What Are You Listening To?

[GoatmasterGeneral]

2 hours ago, Sheol said:

Lol, I knew you'd hate it. Ah well.

And stop fucking using my name you silly illiterate old goat! There's a reason I changed my username when we came here.

I wasn't sure if that was your actual real life name. I thought every third Swedish dude and his uncle were named Johan anyway. Or Anders. But dude it's hard to call somebody something for several years and then one day have to start calling them something else. Just like half the people here still called me Whitenoise until they realized it was easier just to type GG. But anyway I'll have to come up with a special nickname for you then becauae I'm not gonna call you Sheol, no offense but that's stupid. I'll think it over and get back to you.

So dude, what's the reason? Are you an undercover secret agent for the Swedish Foreign Service and you're worried word wil get back to Ulf that you're giving away classified state secrets on the metal forum? Or is it that you just don't want anyone in real life to know you secretly listen to pop music? Silly illiterate old goats need to know!

 

 

NP: Overkill - Scorched 2023

 

[Arioch]

Megadeth - The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead! (2022)

 

[markm]

Judas Priest Stained  Class

Thou/Magus

Thou/Heathen

One of the good things about writing up AOTY reviews is that it gives me a reason to go back and listen to past albums to compere the new ones. The sad thing is that's what it sometimes takes me to go back and listen....I lose track or don't think of some of the great albums I have buried in my music files. First world problem.

[JamesT]

1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I wasn't sure if that was your actual real life name. I thought every third Swedish dude and his uncle were named Johan anyway. Or Anders. But dude it's hard to call somebody something for several years and then one day have to start calling them something else. Just like half the people here still called me Whitenoise until they realized it was easier just to type GG. But anyway I'll have to come up with a special nickname for you then becauae I'm not gonna call you Sheol, no offense but that's stupid. I'll think it over and get back to you.

So dude, what's the reason? Are you an undercover secret agent for the Swedish Foreign Service and you're worried word wil get back to Ulf that you're giving away classified state secrets on the metal forum? Or is it that you just don't want anyone in real life to know you secretly listen to pop music? Silly illiterate old goats need to know!

 

 

NP: Overkill - Scorched 2023

 

The day has arrived!!  Wasn't even out of bed yet this morning when I added the new, sure-to-be-glorious "Scorched" to my Apple Music library.  Also planning to get this one on vinyl, CD, and cassette (if it's available in that format).  But, Mr. GG, I completely neglected to address the news you shared that you live incredibly close to Blitz!  Please forgive my unacceptable oversight!  If you ever run into him and think of it, let him know Overkill has a superfan down here in North Carolina!  

I'm heading out to work here in just a few minutes and will have this fantastic slab of thrash playing throughout the day to get well-acquainted with it.  Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!  Have a fantastic day, my metal brethren! 

[MacabreEternal]

Shape of Despair - Angels of Distress (2001)

 

22 minutes ago, JamesT said:

The day has arrived!!  Wasn't even out of bed yet this morning when I added the new, sure-to-be-glorious "Scorched" to my Apple Music library.  Also planning to get this one on vinyl, CD, and cassette (if it's available in that format). 

Why do you need an album in 4 different formats?

[JamesT]

28 minutes ago, MacabreEternal said:

Shape of Despair - Angels of Distress (2001)

 

Why do you need an album in 4 different formats?

In this day and age, it's more about supporting the band.  With very few physical sales, due to the internet age, I want to support my favorite thrash band by buying their stuff.  Hopefully, I'll catch them on tour again this year, too!  Saw them last March (2022), and they were phenomenal. 

[Arioch]

Akhlys - Melinoë (2020)

Love this album !

 

[MacabreEternal]

3 hours ago, JamesT said:

In this day and age, it's more about supporting the band.  With very few physical sales, due to the internet age, I want to support my favorite thrash band by buying their stuff.  Hopefully, I'll catch them on tour again this year, too!  Saw them last March (2022), and they were phenomenal. 

I mean fair play to you but I think that is crazy.  What if the album sucks?

[Serpentboi1992]

[AlSymerz]

12 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

 But dude it's hard to call somebody something for several years and then one day have to start calling them something else.

Was only about a year and your silly old fart brain can't get around the idea that Al is easier to type than Orca.

 

7 hours ago, MacabreEternal said:

I mean fair play to you but I think that is crazy.  What if the album sucks?

It's Overkill, it's the same album they've been releasing for 35 years!

 

 

NP Overkill Again.

[JamesT]

9 hours ago, MacabreEternal said:

I mean fair play to you but I think that is crazy.  What if the album sucks?

Oh, I have no concerns about that whatsoever with my favorite thrash band of all time!  And after 3 listens through the entire thing so far today, I'm digging every second of it!  

[Thatguy]

3 hours ago, AlSymerz said:

Was only about a year and your silly old fart brain can't get around the idea that Al is easier to type than Orca.

I'm in the silly old fart club too.......Orca.

ALCYONE - Cult Of Kukulstan. Not bad, but a bit self consciously techie.

MiR - Season Unknown. Quite noice.

NP - BORIS - Japanese Heavy Rock Hits Live - 25th Anniversary Show. markm's enthusiasm has enthused me to go deeper into Boris. So far so good. Very groovy.

[AlSymerz]

Yeah I know, consideration of others feelings are something the old fart generation just don't care about.

[RelentlessOblivion]

Overkill - Scorched

Hmm it’s Overkill, solid enough but might as well b Ironbound III

[JamesT]

Overkill - "Scorched"

The guys never disappoint!  It was well worth the 4-year wait.  On my 4th time listening through the album now, and it's gotten better with each listen.  It's got a bit of everything - definitely the killer thrash sound, but also deftly balances it with groove and even some doom-y parts here and there.  The guitar work is fantastic as usual, and the drums really steal the show here.  I loved Ron Lipnicki's work in the band, but Bittner is just as good.  The drumming style even carries some hints of death metal at times.  Absolutely love this album.

[Arioch]

Holy Moses - Invisible Queen (2023)

Overkill - Scorched (2023)

!GeRald! - The Church of the Sublime Parade (2018)

!GeRald! - The Lost Tapes (2022)

 

[MacabreEternal]

Nekromantheon - Visions of Trismegistos (2021)

Fuck yeah!

[Serpentboi1992]

[AlSymerz]

Metallica - 72 Seasons

[GoatmasterGeneral]

8 hours ago, JamesT said:

Overkill - "Scorched"

The guys never disappoint!  It was well worth the 4-year wait.  On my 4th time listening through the album now, and it's gotten better with each listen.  It's got a bit of everything - definitely the killer thrash sound, but also deftly balances it with groove and even some doom-y parts here and there.  The guitar work is fantastic as usual, and the drums really steal the show here.  I loved Ron Lipnicki's work in the band, but Bittner is just as good.  The drumming style even carries some hints of death metal at times.  Absolutely love this album.

Thanks for your interesting take Jimmy T. I haven't bought this new album yet but I've listened to it on YouTube once yesterday morning, part of it again last night and then the whole thing again early this morning. Did some shit around the house and then I braved the thunderstorms and went out to the tire shop to get a slow leaker plugged, stopped in the market for some groceries n shit because it's right next to the tire shop and then I came back and fired this bitch up again at 4:30pm with a beer like a Saturday afternoon snack.

I saw all the comments praising Bittner's drumming on the YT video and I guess drumming is just not an important part of a record for me, because I just don't get it. I can't really tell a great drummer from a good drummer from an average one from a drum machine. This just sounds like drumming to me, no better or worse or appreciably different than any of Overkill's past drummers. So that doesn't factor into anything for me. I just want there to be drums keeping the time and hopefully not be too clickety and plastic sounding or have a tin can snare. Beyond that I don't really give a shit what the drums do.

I've always been more interested in songwriting than musicianship. With half this band being even older than me in their 60's I damn well expect them to be able to play their instruments and know how to record and produce a metal album by now after 38 years in the biz. So evaluating any new Overkill album mainly comes down to the quality of the songs and the riffs for me. 

I do like this new album, but I don't like this collection of songs nearly as much as I did 2019's Wings of War. That to me was a great Overkill album and this one is just pretty good. There are some good tunes here on the new one like Wicked Place, Harder They Fall and I like the slow song Fever. But there are a few misses here as well. I really don't like this Twist of the Wick song track 4 at all. Most of side 1 falls into the generic forgettable modern Overkill fast thrash riff formula they've been using since 2010. Most of the side 1 songs have riffs that remind me a lot of older much better songs from previous albums. I think this'll end up being one of those side 2 records for me where I like the whole back half better than side 1. Not really digging Dave's guitar tone very much this time around either, definitely a bit too clean for my liking. 

