Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Overt Enemy - Inception - Review by Jaime Perez

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
About Jaime Perez -
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:
Twitter: @JPerezAuthor

 
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