Overkill–Ironbound

Nuclear Blast

Let’s take a trip back to a time where a publication named Metal Rules! Magazine graced newsstands across America. Specifically, to issue #17 that contains an article about Metalfest in Irvington, NJ during the month of March in 2003 (Holy shit it’s been seven years? My life…) OVERKILL was scheduled to headline day 2 and Jeff had a rare assignment lined up for me: run my fingers through the soft hair of Bobby Blitz. Alas, we didn’t stay long enough for it to become a reality, but there’s no doubt in my mind that if it did happen it would’ve been the kind of sensual experience between two grown men that produces a bond lasting a lifetime.

Here we are all these years later and OVERKILL haven’t stopped releasing albums. While the newer material isn’t as good as what the band put out in their heyday, it’s generally been very solid and definitely not embarrassing. But something has awoken between now and Immortalis. You could say that in the current Thrash renaissance there’s more at stake, more to prove. With these up-and-coming young bucks trying to steal the spotlight some of the old stalwarts have begun to fight back with a vengeance. With Ironbound, OVERKILL goes for a knockout punch.

The popular word on the street is that this is their best album since Horrorscope, and while that might sound like a hot slab of hyperbole, I’m hard-pressed to disagree. From the 8 minute opening track “The Green and Black” all the way down to the closer, “The Src”, Ironbound fucking shreds. Everybody has stepped up their game on this one. From the dual guitar assault courtesy of Dave Linsk and Derek Tailer, the omnipresent bass line of D.D. Verni, the unrelenting drums of Ron Lipnicki, and the trademark vocals of Bobbi Blitz himself; everybody is on fire. Listen to tracks like “The Head and Heart” that experiment with some growling over crunching riffs followed by a groove-laden chorus. Or my personal favorite, the title track that features a little of everything as it starts aggressive, melts into a hazy guitar melody, then suddenly dives into a head-snapping breakdown followed by a truly heroic guitar solo preceding it’s descent back into the riffs in which it began. You can scour the entire track listing and be hard-pressed to find a weak link in the bunch.

The best comparison would be the first time I listened to Tempo of the Damned by EXODUS and it was like, “Fuck this is great!”  Don’t get me wrong, some of the newer bands are pretty damn good, and it’s adorable how these former Punk kids accidentally wandered into 80’s Metal night at their local dive and decided to pitch a tent, but when it comes time to Thrash I’ll stick with the originators.

Charred Walls of the Damned–s/t

Metal Blade

It’s been awhile since Richard Christy has been involved in Metal after spending the last few years flopping his dick around on the The Howard Stern Show, but he finally made his return with the self-titled debut from his new group CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED (What the fuck, two long band names in a row? My typing fingers are aching). He was generous enough to bring along a few notable buddies in Tim “Ripper” Owens (JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH), Steve DiGiorgio (SADUS, DEATH, ICED EARTH), and Jason Suecof (HI I PRODUCE ALBUMS); essentially forming a Metal supergroup. Jason kinds of throws a kink in that but let’s not get technical.

What does get technical however, is the music. Featuring a few ex-members of bands DEATH and ICED EARTH, CHARRED WALLS isn’t far off from being a mash-up of the two with a style incorporating progressive death, thrash, and power metal with a heavy dose of melody. At first the musical style combined with Tim Owen’s vocals threw me off. They were different elements that didn’t seem like they fit together; oil and water if you will. In internet terms, it was similar to when Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker and the message boards were set on fire with fanboys who complained that Heath Ledger and the Joker went together like progressive death/thrash music with power metal vocals. Yeah they didn’t say that, you caught me.

Guess he forgot to not wear clothes

After a few listens it began to work for me and instead of being an issue it transformed into a positive characteristic. Normally with this style you would get yelling or cookie monster vocals or some kind of combination of screaming and singing (Sort of like BATTLELORE if they only had one vocalist, and that vocalist was a dude instead of a chick, and could sing in more than one tone), but here it’s all Tim Owens with his flamboyant pipes. It’s a nice change of pace.

The production isn’t bad, but where’s the bass? Steve DiGiorgio isn’t some peckerwood off the streets who can vaguely strum along to the music, he’s a bassist with actual talent; yet the bass is virtually buried in the mix. This is a problem that needs to be corrected with any subsequent albums as soon as possible. Speaking of, I’m hoping with further time spent together the guys can build some chemistry and inject more personality into individual songs. Because as technically proficient as it all sounds, the tracks have a tendency to blend together and when it’s all said and done I couldn’t really tell you which ones stand out from the others. And that’s not in an every-song-is-incredible way but rather the it-all-kind-of-sounds-the-same way.

As it stands, this is a very good foundation that could lead to material in the future that’s scary good.

Rumpelstiltskin Grinder–Living for Death, Destroying the Rest

Relapse Records

After finally filling up the front yard, RUMPELSTILTSKIN GRINDER (let’s just say RG for time’s sake) has returned to the fold with their latest offering: Living for Death, Destroying the Rest. Apparently former vocalist Eli Shaika was one of the people to get buried out front because he’s nowhere to be found. Instead, vocal duties have been handed down to bassist Shawn Riley and guitarist Matt Moore who have a decidedly more Hardcore vibe to their sound.

Don’t let that scare you though, RG are still very much a Thrash affair for the most part with blistering riffs and skull-cracking breakdowns in a sophomore effort that has sharper focus and aggression. Remember in the late 90’s and early 00’s when breakdowns were all over the place thanks in part to bands like HATEBREED? Man that got so fucking annoying. Luckily it died down after a while and this precious art form remained with the groups who know how to utilize them properly instead of old guys who keep yelling at me to “Bring Da Shit.”

