and "Taking Over". On "The Electric Age" the same known distorted barrage, led by the active sound of D.D. Verni's bass, continued to slam. Also I was pleased of the lead guitar sound of Dave Linsk that sounded even better than on the previous. On the other hand, I think that the drum sound was a little weak for the stuff that OVERKILL play as it needed more depth and less the orientation to a chop stick.

Alongside the band's sound, which as always is a treat, "The Electric Age" continues the fine work of the previous album with ten destructive tracks in the well known street type attitude that OVERKILL has been sharing since "Under The Influence". The rolling Thrash thunder of the opening title, "Come And Get It", nearly ripped my face off with its violent nature. It is an amazing example of the great melding between groove and killing old school American Thrash just as only OVERKILL know how to produce and of course I think it is the best performance of the seems to be immortal voice of Blitz Ellsworth. What started well also ended well and that is the tale of "Good Night". At its intro I thought that OVERKILL had gone soft with a closing ballad, but after a minute it was push comes to shove and straight into the moshpit.

What went in between these two tracks also showed the band's worth with some blasting songs as 80s directed "Save Yourself", which is a runner up for the early hit "Bring Me The Night", and the early groove style of "Bloodletting" in the face of "Old Wounds, New Scars". When it came to the "Electric Rattlesnake" and most of the other tracks, I was somewhat puzzled. OVERKILL seemed to have tried to perfect their music in order to sound a little bit more assorted than before, yet while doing so I felt as if they wrote rhythms and riffs on tracks like "Electric Rattlesnake" that weren't that connected to the main riffing and the concept of the track.

In general, the written riffs and passages were great and shredding but I believe that there were times where OVERKILL stretched it too far on trying to possibly complex things up. I can understand the reason for doing so but they shouldn't dwell on it in the next one. "The Electric Age" might be a little less than the previous but it is still much recommend.

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