vote
9.5
- Band:
OVERKILL - Duration: 00:52:47
- Available from: 03/09/91
- Label:
-
Megaforce Records
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The year was 1991: the complicated decade of thrash metal had officially drawn its first furrow. On one side, the definitive explosion of grunge, on the other, the brutal and glacial, albeit friendly, pushes received from death and black; in the middle, the release of Metallica's black album. A swirling, disconcerting, frighteningly mainstream triangle; a series of changes as vast as they were sudden that made the life of heavy metal's bastard brother practically impossible. A moment of great confusion, of styles and intentions, during which several bands, subjugated by the Hamlet-like doubt between attempting the road to the big market or remaining anchored to the primordial roots of the genre, literally went adrift, overwhelmed by the inability, and in some cases also by a good dose of bad luck, to reach one of the two objectives. A global involution that continued until the end of the millennium when, fortunately, a new creative wave, connected to the predictable commercial decline of other genres, brought it back to the glories (although not reaching them in full) of the past.
In the general chaos that arose at the beginning of the Nineties, some groups still managed to give their best, releasing valid testimonies about that attempt, more or less sketched, of revisiting the old sounds, embracing more modern and more experimental shores.
And between Sepultura's “Arise”, released in March, and Megadeth's “Countdown To Extinction”, coming out the following year, fits perfectly the present “Horroscope”, Overkill's fifth album, who arrived at the appointment with the new album in the company of two important burdens to carry on their backs. The first, certainly more pleasant, contained the excellent responses earned by the previous albums, with the debut “Feel The Fire” and “The Years Of Decay” covering the highest steps of the podium; the second, however, troublesome and worthy of greater attention, directly concerned the line-up. Something, in fact, had started to creak within the band: after the release of “The Years Of Decay”, the relationship between DDVerni (along with Blitz Ellsworth) and Bobby Gustafson had started to sour due to the different positions regarding the future compositions of the group. Discussions that led to the inevitable split between the parties: Gustafson out and Overkill without a guitarist. Hence the doubts about the possible replacement, but in the end DD and Bobby Blitz not only hired a new member, they did more, they doubled: from Faith Of Fear came Merritt Gant, while from guitar technician (coincidentally Gustafson's) Rob Cannavino was promoted to the first team. Double graft, with the clear intent of giving a new twist compared to the past: a radical choice that found definitive confirmation in the superb “Horrorscope”. The thrash-power tones that had characterized the earthshaking advance of the New Jersey combo were revolutionized, in their place came into play dense and layered melodies, culminating in excellent solos and technical and refined rhythmic passages.
A dark album, both in its cover and in the title track: heavy riffs, soaked in groove and doom, to break as mentioned the past schizophrenia, trademark of the band. A hypnotic pace on which is the voice of Bobby Blitz, less electric but cleaner and more sinister, to ration the enigmatic march set up by drummer Sid Falck, identifying “Horrorscope” as one of the most representative songs of the new look of Overkill, placing itself as the perfect needle of the balance between the two symbolic pieces of the fifth chapter signed by the American band. A hissing thread, covered in energy and heartbreaking melody, in fact connects the opener “Coma” to the conclusive “Soulitude”; two authentic gems, different from each other but united by the same propulsive force, also showing the extreme stylistic versatility of DD and companions, remained so to speak hidden until that moment.
The double intro of “Coma” has the merit of immediately introducing us into a den of dark and evil mystery; so hostile that it is swept away just as quickly by a burst of riffs in which the two new guitarists immediately take hold, before the lethal explosion in the refrain. For its part, “Soulitude”, inexplicably disappeared in the live setting (excluding the first promotional concerts and exceptionally re-proposed in the celebratory Overhausen show of 2016), shows itself as a sumptuous ballad, marked from top to bottom by a furious desperation, which exalts itself in the rampant melody of the refrain; tear-inducing! In the middle, nine songs (Horrorscope included), maybe not as direct and memorable as “Rotten To The Core”, Elimination” or “Hammerhead”, but with a greater technical depth and an absolutely unrivaled basic completeness, demonstrating how the choice, risky at first sight, of the double guitar turned out to be a winning one, so much so that, in the years to follow, the quintet will remain the basic structure of the American band (with the exception of “Bloodletting” in 2000, where they temporarily return to the four-piece formation).
Without starting the classic track-by-track, “Thanx For Nothing” certainly deserves a mention, a perfect example of how Overkill knew (and still know) exactly what to do when they want to put their foot down on the accelerator. Hammering and precise at the right point, just like the previous “Blood Money”, in which Gant and Cannavino break the bank, between solos and riffs in series. Finally, closing a more 'extreme' first part of the album is “Bare Bones”, with its piano intro, where Falck has the big voice, thus 'stealing' the scene from the rest of the band. In the second half of the album, however, the rhythms become rockier, and then here is the massive “New Machine”, whose central break is of an abysmal heaviness, the cover of “Frankestein”, an instrumental piece composed by the American rock group The Edgar Winter Group in 1972 and “Nice Day…For A Funeral”, the perfect forerunner to the moving “Soulitude”.
The invitation therefore, while waiting to see them on stage at the upcoming Metalitalia.com Festival, is to throw yourself to the thirteenth floor of your metal shelf, grab “Horrorscope” and put it in the stereo; an album absolutely to have.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM