Relixiv

”Here´s to the old school, didn´t matter if you looked cool, we drank some beers and broke some heads and never gave a shit!” Damn, this is an excellent song to party to, especially as I currently am loaded to the max while writing this (got to use some spell check tomorrow). The song in question is Old School, the closing tune of Overkills latest offering, Relixiv. It sums the atmosphere of the record pretty well, as this is a very old school-type of affair. Sounds good doesn’t it, even excellent, right? Well, right and wrong, Ill have to say. All the songs are very loyal to the classic thrash metal-roots of the band, all the way to the sounds and production of the album. Here lies the greatest weakness of Relixiv, at least for me. The guitars are at times a little weak and I would gladly prefer more brutal bass up in the mix. I have read in recent Bobby Ellsworth-interviews that the album was meant to sound rough and not so worked-on, so that explains this part. I personally just am a fan of humongous, über-blasting and dare I say “polished” sounds in the end, and I feel that a fat, larger production would have given this album more. The song material is quite mixed. As I said, the instantly ripping thrash-mayhem is there throughout, but the amount of hooks is very uneven in the songs. The album opener Within Your Eyes, the groove-heavy Love, the speed-metal biter A Pound Of Flesh and the aforementioned, very punkish party anthem Old School are all great tunes, but after that you find a very catchy riff here, an awesome solo there, but as a whole most of the songs just don´t have that much of “the special something” that makes me spin an album several times a day without skipping songs. Its kind of frustrating that I would like to dig this album a lot more than I honestly can in the end. The musicianship is very solid on the entire record, especially the drumming. Blitz´s vocals haven’t changed…..well, one bit. If you loved his singing on the 80s records, you´ll love it now. If you hated it on the early records, chances are high that you wont like them any more on this one. Relixiv is a very solid record that mostly suffers from a tiny lack of memorable hooks and most of all, weak production. If you dig your thrash metal old school-style (like I usually do too, mind you) and don’t care so much about stellar sounds but appreciate a fuck you-attitude above all, then this album is for you.