Overkill: The Wings of War (2019)

Longtime readers of this blog (there are a few of them left I think) know that I am a particularly big fan of American thrash metal.  Of course there are the Big 4.  Metallica was my gateway into metal and Ride the Lightning is the first metal album I ever bought and still probably my favorite.  Megadeth quickly replaced Metallica as my band of choice early on.  Anthrax is probably the best of the four still going.  Of course Slayer is one of my favorite bands as well.  But even beyond the Big 4, I am a huge fan.  Testament is on the short list for my favorite band of all time.  Exodus's Bonded by Blood is the greatest example of pure thrash metal ever, in my opinion.  And then we come to Overkill, probably the most consistently great thrash metal band of all time, a band who has never released a truly bad album, even when they were experimenting with groove metal.  Whenever Overkill releases a new album, I jump on it.  And here we are.

So now that I have first sung their praises, I have to start off with a little bit of a disclaimer.  I did not love Overkill's last album The Grinding Wheel.  It seemed too similar to their previous album and it was a bit bloated and overly long.  It was not a bad album by any stretch and was still better than anything Slayer has put out in a long time.  It was just a mild disappointment.  So now, we get to The Wings of War.

They fixed what was wrong with The Grinding Wheel.  That is the first and most important thing to say about this one.  The songs are shorter, tighter and punchier with the snarling attitude that has made Overkill so potent all these years. The album kicks off with the neck-wrecking "Last Man Standing" and rarely lets up on the throttle throughout the entire 50+ minute album. 

The only misstep on the album is the much punkier "Welcome to the Garden State".  Also, no one in their right minds believes fucking New Jersey is the best place in the U.S.A. as the lyrics proudly announce.

For a band that has been around longer than I have been alive, they still sound just as pissed-off and energetic as they ever had.  It is quite easy to listen to this album back-to-back with something like 1987's Taking Over, and know that this is still the same band.  Their sound has evolved very little over the years.  We need bands like that.  It is comforting knowing that we can count on Overkill to deliver the goods with each album.