{"id":54452,"date":"2017-02-10T00:00:19","date_gmt":"2017-02-10T00:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=54452"},"modified":"2017-04-17T16:49:52","modified_gmt":"2017-04-17T16:49:52","slug":"album-review-overkill-the-grinding-wheel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-overkill-the-grinding-wheel\/","title":{"rendered":"OVERKILL – The Grinding Wheel (2017) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

OVERKILL
The Grinding Wheel<\/strong><\/span>
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\nNuclear Blast (2017)<\/span>
Rating: 8.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s been three years since the last Overkill outburst in the form of 2014\u2019s White Devil Armory<\/em><\/a>, but the New Jersey thrash veterans never feel as if they\u2019ve been away, and with their latest album they\u2019ve well and truly put Metallica\u2019s overrated latest (Hardwired… To Self-Destruct<\/em>) in perspective.<\/p>\n

Overkill has been a true thrash band since their inception in the 80s; at times no frills but ever reliable, alongside the likes of Exodus and Testament they\u2019ve ploughed their way through the trends and fads, never once relinquishing their thrash roots or dropping out of the major league.<\/p>\n

Maybe because of their consistency they\u2019ve been somewhat overlooked; a tragedy when one considers that in the mid-to-late 90s and beyond the so-called giants Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth somewhat lost their way. But it really is time to look at Overkill, Exodus and Testament as the true \u201cbig three\u201d; leviathans offering up juddering rhythms without fault of frailty.<\/p>\n

The Grinding Wheel<\/em> keeps the thunder ball rolling and thunderbolts frying \u2013 battering rams that you can count on. Sure, Overkill have somewhat become the Mot\u00f6rhead of thrash metal \u2013 bludgeoning, boozing, belting, and bashing their way to immortality, standing tall like some steaming hot bulldozer fuelled by the yappy sneers of main striker Bobby \u201cBlitz\u201d Ellsworth and his right-hand man, bassist D.D. Verni.<\/p>\n

Yep, you know what\u2019s coming but you just can\u2019t help but be steamrollered by the epic \u2018Mean, Green Killing Machine\u2019 which begins with a weighty Ron Lipnicki percussive thud, a Verni bass rumble and then that crushing Dave Linsk \/ Derek Tailer chunky chug. It\u2019s a moshing slab of madness to get the heads bangin\u2019, and that\u2019s what Overkill have always set out to do; ply their fan-base with bruising lumps of neck-breakin\u2019 juggernauts. But it still sounds very much like Overkill; the combo casting aside mind-blowing progression to ply a bombastic trade within their destructive framework. Heavy, nodding rhythms give way to bouts of slower, trudging levels and gang chants, but as showcased with this opening track there\u2019s heaps of melody too \u2013 crisp slams polished by Andy Sneap\u2019s remarkable production and then faster, hammering bouts of catchiness.<\/p>\n

\u2018Goddamn Trouble\u2019 lives up to its title; and fist of fury constructed of trouncing drums and bass drubbing, Ellsworth\u2019s snarls take an almost nursery rhyme-styled melody and turn it into an absurd cauldron of boiling intensity. Overkill just never has the ability to let up from its frantic energy and fizzing stride.<\/p>\n

Detractors may argue that Overkill\u2019s 18th full-length studio outing is generic, but I\u2019m not sure what else they\u2019re meant to do \u2013 why fix something they smashed up years ago? This isn\u2019t just average thrash metal, but instead catchy, memorable fist-pumping menace. \u2018Our Finest Hour\u2019 brings a killer groove, and groovier still is \u2018Come Heavy\u2019; a deadly, blackened grunged-up slice of mid-90s darkness, but it\u2019s also Overkill at their hippest and most upbeat.<\/p>\n

In contrast, \u2018Let\u2019s All Go To Hades\u2019 begins with a monolithic doom-laden trudge before embarking on a punky, rattling groove and silly lyrics, while \u2018The Long Road\u2019 opens like Manowar, with hints of Teutonic wizardry too during the solo. It\u2019s another hefty bite of melodic metal almost combining Accept, Saxon and classic thrash with one mighty stir.<\/p>\n

The eight-minute closer \u2018The Grinding Wheel\u2019 showcases the unequalled talent of these guys. There\u2019s a doom-laden march of weighty drums, bass and guitar before Bobby Ellsworth\u2019s calmer commands interject \u2013 hints of classic Candlemass if you ask me with his sombre tones, but it\u2019s just a gargantuan structure that symbolises the diversity within Overkill\u2019s wheel; the grinding, green-coated cogs turn and expel the rust as the riffs chug with a greasy ease.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s familiar but never formulaic with Overkill just doing what they do best \u2013 engulfing the listener before finishing them off with a sledgehammer to the skull. The Grinding Wheel<\/em> is classic thrash \u2013 never ageing, never aching and always fulfilling.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OVERKILLThe Grinding Wheel Nuclear Blast (2017)Rating: 8.5\/10 It\u2019s been three years since the last Overkill outburst in the form of 2014\u2019s White Devil Armory, but the New Jersey thrash veterans never feel as if they\u2019ve been away, and with their latest album they\u2019ve well and truly put Metallica\u2019s overrated latest (Hardwired… To Self-Destruct) in perspective. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-overkill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54453,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54452\/revisions\/54453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}