JamesT

9 hours ago, Kristiko said:

Stratovarius - Infinite (album)

Fantastic album from the power metal legends! 

Motorhead - "Another Perfect Day"

Girish and the Chronicles - "Back on Earth"

Motorhead - "Overnight Sensation"

3 hours ago, Necrolord said:

 

Enforced - "War Remains" is pretty good straight forward thrash. Nothing too original but it goes hard. Sounds a little raw and not overly produced which works for that approach. 

 

Havok - "V" is pretty solid for the opposite reason - immaculately produced and sounds modern and tight. "Cosmetic Surgery" is a great song. I just wish the album had more faster songs. 

 

NP:

Vader - Solitude in Madness

Destruction - Cracked Brain

 

Yes, I love Enforced!  Just crushing thrash all the way through - no frills.  And I know what you mean about the Havok album.  I love it, but I also wouldn't have minded more faster tracks.  I like the mid-paced stuff well enough, though.

Evile - "The Unknown"

Testament - "Titans of Creation"

Marc Hudson - "Starbound Stories"

Enforced - "War Remains"

Havok - "V"

Just a fantastic album.  The closing track, "Don't Do It", is one of my favorite thrash songs ever recorded. 

Angelus Apatrida - "Aftermath"

Motorhead - "Sacrifice"

Motorhead - "Overnight Sensation"

Exodus - "Tempo of the Damned"

Enforced - "Kill Grid"

Overdose - "Two Wheels and Gone"

On 2/22/2024 at 4:39 AM, Arioch said:

Hate Eternal - I, Monarch (2005)

 

My favorite death metal band!  Now that Rutan is in Cannibal Corpse, I don't know when we'll see another Hate Eternal album, but I hope he finds the time do another album or two.

Exodus - "Shovel Headed Kill Machine"

Motorhead - "We Are Motorhead"

Sadistic Force - "Aces Wild"

Sadistic Force - "Midnight Assassin"

An incredible find!  The best description I can give it is a "blackened Motorhead".  The guitar work is killer, and the vocals are reminiscent of black metal.  Musically, it's a nice mix of thrash/speed/rock 'n' roll and some touches of black metal.  Can't recommend these guys highly enough!

Raider - "Guardian of the Fire"

Killer death/thrash!  I've got two albums from these guys - not sure if they've released more than those two to this point, but I hope they continue on for a long time.

HammerFall - "Chapter V - Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken"

HammerFall - "Threshold"

HammerFall - "No Sacrifice, No Victory"

HammerFall - "Infected"

HammerFall - "(R)Evolution"

HammerFall - "Built to Last"

HammerFall - "Dominion"

HammerFall - "Hammer of Dawn"

21 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I've listened to close to half of their albums over the last few days, but not in order or back to back or anything. I don't do full catalog runs for bands with that many albums, I'd get bored listening to just one band for two days straight. I'll jump around and listen to two or three at a time and then play some other stuff in between to break it up. 

 

 

And Also the Trees - The Klaxon, 1993 experimental UK post-punk.

 

The Underground Youth - Mademoiselle, Manchester born, Berlin based, 2010

 

Completely understandable!  I tend to do a full catalog run with Overkill most of the time, but I did listen to just "Necroshine" and "Bloodletting" last week, so I guess I can handle the shorter spurts as well.  

I'll probably break up this run with some Motorhead! 

10 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Yeah man we saw them on the same tour, just a few days apart. I saw them at the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg PA because it was slightly closer and a lot less traffic than going east to see them at the NYC date. But I've seen them lots of times back in the good ole days of the 80's. Many of those times were at L'Amour in Bensonhurst Brooklyn, but they used to play around the NY/NJ area quite a bit.

Had tickets to see them in Times Square on May 1st 2010 but there was a car bomb scare and police had the whole Times Square area locked down tight. So we only got as close as diagonally across the intersection. We could see silhouettes of people inside the venue walking up and down the stairs through the windows but they wouldn't let us walk across to enter the Nokia Theater. 5 bands on the bill so we were coming in a little late in order to miss the first couple of them we didnt care about seeing. They let the show go on with whomever managed to get into the venue early, so we had to eat the tix.

