Under The Influence was always extremely hit and miss for me. There's awesome stuff like "Shred", "Hello From The Gutter" (which I've heard a gazillion times and I'n still not bored, same thing as "Rotten to the Core"), the third Overkill song, and I always had a soft spot for "End Of The Line". The best cuts rival the best cuts from other early albums, but the lowest points, though not terrible, are weaker compared to their filler-ish early material.

Under the Influence is a decent album but something about it always rubbed me the wrong way. The production is a big culprit but it may just come down to awkward writing. Hello From the Gutter and Drunken Wisdom are pretty awesome though.

"Under the Influence" is easily one of the worst 80s albums from a great band. "Hello from the Gutter" is a timeless classic though. If what was said above is true, clearly letting DD write a lot of material was a huge mistake (as their last several albums can also attest to).

I don't think anything Overkill did at all was bad, but especially in the '80s. Although "Under The Influence" is probably the worst of the first 4, it's still great. "Years Of Decay" will forever be #1 though.

Quit flapping your gums...

Seriously, the hate for "Under the Influence" needs to stop.

You can hate anything from "I hear black" to "Immortalis", really, there's nothing there worth worrying about.

It's all about Taking Over for me. I remember seeing the "In Union We Stand" video on MTV during the "Metal Music 1/2 hour" (anybody remember that) when TO first came out and I was hooked. 14 year old me listened to that record incessantly. Side two of that one is especially so good.

The metal media back in the day when "I Hear Black" came out used to say that every third Overkill album sucked, with the run of UTI and IHB at 3 and 6. Never understood the hate for UTI, but I give IHB a chance once a year every time Diamhea does his annual mention saying it isn't that bad. But it still sucks every single time I listen to it.

Yeah, that one is just awesome and the best for me. "Electro-Violence", "Fear His Name", and "Powersurge". Rat Skates was a great drummer and really played for the song well.

Back at a time when thrash meant hills, valleys, and melody and not maxed-out, bland riffless speed on nearly every track. Retro-thrash bands have missed the point in many ways.

"I Hear Black" is pretty good but only one I would recommend to hardcore Overkill fans. It's not one I miss very much and was such a HUGE step down from "Horrorscope" as they obviously tried to get more groovy. I missed the Lombardo-isms of Falck although Mallare is very good too.

Diamhea is right, it isn't bad.

"Feed My Head" is one of my favourite OVERKILL tracks. Totally nails that groove. Then the title track, "Dreaming in Columbian,"... the Sabbathy "Spiritual Void" - hell there's some good shit on there.

UtI >>>> I Hear Black.

And once again, the lack of love or (even plain attention) for Overkill III is inexcusable. It's one of their best songs.

Was always my favorite song off UTI.

After living with the first 5 records as they were released and then getting IHB on release day.....one of the biggest letdowns ever. It was so different and I instantly hated it. That feeling has endured for 25 years. Good on people that like it, but for me it will always suck.

Don't get me wrong, UTI is better than I Hear Black, but I Hear Black is still great. Overkill can't release a bad record.

Listen to Immortalis and get back to me on that.

Overkill has more bad records than good ones.

I feel exactly the same way about both statements!

Although it was really Years of Decay that was my first "new Overkill" album.

Undoubtedly true. But why should they change if the fans don't care? As long as it's "metal" and "solid" people accept it.

None of these folks would give a second listen to Speed Kill Hate, which is basically the same style of (bland) songwriting. Branding matters!

Just because "Immortalis" is probably one of the worst, doesn't make it bad. It's alright, not great, but not bad. And they CERTAINLY don't have more bad ones than good ones. Their discography is just so big that most people hardly have the attention span to give it all a fair chance.

If you want a horrible record in an otherwise amazing discography, see Scoprions "Eye II Eye".

I’m surprised to hear you don’t care for the album. Some of the frantic riffage on songs like “Mad Gone World” feels like overkill dipping their toe into the developing tech thrash style. Hell, “Shred” is basically an Artillery song. Which progressed into the wonky bass break stuff on Years of Decay. I guess I’m a UTI apologist, I always loved dark vibes of “Drunken Wisdom” and the power metal chorus on “End of the Line”.

How fucking cool is “Fear His Name” tho? Perfect power/thrash, one of their most underrated early songs IMO.

Fear His Name rules. Apparently my "top track" on Last.FM, haha. Definitely in my top ten OVERKILL tracks. Wish they tried more songs in that epic style with the operatic vocals, but Bobby started smoking heavily around that time and it changed his voice.

I feel like even the worst of Overkill is just okay/meh. ReliXIV just has that horrible production and albums like Immortalis and Bloodletting have some phoned in writing, but I'd hardly call them bad.

