Overt Enemy –
INCEPTION
Review by: Jaime Perez
What started out as a
Slayer tribute band has now become an unrestrained force of its own.
Wait…I did exactly what I tried to avoid!! I told myself that I
would make every effort not to mention Slayer while reviewing this
EP, and I have already failed. Oh well, I must carry on. As expected,
a tribute band turned original band will likely possess overt (yes, I
said “overt”) hints of influence from the band they pay tribute
to in their own original music; Overt Enemy is no exception to this
likelihood as they were once solely a Slayer tribute band who covered
all eras of my personal favorite quarter of “The Big Four.”
There are 5 songs on this
release, but two of the songs are repeated as radio edits. One of the
other songs (“Inception”) is somewhat of an instrumental, ambient
piece that adds a nice aura of darkness to this release, but the meat
and potatoes of this release are the two teasers that Overt Enemy has
fed us for now: “Mercenary” and “Political Cancer.” Both
songs are solid, thrash tunes in the vein of latter-era Slayer. I
honestly don’t see how any Slayer fan could not enjoy Overt Enemy
(maybe unless you only enjoy Slayer’s “evil era” during the
heavier, rawer first 4 or 5 albums). “Mercenary” starts off calm
and soft, but eventually escalates to a mid-paced pulsating tune that
is likely to get one’s head in banging mode. “Political Cancer”
is the faster of the two songs (the latter part of the song, at
least) and starts off with a nice, haunting, guitar melody that
repeats later in the song like a bad nightmare that you actually
enjoy. Aside from obvious comparison, Leo’s vocals remind me a
little of Russ Anderson from Forbidden during Forbidden’s debut
release. The vocals are delivered with clarity and originality that
is difficult to find nowadays in metal vocal deliveries. The words
have little nuanced tones and accents that add to the vocals
enjoyment and steer it away from the monotone deliveries that plague
many bands. I’ve always associated many of the genres of metal with
shredding, guitar leads. Although many metal genres don’t
necessarily call for guitar leads or use them as frequently (punk and
industrial come to mind), Overt Enemy make it a point to display
their guitar shreddage on these two songs as they incorporate enough
guitar solos to make fellow guitarists smile and take note,
particularly “Political Cancer.” It’s a nice, almost mandatory,
element to have in thrash metal. The production on this, which I
believe was handled by ultra-talented Joshua Lopez at Widowmaker
Studios, is outstanding. Containing the chaos of louder more extreme
forms of music but still capturing the natural roughness of the art
is not easy, but Joshua delivers a level and strong sound for the
quartet from Mission, Texas.
If these original tunes
are any indication of what is to come in the future from Overt Enemy,
you better brace yourself because I think Overt Enemy intends to show
no mercy!! (JP)
“Inception” by
Overt Enemy is available now: Amazon/iTunes/Google/Spotify
& www.ConfusedRecords.com
Jaime
Perez is a founding member and drummer of McAllen Texas’ longest
running death metal band, Severance. He has been a part of the Texas
metal scene since the early ’80s and continues to be a global metal
ambassador to this day. His music collection; both cds and vinyl,
tallies in at roughly 1500 physical copies and includes a variety of
musical genres, although a vast majority is metal. In addition to
churning out metal, Jaime is also a fiction writer and author of “The
Vacant Space” and the award-winning novels, “A Risky Yet
Worthwhile Endeavor” and “Through You”.
For Media/Press,
Republishing or Booking Inquiries Contact:
Email:
jaimeperez917@yahoo.com
Twitter: @JPerezAuthor
Website:
www.severancemetal.com
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