Over the Top

Over the Top is the title of White Wizzard's 2010 debut album, though they've been major players in the NWOTHM (New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal) since the 2009 release of the High Speed G.T.O. EP. This album, however, has been recorded with a nearly entirely new line-up, all but Jon Leon (the band's founder and bassist) receiving the boot from the line-up, forming Holy Grail. And with this new line-up, Leon and company have forged one of the NWOTHM's finest offerings so far.

The album starts off with Over the Top, the title track and rightfully so. Over the Top is one of the album's best songs, being followed immediately by another song deserving a title none less flattering - 40 Deuces. High Roller and Live Free or Die are good too, but just don't meet the standards set by the songs preluding them. Iron Goddess of Vengeance rises out from this point, but Out of Control and Strike of the Viper fall back into the "good but not great" quality. Death Race and White Wizzard, however, stand out from the album just as Iron Goddess of Vengeance, Over the Top, and 40 Deuces.

One thing everyone seems to be complaining about is the cheesy Manowar-esque lyrics, blatantly dealing with topics such as war, glory, and heavy metal, but I honestly didn't find them so annoying or out of place at all in the songs. Wyatt "the Screamin' Demon"'s vocals are a mixture of Geoff Tate (Queensryche), Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), and maybe some John Arch (Fate's Warning) for good measure, thus creating quite the vocalist. The album is loaded with cool riffs and solos (courtesy of Erik Kluiber and Chad Bryan), and the drummer (Jesse Appelhans) and bassist (the aforementioned Jon Leon) don't do too bad a job either. One thing I didn't like about this album was the somewhat technical songwriting sin some of the songs, like on Strike of the Viper. One other thing that got me was the bass. Yes, epic, power, and NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) bands have been infamous for having a thumpity sound about their bass, but to me it sounds a bit annoying, like it's just a bit too thumpity.

When you take all these things into consideration, this is quite the debut album. But being the first full-length album of a band with little experience making music, there is room for improvement. If you like NWOBHM bands like Grim Reaper, Angel Witch, or Iron Maiden, or any NWOTHM bands like Enforcer, Cauldron, or Savage Blade, then you should probably go out and get this album. This album's not bad, but it just falls short of great.