Hey folk, lad from a few days ago. Got round to listening to Under the Influence at last and I'm kinda into it. The bass tone is thick, it's got a pretty hard edge to it and it's a lot of fun overall. You can really hear the band's punk roots shining through, especially on "Hello From the Gutter". The major fault I can pick with it is that it's not very catchy, or at least as memorable on the whole as the other Overkill songs I've heard but it's by no means bad.

Glad you enjoyed it. And yeah, that was one of my beefs with it - there aren't many hooks. The vocal lines sound rushed and uncreative. Production of the drums also sucked, IMO.

I'll say this, "Shred" is one of the coolest openers on any Overkill record.

A more incorrect statement could not exist!

Good:
Feel the Fire
Taking Over
Under the Influence
The Years of Decay
Horrorscope
I Hear Black
WFO
Necroshine
Bloodletting
Killbox 13
Ironbound
The Electric Age
White Devil Armory
Grinding Wheel

Bad:
The Killing Kind
From the Underground and Below
ReliXIV
Immortalis

From The Underground and Below doesn't get the love that it deserves.

Fucking White Devil Armory is incredible! Grinding Wheel could not outdo that one.

These two squeeze by because they do have killer songs on them. TKK has to be the band's most '90s sounding cut, but it oozes attitude and Blitz is entertainingly off-the-wall.

ReliXIV has that weird production, but "Within Your Eyes" is a cracking opener, and "Wheelz" is one of my favorite OVERKILL cuts.

Already new material in progress: http://metalstorm.net/events/news_comme ... s_id=33136

Cool I guess. Getting burned out on this current style, and changing drummers isn't going to mix it up enough. As long as Linsk is in the band this is the best we are going to get.

Kinda impressed they're teasing new material already. Grinding Wheel wasn't too long ago was it?

^ A year ago this month. They have some fest dates and quick tours scattered between now and into the summer, so I’d presume they could finish writing and start recording before the end of the year for a 2019 release which would put them back on their typical schedule.

They've had a nasty habit of making premature promises and pushing album releases back by several months, so we'll see. I am as well anticipating a 2019 release.

I kind of agree and I kind of disagree. I agree that the current style is getting a little played out. I thought Ironbound was amazing and is probably the best thing any of the classic thrash bands have put out since the genre stagnated in the 90's. Electric Age was a step down but still a really fun album. White Devil Armory less so, but again I would not call it bad. Grinding Wheel is just more of the same. Remove the last two albums from my memory and I probably rant and rave about how good it is but that's not the case. Where I disagree is that Linsk is the problem unless I misunderstand what you're saying. I think Linsk is the best guitarist this band has had since Bobby G. and it's not like Linsk joined Overkill right before Ironbound. His first Kill album was Bloodletting which is much different than Ironbound and the other current stuff. The issue with Overkill right now is a songwriting issue, which means it's a DD Verni issue. So, until DD thinks there needs to be a change, there's going to be a whole lot of not changing.

Supposedly DD writes virtually all of the music, since Horrorscope. I don't know how much of that I believe, as there was a distinct change each time they switched guitarists. Merritt and Cannavino left, and you can see one of the band's more marked stylistic shifts from W.F.O. to The Killing Kind. Then Comeau and Marino left, and we go from the riffless wonder Necroshine (seriously, is there one thrash riff on that entire album?) to Bloodletting, that while boring as fucking shit in spots, did have a more classic sound to it - more so with Killbox 13.

I can't account much for whatever the fuck was going on during ReliXIV and Immortalis, so this theory isn't watertight, but it's obvious that even if DD is writing, the guitarist(s) it is being fed through drastically affect the sound. I know for a fact that Derek doesn't record anything on albums other than backing vocals, so Linsk is a powerhouse, which I respect him for. But he seems to struggle from a melodic standpoint, the hooks aren't memorable outside of the occasional Maiden harmony, which were absent on The Grinding Wheel. I know it would be a huge risk to switch guitarists, as he has been with them for longer than anybody, but the band isn't going to be around forever anyway.

So his lineup stuff on this site is wrong on several albums?
https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/ ... ailer/7375

As far as I know, a n00b user undid those edits and ignored the blurb in his bio. I'm asking the mod who originally changed it for clarification.

What do people here think about the 2004 Response Negative EP w/ Gustafson on it?

Is there any reason Derek Tailer doesn't record any guitars on OverKill albums? I've heard this before and I don't understand why it's the case.

I hear that's somewhat common practice for a lot of bands. Like Kerry King recorded pretty much everything except Jeff's solos simply because he's a tighter rhythm player.

Also a very common trend for bassists. No bassist has ever actually recorded on a Vader album, it has always been 100% Peter since the very dawn of the band (he probably handles rhythm guitar too though I can't confirm that)...Paulo Jr. never played on any Sepultura album pre-"Roots"...Jay Black of Malevolent Creation allegedly only recorded on the first two albums and basically let someone else handle bass on every other album he "appeared" on. Kind of weird but makes for some interesting trivia, I guess .