Overkill "White Devil Armory"
Sometimes humans are stupid. We make often wild and damn near criminally dumb decisions based on very little thought, usually borne out of dismissive and cursory reactions. The act of stepping back and giving an opinion, concept or idea a chance is, sadly, lost on us homo sapiens sometimes. Nobody is more guilty of this than myself. In 20+ years of listening to metal music I have neglected some very important artists and albums based on whims and fancies at the time of hearing them for the first time. I am particularly guilty of this with Overkill.
I have not been able to get on with Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth's vocals when it comes to Overkill. (Insert random name calling, finger pointing, laughing and stares of disbelief here!!!). For some reason my picky little brain bends toward a dislike for the vocal style of "Blitz" and always did do until "White Devil Armory" dropped this past week. Thrash metal makes up a small part of my collection of music but it is a very important part of the whole picture I like to think and looking back now at my years of collecting thrash metal classics from Anthrax, Slayer etc it seems unbelievable that Overkill have only just made an entry into my list after nearly 30 years of releases.
Whatever my dumb as shit thought patterns were up until now their latest opus has certainly addressed them and made me sit up and take notice. "White Devil Armory" is fucking superb. It's an absolute red hot contender for album of the year. It has an energy that starts from the off and rarely drops in intensity for the rest of the record. I listened to it this morning before spending the day driving around shopping and after one listen it was in my head the whole time. Just listen to first track (proper) "Armorist" and try to deny it's catchy chorus as it seeps into your head and chants around it for the remainder of your waking hours.
The vocals click perfectly for me this time and those guitars are soooooooooo fucking crunchy and biting. Just listen to the riffing on "Bitter Pill" for those galloping riffs and thrashy chops!. As the album rolls on you wait for the (inevitable?) drop in pace, but the fact is that although the quality does drop towards the final 2 tracks on the album, this is a romp the whole way through. Add to this fact the sheer ease with which Overkill appear to display this. The old masters show us all how thrash can still be ripping and intense in the year 2014 and have made one of the best releases of the year so far as a result.
"White Devil Armory" is available now via Nuclear Blast.
I have not been able to get on with Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth's vocals when it comes to Overkill. (Insert random name calling, finger pointing, laughing and stares of disbelief here!!!). For some reason my picky little brain bends toward a dislike for the vocal style of "Blitz" and always did do until "White Devil Armory" dropped this past week. Thrash metal makes up a small part of my collection of music but it is a very important part of the whole picture I like to think and looking back now at my years of collecting thrash metal classics from Anthrax, Slayer etc it seems unbelievable that Overkill have only just made an entry into my list after nearly 30 years of releases.
Whatever my dumb as shit thought patterns were up until now their latest opus has certainly addressed them and made me sit up and take notice. "White Devil Armory" is fucking superb. It's an absolute red hot contender for album of the year. It has an energy that starts from the off and rarely drops in intensity for the rest of the record. I listened to it this morning before spending the day driving around shopping and after one listen it was in my head the whole time. Just listen to first track (proper) "Armorist" and try to deny it's catchy chorus as it seeps into your head and chants around it for the remainder of your waking hours.
"White Devil Armory" is available now via Nuclear Blast.
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