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Overkill > Immortalis > Reviews > zeingard
Overkill - Immortalis

Dousing the thrash fire once again - 33%

zeingard, October 21st, 2007

Oh come on, don't say you expected Overkill to get their shit together and release a good album. No offense to them, they were a fucking top band back in their heyday like so many of their thrashing brethren but honest to fucking god I will cry blood from my eyes and penis should I be submitted to yet another fucking 'modern' thrash album by an 80's thrash band. 'Immortalis' joins 'Shovel Headed Kill Machine' and 'Christ Illusion' as yet another over-rated 'return to their roots' album, which means that it's mostly some groove metal with one great thrash song and some good parts scattered around the other songs like the charred remains of an Imperial Guard regiment accidentally hit by a barrage of Basilisk fire (geek knowledge skill up!).

The most obvious fact that this album was going to be terrible, besides the fact it's released in 2007, is that Randy Blythe sings alongside Blitz on the song 'Skull and Bones'. For the uninformed I believe Lamb of God to be nothing more than post-Vulgar Display of Power Pantera played on a metalcore template; they're a terrible aberration and I weep every time someone calls them 'thrash' or 'a good band'. The song in question is also quite shit being a monotonous groove riff repeated ad inifinitum, a sub par solo and heaven fucking forbid, a breakdown. Not a thrash break but an actual breakdown, with Randy Blythe screaming over the top of this section I started having 'Nam styled flashbacks to the time I listened to a LoG album just to review it.

"Devils in the Mist" is the only good song on the entire album because its thrash fucking metal, there's only a couple of riffs but they recall of days long gone and much headbanging ensues. There's a nice little thrash break where we get to hear the bass guitar for the first and pretty much the last time for the entire album, and the solo is awesome. The rest of the album is fairly bland otherwise, there are just no real ass-kicking riffs and for the most part it's either fast or plodding groove metal with no balls to it, it's not the Overkill we've come to know and love. Sometimes the songs will alternate between a fast and slow riff which gets pretty irritating since you want them to thrash the fuck out but instead they piss around in 'shitty groove riff land' for a good 40 seconds or even longer, wasting your time. The only other notable songs are probably "Head On" which has a few riffs and a decent solo in it despite the mediocre chorus and "Charlie Get Your Gun" has a short solo that works really well and even the two riffs afterwards have a good deal of speed and aggression to them. "Overkill V" is the most disappointing in the Overkill series of songs having only two good riffs and the rest of the song being much like the rest of the album; very fucking bland, especially that meandering outro.

Really that's all I can say about this album, its bland bland bland. I've listened to this album about five times now, twice of those times I've made sure to sit there and focus all my attention on it but even after the time investment there's nothing that really comes to mind except with regards to the first song which is great. Overkill can still play their instruments, the guitars aren't too down tuned and the tone is still rather crunchy, Blitz is a great vocalist who still sounds rough but even does some more rather odd clean singing in some of the choruses throughout. The entire album is like going to fancy restaurant and eating a some sort of high priced but amazingly delicious entrée only to find out that for the main course all you're allowed to eat is imitation gruel (9/10 orphans can't tell the difference!) followed by a dessert consisting of a single frozen banana. Bearing in mind you're still paying 'fancy restaurant' prices, the great entrée doesn't really compensate for the shit-tastic main course and for the dessert leaving you feeling a bit cold.

Let us hope immortality does not grace Overkill's career if they continue to peddle shitty groove metal records like this one.