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Overkill: Killbox 13
27/02/04 || Statik Majik
Overkill. What’s there to say about this band? They’re metal. They kick ass. They’ve done shitloads of albums and have been active for 20 years or so. And they kick ass.
Overkill has released solid albums thru the years of their existance. There’s only one Overkill album that I don’t like and that’s “I hear black”. Don’t ask me why, it’s not that bad album. It just doesn’t have “that something” the other albums have. But fortunatelly I ain’t reviewing that one.
I’m not sure is it just me or what, but since 1994’s “WFO” album it sounds like Overkill kind of got more heavier. And their production got alot better with the “WFO”. And since their 1996 release, “The Killing Kind” the albums have been soundwisely topfuckennotch. Just listen to the guitars on any of the Overkill’s albums released after 1996. Or bass? Sound good? Damn right. And I have to add that D.D. Verni’s bass has been pretty well audible on every Overkill album (maybe even too much on the “WFO”). “Killbox 13” aint no exception. Although this time the bass is mixed pretty nicely between the oh-so-heavy wall of guitars. And yes, I like how the drums sound too.
And if this interests you at all: this album is produced by Colin Richardson. Yeah, the same dude that’s done producing for Fear Factory, Machine Head, Carcass… you name it. Should that mean something to you? Well, maybe, considering that he’s been producing lots of quality albums to say the least.
The album artwork is made by Travis Smith. One of the few fucken talented/original artists along with Dan Seagrave, Michael R. Whelan, Wes Benscoter and Niklas Sundin. I am not sure is it a coincidence that these artists mostly tend to do stuff for good bands? Well, enough of that, let’s concentrate on the actual album here.
Some people complain about Blitz’s vocals. I don’t. Well, I enjoy King Diamond too, and we all know how “low” voice he has. Exactly. Well, I agree that Bobbys vox might be abit too high pitched/nasal for people who live solely on deathmetal. But if you can put your irritation aside for awhile and concentrate on the music, you’ll hear that Overkill fucken rocks. Yeah, the music is damn energetic. Catchy, one could even say. And is it heavy? Well, does pope have a big hat? Ex-fucken-actly.
Ok, let’s take a quick look on the songs:
Opening track, “Devil by the tail” is pretty ok Overkill material. One thing that I noticed about Overkill is that you can basically count on them providing killer songs, one after another. “Damned”, well… it’s good but it kind of just slips away. If there’s a standard for “basic Overkill song”, it would be this. There’s just not anything to grab to, if you get my point. After that we have the “No lights” which is alot stronger effort than “Damned”. The riff before the first verse is something I find myself nodding to. Hell, I just noticed that my foot is stomping abit. Not much, just abit. But that’s a good sign. The basic guitar riff on the verses of this song is so basic that you can’t fail with it. I know it’s something that’s easy to headbang to during livesituations. Ok, it must be good song cos I wrote more than two sentences of it. Let’s move on, shall we…
“The One”, is again more than basic Overkill material. “Crystal clear” has nice intro. This is probably the slowest/heaviest track on this album. I like it. Alot, I might add. “The sound of dying” is another basic song. What else is new? Next one on the line is “Until I die”. It has damn catchy riff to say the least. And it’s definatelly one of the strongest tracks on this album. The contrast between the slower sections of this song and the slightly faster and heavier sections just…. well, kicks ass? And yes, the “Struck down” is damn good one too. Resembles something from Horrorscope era Overkill, only played slightly faster. I’d rather enjoy this than a cold Coke, that’s for sure.
“Unholy” on the other hand sounds like it’s composed during the “Killing Kind” sessions. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s Bobby’s way of using his voice similar to “Let me shut that for you” on the “Killing Kind”. And last but not least is “I Rise”. Another good, solid Overkill track.
This is pretty good album but nothing out of the ordinary. There’s nothing new here, they’re just recycling ideas found good on the 4 previous albums or so. We’ll that’s what for instance Dismember does on their albums too, and you won’t hear me complain about that either. In other words: this album does kick ass (if I haven’t said that yet). So:
7 /10
- Information
- Released: 2003
- Label: Spitfire Records
- Website: www.wreckingcrew.com
- Band
- Bobby Ellsworth: vocals
- Dave Linsk: guitar
- Derek Tailer: guitar
- D.D. Verni: bass
- Tim Mallare: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Devil by the tail
- 02. Damned
- 03. No lights
- 04. The one
- 05. Crystal clear
- 06. The sound of dying
- 07. Until I die
- 08. Struck down
- 09. Unholy
- 10. I rise