I guess after 20 albums a band that hasn't largely abandoned their original musical style from 40 years ago (like most of the "Big 4" bands have) is bound to start repeating themselves to some extent. Plagiarizing themselves if you will. As a long time Overkill superfan from the days even before Feel the Fire came out I'm disappointed that they have fallen into this formulaic thrash approach that they've adopted since the success of 2010's Ironbound. All the albums since then have ranged from serviceable to good with the superior Wings of War being the best of the entire bunch afaic, and yes that's including the disappointing (imho) Ironbound, which I'd rank near the bottom of their last 6 - save for the 3 killer tracks that I actually really like on that album.

But the two albums immediately preceeding Ironbound ('05 & '07) fucking sucked leaky ass, so I guess the "formula" is working as intended for the band and has rejuvenated their waning career. So good on them. But for me this means sadly the days of originality and creativity for this band when every album contained a few pleasant surprises and they sounded very different from album to album are long gone.

I understand that younger fans born in the 90's like my Carolina boy Jimmy T just don't have that same nostalgic connection to the older material as I do. But to an old man like me the glory years of Overkill with Bobby G at L'Amour in Brooklyn, and even all their albums up until WFO as well as '99's Necroshime and their gloriously triumphant return to a thrashier approach to songwriting in the early 2000's (Bloodletting & Killbox) make albums like these last half dozen pale in comparison. In much same way digital is never as good as analog and anything corporate always sucks compared to independent mom & pop DIY. Sure I'll take the modern corporate digital version Overkill and be glad to get it because I love the band and this is what they are now. And it still beats the fucking piss out of anything Jaymz & Lars or Megadick have done over the last 30 years. But part of me knows it just ain't the same anymore.

 

[markm]

Judas Priest/Screaming for Vengnace

Vastum Orifical Purge

Marduk/Viktoria 

[Hungarino]

Moonlight Sorcery - Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity

[Hungarino]

Unhallowed - Awaken the Black Flame

[MacabreEternal]

Overkill - Scorched (2023)

The Wings of War way back in 2019 was a pleasant surprise for me.  My four-star rating and copious amounts of praise for the energy levels were unexpected for me going into an album that I recognised was being made by guys in their 50’s and early 60’s who long should have seen their energy levels wane, yet somehow were showing that they could more than still kick it some 40 years after their inception.

Scorched then has a high bar to reach.  I would argue that anything a band releases after such a long tenure in the thrash/groove/back to thrash again stakes should be listened to with the guard up.  Although this stance proved incorrect with The Wings of War it proved a wiser move with Scorched.  Now, let’s start by acknowledging that this does not sound like a band on the brink of retirement.  Those energy levels, whilst nowhere near at the levels on the previous outing, are still at such a high level that if you did not know any better you would think that this was music made by a bunch of guys half the age of the actual band.  That having been said though, Scorched is a less intense offering from Overkill.  Slowing down is of course forgivable, some would argue inevitable, but this time around there is a loss of flow to tracks that breaks up the rhythm far too often.

Tracks such as The Surgeon are good examples of where the song starts off at breakneck speed only to be then tempered by a cumbersome chorus section that seems to trip over itself.  Overall, Scorched lacks memorability, therefore.  The anthems from 4 years ago such Last Man Standing, Head of a Pin and Welcome to the Garden State just are not here this time around.  What is still here are the staple qualities of DD Verni’s plonking bass lines, Linsk’s superb solos and Bobby’s sneering vocals all sound as strong as ever.  Bittner delivers again on the drums and Tailer continues to contribute solid rhythm guitar work after years of doing just backing vocals.

So, the ingredients are all there, it is just that the tasting notes are not quite right.  Lacking spice and a little low on heat, Scorched comes across more than a tad blunted overall.  The fire is most definitely still in their bellies but the stamina is starting to wane to these ears and there is more than a fair share of filler here as the album drifts through the final third.  All good things must come to an end it seems.

3/5

[DeathMetalBangers]

Merciless-The Awakening (1990)