Overkill: Necroshine CD Promo Steamhammer Germany 1999. Excellent condition. Check all samples.

With this album Overkill helps keep thrash alive after their 7 year or so slump. They prove with this album that a popular thrash band from the United States from the 80’s can still make great albums. Merits of this album such as great consistency, moments of greatness, loads of attitude, and it being the heaviest Overkill album up to the point of this album (1999), make this the perfect come back album.

There a few clear high points: the great opening track Necroshine and Fear His Name. Songs like Black Line and 80 Cycles offer something Overkill hasn’t done before, or hasn’t done in depth before. With all this variety though the album is amazingly consistent with its new sound. Each song on this album is very good. The band repeatedly makes track after track good or great in the style and structure of the album. The structure is the new Overkill sound, which is heavier and combines the speed of Horrorscope. The vocal change is noticeable, Blitz sings much more raspy or harsh than the earlier Overkill records (Feel the Fire to Horrorscope).

The high point of this album is the great opening track Necroshine. After the progressive/ambient intro to the song, the song pulls you right into headbanging with a great thrashy riff that’s pretty heavy for Overkill. The guitars on this album are very catchy and memorable, as is the chorus. Its stays in your head and never looses its appeal. Blitz sings with more attitude on this album than Mr. T telling a fat kid to do a pull up. The lyrics have attitude and Blitz delivers them with authority and confidence. This raspy harsher vocals fit this new Overkill style well. Tim Mallare proves his worth as a drummer on this song and album. His drums can get very fast at times, are always heavy and loud, and work well with the rest of the music, being in rhythm with the rest of the band. The other song worth mentioning is done in a similar style to Necroshine, but just a bit faster, is I am Fear. This is one of the more faster songs on the album, and it packs the most punch. Its consistent from beginning to end, the guitar and drums are a bit choppy witch helps the vocals on this song. The vocals here are done in short fast bursts, but with little space between each phrase. The speed of these burst phrases almost gives it a rhythm. Its just a unique vocal style for Overkill and they do it well. The lyrics of this song rule too, its mostly about hurting some dude severely, and when Overkill sings about destruction and violence its always good. The last song that needs mention is Black Line. Its very different, mainly because at some points its gets really happy sounding. Kinda like an 80’s thrash song meets and 80’s hair metal song. There is a cheery forward looking chorus and some amusing whistling. This is more of a Novelty song for Overkill, but its still good enough to make it more memorable than a Novelty song. These three songs are the high points of the album.

This is probably Overkills’ best of their post ’80s records. It is heavy and fast( with very few slow melodic parts like on Dead Man), full of consistency from Necroshine to Dead Man. If you are a fan of their older stuff this is definitely different, but recognisably Overkill. The bass makes a big presence on this record as opposed to their others. D.D seems like he wanted to make the bass more than just to play along with the guitar, but give it its own spotlight on a few songs. There are no bad songs on this album, all are good. If all the songs reached the level of Necroshine, this would be Overkill’s best album. Other than that its an amazing album. Overkill proves that U.S Thrash bands from the 80’s can still keep thrash alive and not sell out.