Infernal Overdrive

Upon arriving at the band's page today, my jaw dropped (somewhat belatedly) at realizing that the group had split up a few months ago. Considering this is White Wizzard, that may not come as too surprising a piece of news, since they didn't exactly have an easy ride over the 11 years they were together, though it feels all the more crazy considering that they had released this album only three months earlier and it's certainly the strongest of their career. Because I had already written this review closer to the date of release, I'm now unsure whether to change it to the past tense or keep it as a document of my thoughts at the time. I've tried to do the former, but a part of me wants to follow the latter style. Of course, I'm hoping that Jon Leon might be able to get this line-up back together to carry on...

White Wizzard did themselves the disservice of too many line-up changes and subsequent inconsistent albums, though Infernal Overdrive saw band leader Jon Leon’s new posse (actually, some ex-members had rejoined) on fine form and matching many risks with copious rewards. The preceding release, 2013’s The Devil’s Cut, had some solid shorter compositions in the band’s signature classic metal style, but suffered from elongated songs packed with monotonous guitar leads and passionless performances. At first glance, Infernal Overdrive appears much the same, opening with three concise trad/speed metal songs, then branching out with four songs that top eight minutes, including the three-part progressive rock closer ‘The Illusion’s Tears’. The warning signs build all the more when learning that the longest two songs both involve substantial musical downtime as the band delve into ballad territory to praise America’s soldiers in ‘Voyage of the Wolf Raiders’, which pushes the limits of sincerity just a little too far. ‘Critical Mass’ is also loaded up heavily with additional guitar movements, one of which takes a trip through lumpen groove riffing.

So far, so worrying, yet White Wizzard turn most of the dangerous ideas to account by means of tight band unity, fresh songwriting concepts, and an astounding performance from vocalist Wyatt Anderson. The clanking bass of Leon is again a large (though not oppressive) feature, while the magic of simple choruses finished by alternately soaring and haunting vocal melodies is the key to success for ‘Chasing Dragons’ and ‘Cocoon’ respectively. However, all this would be nothing without achieving the basics, so the prowess of the guitarists to power their way through the upbeat aggression of ‘Storm the Shores’ and twist fascinating fills into the body of ‘Critical Mass’ is a re-affirmation of the group’s credentials at the forefront of the NWOTM. There's really not much to fault with the choice of style or note selection on the mid-length rockers, most of them gathering a cracking surge of energy and vitality that depends on all bandmembers to keep things interesting. The bass guitar takes a lead role when the title track and 'Cocoon' veer off from their regular verses, so there is always plenty to focus on from that angle, while the drumming of Dylan Marks never becomes only mindless timekeeping.

The quality goes deeper than that though. The addition of numerous Middle Eastern-sounding leads and the bizarre brainwave of mashing together ‘80s speed metal with ‘60s pop sensibilities on the drug-addiction rocker ‘Pretty May’ makes the richly diverse album stand out from White Wizzard’s contemporaries. It's difficult to think of anyone else from that mid/late-'00s group of trad metal revivalists who would have risked so much (and, lest we forget, risked the same moves again) and come out of it so gloriously, since Enforcer, Wolf, and Steelwing have been nothing if not quality, though never sought to innovate beyond the traditional metal template. However, Infernal Overdrive goes heavier with the title track's blistering broken chord and double bass chorus; it goes lighter with the airy philosophy of 'The Illusion's Tears'; more technical on the detractor-baiting 'Critical Mass', and more goddamn enthralling on the mysterious Eastern double bill of 'Cocoon' and 'Metamorphosis'.

Every single song on the album subscribes to White Wizzard's ethos of "more is more" and even gives more than ever before in an hour-long celebration of multifarious heavy metal glory. A few of the tracks took much longer to grow on me, with the prog rock closing staying cool for longest, though I've come to enjoy that more than the slightly overdone and lukewarm 'Voyage of the Wolf Raiders', which I consider to be the only weak spot on the album. My original closing sentence for the review read like this: "Infernal Overdrive has snatched the initiative back from more consistent bands like Enforcer and Holy Grail and put White Wizzard at the head of the pack again." However, in light of the break up, it might be more apt to say that this is a monumental tombstone for the Californian crew and one that its scattered members in the NWOTM scene will be trying to better for quite some time.


Originally written in edited form for Metalegion issue #3 - www.metalegion.com