Then I had tickets to see them with Testament and Flotsie at the Paramount Theater in my hometown of Huntington NY on LI back in the winter of 2013. But Bobby was sick that night and the doctor had told him not to sing and strain his chords, so they didn't play that night. The rest of the band got up between bands and apologized to their fans and said they'd make it up to us next time around. I was annoyed because Overkill was the one band I was there to see, but we stayed my wife and I, and Testament killed. They played an extra long set like almost 2 hours because because they were filming the show for a dvd. And my wife ended up really liking Flotsie, (her nickname for them) she even bought their shirt and their latest CD. So the night wasn't a total loss.

So when I saw them in 2022 that was the first time I'd seen them since 2006 when I saw them at BB Kings in NYC on the Relix tour with Prong. I hate that they always seem to tour with Prong, I fucking hate Prong. I must say it was weird seeing them being so elderly two years ago. Yeah I know I'm as old as DD myself, and I know I'd seen pictures and video of them being elderly, but seeing them up close in person being so ancient in their natural on stage habitat was a bit jarring. We had fun though my buddy and I, two 60 year old dudes right down front. Couldn't get a spot right on the barricade cuz there were some little short chicks there who'd already claimed that spot, so we were right behind them. We didn't get in the pit and mix it up at our age, but we were boosting up crowd surfers helping them get up on top of the crowd. Didn't get a shirt, but I've already got several Overkill shirts. 

Oh man, that's wild!  May 1, 2010, was my 20th birthday.  I actually heard Blitz talk about that car bomb incident in an interview he did with Loudwire about 6-7 years ago.  It's interesting that they still let the show continue for whomever had managed to get in before they started roping things off.  Blitz said the authorities were concerned about causing a major panic if word began circulating too quickly.  

I've never gotten into Prong, but I did get to chat with them for just a couple of minutes after the show that night - really cool, humble guys.  I've just never been into their music - nothing against it, though.  

Pretty cool that your wife was digging Flotsam and Jetsam!  I'm hoping we get a new album from them this year.  After their 2021 release, "Blood in the Water", AK said they had enough material for another album or two already written, so I'm hoping that means the next one is on the horizon.

As for the immediate future, I'm about to listen through the entire Overkill catalog, from the first glorious album to the most recent - "Feel the Fire" and "Taking Over" will be the soundtrack to my 6:00 a.m. workout tomorrow morning!

19 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I suppose it really comes down to Bobby and how long his voice holds out. He'll be 65 in May, a couple years older than me even, but on last year's Scorched he still sounds like he's 32 (Horrorscope era). Maybe even a bit better now that he's apparently living clean and abstaining from alcohol and drugs. I'm the first one to speak up and admit when my metal warriors start losing their edge, and I can't imagine anyone could sing like that forever. I really don't want to see 80 year olds onstage trying to thrash it up. So sooner or later the time will come when they'll decide it's time to pack it in. I'm not worried about how many more albums they might release, they've given us 20 already, 15 of them good ones by my estimation and several of those are all-time genre classics. So that's already a lot more than most bands will ever give us. They still bring it live (as of March 2022) they've unquestionably given us hardcore fans our money's worth. Their body of work speaks for itself, they really don't owe us anything more. Whatever else we get from them will just be gravy.

 

Killbox 13, 2003. This was the album that really renewed my interest in Overkill. I remember I stopped looking forward to their new albums at some point in the 90's after FTUAB and KK. But this one's in their top 5 afaic. Wall to wall bangers, the only song I don't care about on here is track 4, The One.

 

That is a fantastic point, my friend.  They truly don't owe us fans anything more, given what they've already graced us with.  But like you said, they don't seem to be slowing down quite yet, so I'll just look forward with eagerness to any further releases and enjoy all of this great material until the day I die.  And just curious - I saw you mention March of 2022 when you talked about how they're still bringing the goods live.  Did you see them during that particular month up in NY/NJ?  I actually saw them live that same exact month!  They came down here to Asheville, NC, which is over in the mountains and is about a 5-hour drive from me.  But my wife and I made the trip, stayed in a downtown hotel for one night, and I saw my thrash heroes up close.  I was literally at the very front, leaning up against the barricade in front of the stage, while Blitz sang/shouted his heart out and the band absolutely slayed.  I got a shirt with "The Wings of War" album cover displayed prominently across the back and the Chalie emblem on the front.  It was a night I'll treasure forever.

8 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I listened to KK last night and my first thought was I might be ranking it too high. I like Let Me Shut That For You, and Bold Face Pagan Stomp but that's about it, the rest was expendable. Don't even know what they were thinking with The Cleansing.

