Overkill were there when thrash metal started, albeit somewhat on the wrong side of the country. Hailing from the New York and New Jersey areas, they were miles from the growing Bay Area scene down in San Francisco. Still, they were one of the first bands to combine the influences from NWOBHM and punk, and speed it up to a beast of it's own. Soon they got invited to participate on Brian Slagel's legendary 'Metal Massacre' album series. And that in time led to an album deal with Megaforce Records. 'Feel The Fire' was the name of their debut album, released on April 15., 1985.

'Feel The Fire' sees a young and hungry band on the prowl. It's easy to spot their influences through the music. Imagine if Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Ramones and Sex Pistols joined forces. Their offspring would most definitely be named Overkill. This is the very epitome of thrash and speed metal. Buzz saw, machine gun riffing, frantic soloing, relentless drumming, pummeling bass and a vicious, sneering vocal delivery. However, beneath all the speed and frenzy, there are still some good songwriting to be heard. Overkill never let the pace stand in the way of the melody, thus creating memorable songs, and more staying power to the whole album, as each composition stands just fine on it's own. 'Feel The Fire' has a remarkably good production for a 1985 debut, so every instrument is heard clearly.

The cool thing about the early thrash metal movement was how different most of the bands sounded, yet they were all instantly recognized as thrash metal. And while I like pretty much all incarnations of the genre, there is a certain extra charm with those naive and unsuspecting debut albums. Thus, I really like 'Feel The Fire', with key songs like "Rotten To The Core", "Hammerhead", "Overkill" and the opening "Raise The Dead". Yes, this is a thrash metal classic no metalhead should be without.

"Sonic Reducer" is a Dead Boys cover, a punk band Overkill used to play a lot from during their club days. This song was added as a bonus on the CD version of the album.

Trivia: "Raise The Dead" also appeared on the bands first 'Power In Black' demo, from 1983. However, the song was written, and performed live, as early as 1981, making it one of the first known thrash metal songs, if not the first one.

Killer tracks: Raise The Dead, Rotten To The Core, Hammerhead, Feel The Fire, Overkill

Feel the Fire is an awesome album! I love it.

Feel the Fire was a grower for me. I got Taking Over long before it and so when I first got it, it didn't seem anywhere near the height they'd reach on subsequent albums. But overtime it's certainly grown on me a lot, and songs like Raise the Dead, the title track, and Overkill are all among my favorites by Overkill. Also it's cool hearing Blitz's slightly cleaner vocals present on this and the next one as opposed to the much raspier style that would begin with Under the Influence.

An interesting goodie before we move on to the next album...

Overkill spent much of '85 and '86 on tour, (most notably as the opening act on Megadeth's U.S. tour for PEACE SELLS...BUT WHO'S BUYING?), and their road trip through Europe with Anthrax and Agent Steel was captured on video and released (in Europe only) on the VHS compilation METAL HAMMER ROADSHOW VOL. 1: U.S. SPEED METAL ATTACK. According to Metal Archives, the audio from Overkill's four song segment of this video ("Rotten to the Core," "Second Son," "Hammerhead," and "Overkill") eventually surfaced on a bootleg compilation album of early Overkill demos and odds/ends called POWER IN BLACK (not to be confused with their first demo tape of the same name, obviously)



I've seen a clip or two from this video on YouTube but would love to see this tape (incl. the Anthrax and Agent Steel sets) in its entirety!!

I think I'm one of the only members on this site who doesn't go bananas over this album. I think the problem for me will always be, I didn't discover this album until Gustafson left the band. My first experience with the band was "Taking Over" (that same year it came out), but even then I didn't get into the band on a larger scale until "Under the Influence". I love songs like "Rotten to the Core" and "Hammerhead", and I love Gustafson's shredding and Skates drumming, but I guess lyrically it is a bit comical for my standards. I know, shame on me...

I'm listening to this album right now, because I so badly want to have a deeper appreciation for this album. Regardless, I think the world of OverKill and the music they have been able to generate over the years.

Moving on then!
"From the islands to the city; from the ports into the sea,
We are strong, we will always be
Blazing through the wreckage, burning all we see
The life we lead, committed to be free..."



Overkill's second full length album, TAKING OVER, was released in September of 1987 and represented a major step forward in the band's presentation. By a stroke of good timing, Overkill's label (MegaForce) had just signed a major distribution deal with Atlantic Records, and TAKING OVER happened to be the first album released through this association. The metal-rules-over-all attitude of MegaForce's street team, combined with the massive promotional push that only a major label could provide, quickly helped propel Overkill into the consciousness of thrash metal fans on both sides of the ocean.

Song-wise, TAKING OVER pretty much picks up where FEEL THE FIRE left off. The main difference is in the production by Alex Perialas (who was more or less the "go-to" thrash metal producer on the East Coast at the time, having already worked with Anthrax, S.O.D. and Nuclear Assault), which is cleaner and meaner than FtF. Kicking off with the 1000 MPH crush of "Deny the Cross" and blazing through such now-revered songs as "Wrecking Crew," "Powersurge" and "Electro-Violence," TAKING OVER maintains the street level thrash feel of the debut album with the added bonus of better sonics.

The deal with Atlantic also gave Overkill a big enough budget to shoot their first-ever promotional music video for the track "In Union We Stand," a mid-paced anthem to metal togetherness that got its fair share of play on MTV.