What separates RG from many of the other bands in the so-called “New Wave of Thrash Metal” movement is that they’re not trying to be a cut and paste copy of bands from the 80’s. Elements of other genres  make their presence known and serve to let RG stand on their own two feet (or is that eight feet?) instead of just being an imitator. Just listen to the last couple tracks on the album that make up a three-part section called “Dethroning the Tyrant” that display a heavy dose of Death and Black Metal. And the song “Beware the Thrash Brigade” is practically a Punk anthem wrapped in in a warm Metal tortilla. When all is said and done, this isn’t an album that needs to be studied and dissected for any kind of subtext; it’s exactly what you want it to be.

And take it from a guy who likes to grind his rumpelstiltskin from time to time: that’s a good thing.

Megadeth-Endgame

If SLAYER is an important Metal band that I have yet to see live, then MEGADETH are notable for being the first concert I ever  went to. This was back in 1997 in support of Cryptic Writings when they toured with COAL CHAMBER and LIFE OF   AGONY as support. Being just supple lads of 16 years of age at the time, my friends and I were fearful of this “Mosh Pit” we heard so much about when it came to Metal shows. In our heads being in a mosh pit meant getting punched in the face for no reason so we stayed towards the back to be safe. We eventually figured out after a few more shows that mosh pits were really more about     pushing people around and “dancing” like a complete moron and less about unnecessary physical violence (for the most part).

Little did people know at the time that this would be the end of the only stable line-up MEGADETH ever had. So after getting surgery, breaking the band up, becoming a born-again Christian (I wonder if Mustaine and Shawn Michaels get together to discuss their douche baggery), and releasing a few more albums, Dave Mustaine and whatever group of guys he can’t stand this time are making another attempt at recapturing past glory with Endgame. First of all, any talk of how “this album is totally going to be like Rust In Peace!” should be dismissed right away. The fact is, Mustaine isn’t the same guy anymore and hasn’t been for years. To expect any of these albums to sound like their old material is just unrealistic.

What modern MEGADETH is good at, is melodic-infused Metal. And that’s why–with the exception of Risk–they’ve been able to stand the test of time better than some of their contemporaries (ANTHRAX should’ve been required to turn in their “Big 4″ card fifteen years ago). On Endgame you get that melody on songs like “44 Minutes”, “How the Story Ends”, “The Right to go Insane”, and well, that’s about it. After opening with an instrumental that recalls So Far, So Good…So What!, many of the tracks are fast and aggressive reminders of the previously mentioned effort to sound like what once was. And while none of them are bad, many of them lack an identity and fail to linger after you’re done listening.

The last time I saw MEGADETH was on Gigantour after the release of The System Has Failed and Mustaine looked as if he were applying to be one of those living statues that you see in Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, the dude just did not move. After what seems like a dozen aborted attempts at ending MEGADETH over the past decade you have to wonder if the guy’s heart is really in it anymore. The music is still good enough, but it lacks any real fire. The kind Dave used to be filled with when he was mainlining heroin into his eyeballs.

That said, listening to this album is still 100x better than watching MEGADETH play “Crush ‘Em” on WCW Monday Nitro in front of a largely apathetic crowd.

Slayer – World Painted Blood

First a confession: I haven’t seen SLAYER live yet. That may rock my Heavy Metal credentials down to their core, but let me tell you first that I was going to see them play with MEGADETH and TESTAMENT for the American Carnage tour until Tom Araya’s balky back put that on hold for the time being. Hopefully when the time does come it’ll be nothing like the first time (and only time so far) that I saw IRON MAIDEN, who played the entire A Matter of Life and Death album and bored me to levels I haven’t experienced since sitting through “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

But let’s get down to business and talk about SLAYER’S eleventh studio album, World Painted Blood.

After having an album under their belt since reuniting with drummer Dave Lombardo, SLAYER finds themselves unleashing their most Hardcore sounding work since the 1996 release Undisputed Attitude. The sound here is more raw and back-to-basics if you will, with fast and aggressive Punk-influenced riffing that only dares to be interrupted by Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman’s trademark guitar solos that still retain the sound of a supercharged Metal version of Charlie Daniel’s dueling fiddles in “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”

Yeah, I compared SLAYER with fiddles.

Many of the tracks, like “Unit 731″ and “Hate Worldwide” are rippin’ and tearin’ barn burners that don’t make any apologies for their intentions. “Human Strain” is the rare exception where the band takes a breather with a slower groove oriented number. If there’s a stinker in the group it has to be “Americon,” a track that sounds like a warm leftover from Diabolus in Musica.

Nothing goes unscathed by me, however, and it holds true with this album. The production sounds flat, lumping all the instruments into a puddle that handcuffs the guitars from having the bite that they need to be effective. Also, as fast and aggressive as the songs are, the straight-ahead Punk style has a tendency to make the songs sound same-y and not stick out as much as you’d like. World Painted Blood is a solid album, but for me it would be behind Christ Illusion and God Hates Us All in the post-Diabolus era.

And if you’re expecting any interesting images in the booklet (wait, you still buy CDs?) like the edited Bible from God Hates Us All or the dumbass who cut SLAYER into his arms for Divine Intervention, you’re out of luck as its just plain old lyrics. You could buy all four versions and put together the covers to create a map of the world created from skulls, but then you’d be just as big of a dork as the cutter guy.