Immortalis will always be my bottom album though, and then I guess KK is next to last, and then Relix and then From the Underground and Below and then Ironbound. Those are my bottom 5, but even all of those have at least 2 or 3 good songs except Immortalis, that one was a waste of tape. The other 15 I would characterize as all good albums to some degree or another, with several of them being 10/10's. But take that fwiw because I am biased in their favor because they're my local boys from Jersey.

Listened to Scorched again last night too for the first time in months. I think I've finally gotten in tune with this album, I really enjoyed the hell out of it and I'll probably throw it on again later. Revisiting Ironbound right this minute, you know, the one everyone fellates undeservedly. I get that they ratcheted up the tempo a few clicks and headbangers really liked that. But the songs really weren't great. I give it a whirl probably twice a year to see if anything's changed. My usual story is that I only like the title track, The Green & Black and The SRC. Everything in between you can keep. I generally just skip Bring Me the Night altogether since I hate that song the most.

 

Ironbound 2010

 

Baphomet's Blood - In Satan We Trust, Italy 2016

 

Yes, I can totally understand the sentiment about "The Killing Kind".  I have it ranked in my bottom spot, mainly because I don't find the songs as memorable.  I can enjoy the listen well enough as I'm playing through the album, but I don't find that too many of the songs stick with me.  Still a solid effort, though.  

Glad to hear you're enjoying "Scorched" even more as time goes on!  "Know Her Name" is the underrated gem on the album for me, mainly because I enjoy the drum work from Bitner quite a bit on that one.  

Ah, "Ironbound"!  My #2 ranked album in the discography - I love everything about it.  I'm in that category of "those who fellate it undeservedly" haha.  "Bring Me the Night" is one of my favorite Overkill songs overall, and "Endless War" is such a crushing tune.  It's cool to hear that you at least dig a few tracks on it.  We all hear these albums differently, and it's always a blast to discuss these legends!  I don't want to live in a world without an active Overkill output, but I suppose the guitar strings stop being plucked for everyone at some point, as time is unforgiving.  Based on their rate of output, though, I think we'll at least get another 2-3 albums from them.  Bring them on!

12 hours ago, Necrolord said:

When Cowboys of Hell came out it had the best guitar tone in metal at the time. 

My favorite band of all time!  Always enjoy discussing the Cowboys from Hell.  I tend to flip-flop between "Vulgar Display of Power" and "Far Beyond Driven" as my favorite album, and "The Great Southern Trendkill" has been the biggest grower on me over the years.  "Power Metal" from 1988 (Phil's first album with the band) is very good as well, and I wish it wasn't such a rarity.  

23 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

When Death Comes Out to Play is possibly my favorite Overkill song not from the first 5 albums. Be not afraid!! Left Hand Man has always been a favorite too. At least you came to your senses and took it out of the bottom spot.

Very true!  I can't believe I ever ranked it in the bottom slot as I listen to it now.  These days, in my discography ranking for these legends, I have "The Killing Kind" in the bottom spot.  But as we all know, I enjoy every album these guys have put out to some degree!

14 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Not used to ranking partial discographies but here goes....

1) Killbox 13   (one of their very best)

2) Bloodletting   (one of their very best)

3) I Hear Black   (really love this one, so underrated)

4) Necroshine  (overall pretty good but it has a few songs that don't work that well for me. (Revelation, My Dec, FTK) But the highlights (title track, SCJ, 80 Cycles... are very high indeed)

5) W.F.O.  (with better production this could've been a solid banger)

6) The Killing Kind  (not bad at all but forgettable)

7) Relix (overall not very good, but not terrible, it's grown on me a bit)

8. From the Underground and Below (there are only two songs I like on here (LTD, R&T) the rest is rubbish)

9) Immortalis (absolutely atrocious, they should never have released this one)

 

NP: Overkill - Necroshine, 1999

 

Excellent ranking!  I'd say my favorite track from "Necroshine" is "Let Us Prey".  There is a great groove to the song, especially toward the end.  

Believe it or not, there was a time where I ranked "Bloodletting" at the very bottom of the catalog.  I'm glad I gave it more chances, though, because it has grown on me quite a bit - so much so, that I've moved it ahead of 5 other albums in the discography.  Songs like "Left Hand Man" and "Blown Away" are absolute bruisers, but the whole album certainly seemed to herald a return to their roots, even if they weren't all the way back to pure thrash yet.  That trend continued on the excellent "Killbox 13" and then seemed to take a bit of a dip on the two albums that followed.  But of course, after that came the nearly flawless "Ironbound", and this latest era has been a true treat!