Of course, the band supported the album by touring as much as possible, most famously as the opening act for Helloween's KEEPER OF THE SEVEN KEYS PART I tour of Europe, which raised their profile considerably among the Euro metalhead set.

So Overkill were officially "on the map" now, but not without hitting their first major stumbling block. At the conclusion of the TAKING OVER tour, long time drummer and band co-founder Rat Skates chose to exit, citing the pressures of life on the road as the cause. In his documentary film BORN IN THE BASEMENT, Rat explained that during the band's young-and-hungry, unsigned days, he was responsible for a multitude of band-related jobs aside from playing the drums -- he helped design and build Overkill's stage sets and props, designed t-shirts and merch, kept track of the band's finances, answered fan mail and filled merchandise orders, etc.., etc. With Overkill now a "major label" band, one by one all of these jobs fell to other people, which didn't sit well with Rat, who was a "hands-on" kind of guy. The boredom of having nothing to do on the road aside from play drums for an hour per day drove him to alcohol and his eventual decision to leave the band. With TAKING OVER as his final Overkill work, he can at least say that he left them on a high note.

PURE BRILLIANCE !! That's the only way to describe Taking Over. As good a debut as Feel The Fire was,the follow-up is 10 times better. This just flies out of the speakers at you with the opening of Deny The Cross and doesn't let up until the mellow fade away of Overkill II (The Nightmare Continues). I can't say that I have a favorite on it because they're all that good (this is one of my desert island discs). I think In Union We Stand is cool "patriotic" song and really had more signifigance after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. It seems like it could have been written in response to them.

Me Like....better than the debut

I was bummed when hearing that "the rat skated off"

This is a great album and this was my introduction to Overkill, not a bum track on the album and IMO if it was up to me the big 4 would be Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth and Overkill, this album established their sound and unlike alot of bands they did not shoot their load on their first two albums.

CRAP...I gotta hurry up and spin these again...I'm going to change your user name to FAST Freddy in a minute...

You were in that NWOBHM band "PUNMEISTER GENERAL" weren't you?

Taking Over was the first Overkill album I ever bought and it is still my favorite to this day! "In Union We Stand" and "Fear His Name" are my favorite songs on the album, they are both really heavy, anthemic and just plain fun! However, if it's pure speedy, energetic chaos you're looking for you certainly can't go wrong with "Wrecking Crew". I'm sure we can all agree that "Deny the Cross" is one of Overkill's signature songs, right along with "Rotten to the Core" and "Elimination". It's almost always considered a favorite by Overkill fans and when you listen to it it's easy to see why. Of course, I could go on forever about how much I love Blitz's vocals. Definitely one of THE best metal albums from the year I was born!

Freddy - For doing research like this, I think the best way to get the most accurate information is to read interviews with the band members. Even if you don't collect magazines, you can still find plenty of interviews online. When Wikipedia has the citations for its information I'd say that's sufficient, but I get skeptical otherwise. Sorry if I sound bossy or whatever, I just think that having more legit sources makes it more assuring to the rest of us.

Hahaha OK

Taking Over was my first Overkill album and still my favorite. Every song is great and the second half of the album is completely flawless.

I'm pretty sure the first time I heard Overkill was on "Metal Shop". They played In Union We Stand, which I actually didn't like that much, it was a little too "anthem-y" for my tastes. But seeing the actual LP in the store, it just seemed to scream badass. Plus how you not buy an album with song titles like Deny The Cross and Electo-Violence? One of the greatest impulse purchases I ever made.

The aforementioned "New York sound" is on total display, giving a sandpaper on skin rawness to the proceedings. These guys weren't F'n' around, they wanted to kill your Mother. Greasy and grimy and nasty (it looks like they are smeared in manure on the front cover).

Taking Over basically just barrels along like a riff-laden freight train, plowing through as many innocent pedestrians as it can find. Deny The Cross is just EPIC. That train analogy is partly inspired by Skates drum style, he's propulsive as hell, stoking the furnace. An underrated player. I fell in love with the guitar sound immediately, talk about ATTITUDE. Bobby's amp stayed on "11" 24/7. The most insane guitar solos, adding that extra visceral edge.

D.D. is a little buried in the mix on this album, the signature bass sound isn't quite there yet, but he's rock solid. Blitz, well, he's Blitz...you either love the dude or hate him. He sounds like Udo's younger brother after doing 8 lines of blow off a stripper's bouncy bouncies.

Feel The Fire, while suffering just a tad from the "recorded in a corrugated metal tool shed" sound, is killer from start to finish, picking up steam on side 2. Some really inspired guitar work throughout.

My favorite songs:

FTF: There's No Tomorrow, Blood And Iron, Kill At Command, Feel The Fire, Overkill.
TO: Deny The Cross, Electro-Violence, Powersurge, Wrecking Crew, Fatal If Swallowed (yeah, dumb as hell, but the doomy intro is awesome).

That's the last point I'd like to make. Overkill is a band that understood you could mix in slow, Sabbath-dirge riffs with the thrashier bits (Celtic Frost got this too). They would explore this further on later albums, but you can hear it in songs like Raise The Dead and Fatal If Swallowed. Like most of these NY bands, you can also hear lots of Iron Maiden influence.

I have Taking Over, but have not listened to it yet