Overkill (US-NJ) - Feel the Fire (1985)^{Release ID: 1613}

It's hard to review Overkill's debut as being a thrash metal album.  Rumour has it some of this stuff was written as far back as 1981 (more the likely 1983 though) and so it falls more in the category of speed metal crossed with the more obvious heavy metal influences of the band at the time.  With no money and no record deal at the time of writing most of this, by the time Feel The Fire came out it was doomed it seems to be just a collection of songs released late and therefore paling in compariosn to the releases of their peers at the time.

What we got in 1985 was under-developed and incredibly simplistic in comparison to what was to come in subsequent years.  You'd almost forgive the band for not releasing this and going straight to Taking Over, with the session that made the debut being released some years later as a demo collection for die hard fans only.  However, since they obviously had little control over their own destiny Feel The Fire was the international metal community's introduction to Overkill.  The opening salvo from the band is a poorly produced and clumsily performed record that just had to rely on the superb vocals of Blitz to lead the energetic and promising charge, trying to stifle the thin guitar sound and cumbersome drumming as best he could with his demonic range.

Fact is Ellesworth saves this record in the main, his vocals and Verni's bass are perhaps the most consistent aspects to this album.  As mentioned they act as more of a distraction from what's wrong everywhere else on most tracks but still they deserve merit in their own right.  Rat Skate on the drums often has little (if any) control of the double bass at times and it is only when the band are in full swing that he appears settled and cohesive with his surroundings.  Otherwise his timing sends tracks off into catch-up mode all too soon when trying to build momentum.

Gustafson's guitar isn't exactly on fire either and I sense this isn't entirely due to production or mix issues (I have read that his amp blew and he had to "innovate").  As I said earlier though, when the band are hitting their stride it really works well and tracks like Hammerhead remain in your head for life after a couple of spins.  Similarily tracks like Kill At Command show real promise of the true potential of the band.  Sadly though there's no amount of glitter that can cover some turds sufficiently and for all the energy and sheer tenacity to try and record something the lack of ability and maturity at the time shows all too clearly.

Whilst Feel The Fire isn't a disaster, it enters the thrash metal arena and immediately finds itself chasing the competition with confused and slightly dated ideas that hinder the bands ability to stay in touch with the lead pack.  In so many ways they have never been able to make up that ground despite their long and significant career.

I must preface this review by admitting that I am no huge fan of Overkill, their longevity withstanding, I have always been underwhelmed by their recorded output. Having never seen them live, I am surmising that their live shows are the real source of their popularity. Anyway, the New Jersey thrasher's 1985 debut is a disappointing record in so many ways. The production isn't great and there's a muddiness to the sound that doesn't lend anything to thrash metal in general and this in particular. Secondly and more importantly, the band don't sound committed to the thrash ethos, large portions of the album sounding like Iron Maiden or Mercyful Fate demos. Now there's nothing wrong in sounding like either of those metal titans, but Overkill were always pushed as a THRASH band. When they do cut loose such as with Hammerhead, then they are pretty effective, despite the poor production. Thirdly, why end with a piss-poor cover of Dead Boys' Sonic Reducer, a classic US punk track? Sure they have stuck around for a long time, but weren't helped by this lacklustre debut, which is why they were never held in as high regard as some of their peers, being released as it was around the same time or after albums like Ride the Lighting, Spreading the Disease, Hell Awaits, Bonded by Blood, To Mega Therion and Seven Churches, against any of which it is a poor substitute.

In hindsight, if the big four had been expanded, you could make a legitimate claim that Overkill would be the group most deserving of a potential fifth spot. Their legacy is well established over forty years and have been releasing some high quality, old school thrashers on a relatively consistent basis over that time. And let's not forget this bands 1989 album The Years of Decay, which is a true classic in the genre in all senses of that word.

I say all of this in preface because I don't really care for the bands debut album, Feel the Fire. And when I some time to think about why that is, the answer is quite simple. The quality of what's inside is very rugged. In all honesty, it's many of the same issues that I had with Metallica's debut album Kill 'Em All from 1983. But even by that comparison, Metallica's album did feel well performed. With this album...I don't know; there are plenty of instances on songs like "Raise The Dead", "Rotten To The Core", "Second Son" and "Kill At Command" in which the band sounds like they are just about to fall apart with the tempo changes. And I don't mean that in a positive, progressive usage. These tempo changes sound like mistakes that were stapled together in post-production instead of getting the group to play it again and pray the drummer is using a click track. "Overkill" manages the transitions with a bit more fluidity, but those moments are sparse on this record.

The album also suffers from some really cheap sounding production. I know this is early 80s thrash: "iT's nOt sUppOsEd tO bE pOlIsHeD!" I hear you say. But the guitars are consistently peaking in the mix on side B, the bass presence is painfully absent outside a handful of small bursts, and the bass drum is mixed way too close to the front, which does drown out even the guitar riffage when heading into a double kick passage. When the riffs are audible, they sound fine, and I did not mind the band doing their own version of "Hit The Lights" on "Blood And Iron". The vocals are quite spectacular from a pure performance standpoint. The quasi sung/scream vocals of Blitz are very cool, even if his nasally vocal timbre can be an acquired taste. And he balances it out with some vicious howls like the outro of "Raise The Dead". As for the hooks themselves, there are some solid standouts, most notably "Hammerhead" and "There's No Tomorrow".

Here's the thing about Feel the Fire: many of my criticism's about this album are based off the fact that I have heard better, including from Overkill, thrash metal records in the years after 1985. And as I have said before, judging a bands debut LP to later albums is unfair. So if you are in the mood for some good old fashion thrashing, then Feel the Fire will probably be just the burn you're looking for. However, even by those standards, this does not even stand up favorably to the debut records from Metallica or Slayer from a couple years earlier. For as messy as those albums are, at least Show No Mercy and Kill 'Em All were produced better, and the hooks were more pronounced.