Overkill - White Devil Armory Album Review

Released on July 22, 2014 in the United States, ‘White Devil Armory’ is as epic a thrash metal album as any other by this iconic band. It is simple, yet complex with layers of bass and rhythm guitar humming under Bobby Ellsworth’s signature, high-pitched guttural vocals. There are many interesting bridges in each song, keeping it exciting enough to want to listen more. Definitely a couple songs eerily sound like old school Metallica. However, in Overkill’s defense, Metallica probably sounded like them, since Overkill has been around since 1980.

‘White Devil Armory’ definitely brings the thrash back to thrash metal (which many bands have desperately tried to bring back; Carcass comes to mind – ‘Surgical Steel’ was effing amazing) and any metal head stuck in 1985 has been waiting for the return of thrash metal for sure (without all the wardrobe bells and whistles, let’s hope).

Metallica is mentioned because there are a couple songs that sound like Metallica in the pre-Newsted days (the song ‘Fight Fire With Fire’ comes to mind while listening to ‘Where There’s Smoke…’). It may or may not be a flame themed coincidence, but it isn’t too tragic and only brief. Again, Overkill was around before the ‘Mighty Metallica,’ so who copied whom?

‘Another Day To Die’ gets back to the concrete roots of thrash metal with the doom like leads and Ellsworth singing lyrics like, ‘I want another day to die,’ which can be easily envision a room (or forest) full of teenagers pumping their fists and shouting the anthem like lyrics.

The best song on this album is ‘King Of The Rat Bastards,’ period. The intro, the rhythm, the lead, the way Ellsworth seamlessly meshes his lyrics with Lipnicki’s masterful drum skills, only to break the song down and then go into a bad ass freaking solo.

Seriously, close your eyes when you listen to this album and you can actual envision the whole damn thing being played by the band right in front of you.
Amazing. The old guys still got it!
 
Track Listing

1. XDM
2. Armorist
3. Down To The Bone
4. Pig
5. Bitter Pill
6. Where There’s Smoke…
7. Freedom Rings
8. Another Day To Die
9. King Of The Rat Bastards
10. It’s All Yours
11. In The Name