Overkill: The Wings of War (22nd February 2019)

WORDS: Ross Donald

After a trip to the past with Slipknot last time, it's time to come back to the present with a band even older than them and older than any other band I've talked about before. That band's name is Overkill and The Wings of War is their 19th (!) studio album since 1985; released on February 22nd this year through Nuclear Blast. The band has been around for a long time as they first formed all the way back in 1980 but this is actually my first time listening to them. They are a band that has been on my radar for a while now as I consider myself a fan of thrash metal. I've heard they are one of those rare bands to have never released a bad album and with 19 studio albums that's very damn impressive. I consider Iron Maiden to be the best band ever, but even they've not (yet) managed to pull something like that off. After hearing from a few people that this album was their best in years, I knew I had to check it out and I'm glad I did.

So normally I go through the album track by track, but I thought I'd try something different this time and just talk about the album as a whole. There's only so many times I can say "this song is thrashy and fun" in one post without it becoming boring.

The album starts off with the first single 'Last Man Standing' and they picked one hell of a track to start things off with. The track begins with what sounds like a countdown to the apocalypse or Mr X coming after you in Resident Evil 2, before it then jumps into some gloriously fast and furious thrash metal goodness. Imagine if Metallica's song 'Hardwired' was really good and that's what you've got here. This is probably the best song on the album, as it's the one that's most likely to get stuck in your head all day. Love the chorus and absolutely adore those fantastic riffs.

The next couple of tracks in 'Believe in the Fight' and 'Head of a Pin' keep the thrashy goodness going and while they may not have the same impact as the opener, they're still songs worth adding to your metal playlist because they're just such a fun and adrenaline fuelling listen that they're bound to start some big ass mosh pits. It's at this point I realise that thrash metal is in safe hands with Slayer leaving and Metallica...... doing their thing.

The next big highlight is a song that should have been a single but wasn't due to the title of the track ('Bat Shit Crazy'). This song is totally destined to be a live favourite and one that may cause a massive wall of death. The lyrics seem to be about how society nowadays just gets offended at everything that's spoken aloud and we're not allowed to speak our minds anymore. Just a great song to let off some steam to, and my god, that chorus is so damn catchy I can't help but love it and go 'Bat Shit Crazy'.

After 4 fun, thrashy tracks, things slow down a bit with the longest song on the album: 'Distortion'. The slow down isn't bad by any means, as the subject matter demands it seeing as the lyrics focus on getting through depression. It probably could have been just a little shorter as it isn't the most memorable track, but it's not bad at all by any means, as it has some inspiring lyrics and great musicianship from the whole band.

After 'A Mother's Prayer' brings us back to the headbanging speed I've been craving from the album, we hit the third single in the form of 'Welcome to the Garden State', which appears to be love letter to their hometown. It comes across like a love child of thrash metal and hardcore punk and it actually works surprisingly well. Another fast and furious track in an album full of them, this is another one that's destined to have everyone at a local gig jumping around the place.

The next track, 'Where Few Dare to Walk' comes across like a song you would hear on Metallica's Black Album (sorry about all the Metallica references), which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It does have a bit of nice atmosphere to it due to the slower pace, heavier guitars and those groovy solo bass lines. But it doesn't come across as memorable as some of the earlier tracks.

It doesn't help that the penultimate track, 'Out on the Road Kill', is completely forgettable and is the one song I would have definitely cut from the album to shorten the length a bit. This is definitely one to skip as it's just a generic filler thrash metal song with not much to say. Thankfully the final track, 'Hole in my Soul', saves what could have been a disappointing ending to this record as this is one of the better tracks on the album, so we do get to end on a proper high note. More headbanging goodness, a banging chorus and a glorious guitar solo is all that's needed here and this almost ends up being as good as the intro track.

Overall, I had a blast with this album and it's one that I'll be having on repeat as the year goes on. While I might have been slightly critical of a couple of tracks, those were really just nitpicks at most, as they're still good tracks that are worth a listen outside of the one filler track I mentioned. The 51 minute length just goes by in a flash and if you've been craving some old school thrash metal then this is the album for you. I'm definitely going to be checking out more of the band (even if I have a daunting 18 other albums to listen to). Highly recommended.

Tracks to download: 'Last Man Standing', 'Believe in the Fight', 'Bat Shit Crazy', 'Welcome to the Garden State', 'Hole in my Soul'