Overkill - RelixIV

*=Staff's pick	Within Your Eyes* Love Loaded Rack Bats In The Belfry* A Pound Of Flesh* Keeper Wheelz* The Mark Play The Ace Old School*

Genre	Thrash Metal	Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth	Vocals
Tracks	10	Dave Linsk	Guitar
Runningtime	51 Min.	Derek Tailer	Guitar
Label	Regain Records	D.D. Verni	Bass
Release	22 March 2005	Tim Mallare	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Exodus

Long time running thrashers Overkill with over twenty years of history are dealing out their fourteenth album, as the title RelixIV reveals. Overkill is a band that has stuck to what they do best at all times, delivering thrash metal of highest calibre. And this time is no exception, you get what you expect and that is how things should be with Overkill. Perhaps it is a little bit more of an old-school attitude on RelixIV and they sound to be more focused than in a long time and also determined, to say the least.

Vocalist Blitz has that kind of voice that fits so perfectly for thrash and you just got to love it. His resolute voice and the distinguished sound from D.D. Verni's bass gives Overkill their special sound and those are also the foundations of this adrenaline-fuelled thrash. It opens with Within Your Eyes which is one of the better tracks on the album. It starts slowly with a vibe that lets you know that this is gonna be good and is leading on to serious riffing in true Overkill style. The production sounds a bit thin in guitar riffing area and the sounds tends to become a bit flat, although the pounding bass and drums as well as the solo-parts work really well but it makes you wonder what a producer like Andy Sneap could have done with this.

A Pound Of Flesh with fast and blitzing shredding gives the same feeling of revenge as Exodus projected on their come-back album and is a real display of strength and furthermore a lesson in how it is supposed to be done. Bats In The Belfry feels like the track with the most work done behind and is the most solid track on the album. The songwriting hold perhaps the most even level ever but it never gets past a certain level. It is great but not as great as in old times. Old School ends the album greatly, an adrenaline pumping track with a punk attitude song. Think toward Anthrax's crazier numbers and Toy Dolls football punk refrains, and you get a kick-ass beer drinking sing-along track that I hope that they will bring along on their live set.

Parts of the songs carry you away with mosh-pit riffing, solos and harmony parts of best thrash brand, although no entire song is really of their best mark. There are lot of great songs but apart from perhaps Old School, I can't see any future classics here. Still, Overkill on an average level wipes away most other thrash acts around, and that says a lot.

See also review of: Wrecking Everything , Killbox 13

Production	Vocals	Compositions
6	9	7

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Thomas