6 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Circus Of Power - Magic & Madness, 1993

 

 

 

Are we maybe forgetting that Killbox and Bloodletting exist? Necroshine's very good if a bit quirky, not taking anything away from it, but it doesn't stand up to those two monsters. Personally I would say IHB through Necroshine is one period then Bloodletting through Immortalis is another distinctly different period. The songwriting definitely took a turn in 2000 when they dropped some of the groovier more experimental elements and made a conscious decision to go to a thrashier approach. Not that I don't like their 90's stuff because I do, all those 90's albums have lots of good stuff on them. But Bloodletting and Killbox crush.

You're absolutely right, Mr. GG!  Those two albums both crush.  "Bloodletting" has been the album that has grown on me the most in their entire catalog, in fact.  There's just something about "Necroshine" that takes the cake during that period for me.  I'd also rank "From the Underground and Below" ahead of both "Bloodletting" and "Killbox 13".  That stretch of 9 albums from 1993-2007, for me, would rank like this:

1) Necroshine

2) From the Underground and Below

3) Killbox 13

4) Bloodletting

5) W.F.O.

6) Relix

7) Immortalis

8. I Hear Black

9) The Killing Kind 

Interesting point about possibly splitting up these 9 albums into two eras - "I Hear Black" up through "Necroshine" in one era, and then "Bloodletting" up through "Immortalis" in another.  Always enjoy getting to talk Overkill with another die-hard fan, my friend!

12 hours ago, Necrolord said:

 

Nice, I was just listening to Necroshine last night and today. The opening track kicks ass and the album has some bangers!  

 

NP:

 

Guy working at the weed store, somehow we got on the topic of music. Recommended me the song above.

I'm like "I'll check it out while I'm packing the bong and while nice and baked". He goes, 'maybe better to listen to it while you're packing the bong, you probably don't wanna listen to this while high..." haha, well I listened to the whole thing out of morbid curiosity and I get why he said that. Some crazy schizo stuff but not bad.

 

 

 

 

Excellent choice with "Necroshine"!  It sure does have some great songs.  It's very groove-laden, but it still has thrashy moments as well.  "Let Us Prey" is probably my favorite track, but it's difficult to pick just one.  This is my favorite Overkill album from their "middle era", which I define as spanning from "I Hear Black" up through "Immortalis".  The greatest and most consistent thrash band to ever exist, in my opinion. 

HammerFall - "Legacy of Kings"

HammerFall - "Renegade"

HammerFall - "Crimson Thunder"

Always fun to jump in on this conversation! 

Metallica will always hold a special place for me.  While I don't listen to them nearly as much these days as I used to, I enjoy about 85% of the catalog quite a bit.  And while nothing will top those first 4 albums, their past 3 releases have all been thoroughly enjoyable for me, and I hope we get at least one more album from these guys before they hang it up for good.  

Megadeth is a band I've honestly never gotten heavily into.  I have several of their albums in my digital library, and I listen to them very occasionally, but they've never really done much for me in general.  "The Sick, the Dying, and the Dead" has gotten more regular rotation than many of the others, though, and I am looking forward to their next release.

Demolition Hammer - "Time Bomb"

Overkill - "Necroshine"

Overkill - "Bloodletting"

HammerFall - "Glory to the Brave"

11 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

NP: Antioch - Antioch VI: Molten Rainbow

▶︎ Antioch VI: Molten Rainbow | Antioch (bandcamp.com)

I realize that these guys being traditional heavy metal where references to things like rainbows without even registering how silly that sounds is pretty par for the course, but it's worth considering that Rainbow had RJD as a vocalist and anything with Dio on vocals you can call whatever you want without calling your metalness in to question. This guy is emphatically not Dio. He's capable, but maybe a little overambitious. In fact he sounds like he'd be a better fit for a Testament style thrash band with some occasional falsetto shrieks for fun.

That said, what we've got here is no more and no less than what you'd expect. Traditional heavy metal in the Cruz Del Sur style. It's all about your threshold for this sorta thing. 

 

Love this album!  Great choice.  

Jungle Rot - "A Call to Arms"

Jungle Rot - "Order Shall Prevail"

Jungle Rot - Self-titled