Number four

Number four goes to a band who had spent a few years slugging it out in the clubs of New York before getting signed to Megaforce records and releasing their debut lp in 1985. Number four is without a doubt......

Overkill- Feel the fire

It's a big monster of a debut that comes on like a storm with Raise the dead and it never let's up. Not a weak a track on the album and it would be at least four years until Overkill could say that again. Other than Raise the dead, my other favorites are Rotten to the core, the title track and the song Overkill. Most of the songs are aggressive and straight ahead while being very solid and heavy as well. Their sound was somewhat different than other speed metal bands of the time and it was basis for the same sound that they have had since 1985. This band has now been around for almost 25 years and they have gone through a few drummers since the debut and a small army of guitarists, but the line-up on the debut is one of my favorites. Rat Skates was a solid drummer and there was a good reason that it took two guitarists to replace Bobby Gustafson in 1990. Bobby "blitz" Ellsworth belts out the songs with his unique vocals and DD Verni has always been one of the best bass players in speed metal. This is a band so cool that it didn't matter that their logo was bright green.


Only three albums left to go. The hint for number three is that this was the first album that I ever saw with an explicit lyrics warning sticker on it.