Overkill - The Years Of Decay (1989)

Overkill is a kickass old-school thrash metal band from New York, and The Years Of Decay is their fourth studio album. The album featured a more serious atmosphere and longer songs, including the eight-minute title track and the ten-minute "Playing With Spiders/Skullkrusher". The uptempo thrasher "Elimination" was released as a single, and the music video received regular MTV airplay. Live support for The Years of Decay took place in part with a tour called "Dawn Of The Decade" together with label mates Testament. Though the album follows a pure thrash metal style, the song Skullkrusher is strongly influenced by doom metal, and could be considered as a tribute to Black Sabbath.

Mandatory Thrash Album
When most people think of thrash and speed metal they automatically envision Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and maybe Testament. Overkill should not be omitted from this list. The Years of Decay is a classic Thrash album. The disc would be the last album with guitarist Bobby Gustafson and he and Overkill shine on this one.

The opening track "Time To Kill" is an aggressive tour de force with muted rhythyms paving the way for crunching power chords a la "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Metallica. While Overkill lacks the lyrical skills of some bands "Elimination" is an honest appraisal about the concerns for AIDS in the late 80's and a demand for a cure. "I Hate" is blood pumping anthem for the angry with a catchy, melodic opening chord sequence and teen angst chorus.
Paying homage to the metal masters Black Sabbath, is "Skullkrusher" a slow, sludging mammoth tuned low enough to break glass. "The Years of Decay" is probably the only true Overkill ballad which builds to a sing along conclusion. "Who Tends The Fire" might be Overkill's "Stairway to Heaven" featuring clean acoustic passages, thundering rhythyms, and electric riffs. The album ends with the blistering speed of "Evil Never Dies" similar to Metallica's "Damage, Inc".
Guitarist Gustafson employs fast solos drenched with whammy bar improvisation and saturated distortion to complement the very low end of bassist DD Verni and drummer Sid Falck. Some people find vocalists Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth's vocals irritating, but after a couple of careful listens they really do fit the music. This album is probably Overkill's best produced and best sounding effort. The low end is perhaps too much, but the guitar work was enough to catch the attention of transcription guru Wolf Marshall who acknowledged the album as a masterpiece. This is truly a landmark thrash album.

– Review at amazon.com

Tracklist:

01. Time To Kill
02. Elimination
03. I Hate
04. Nothing To Die For
05. Playing With Spiders / Skullcrusher
06. Birth Of Tension
07. Who Tends The Fire
08. The Years Of Decay
09. E.vil N.ever D.ies

all songs written by Overkill


Produced by Overkill and Terry Date
Engineered by Terry Date. Executive producers: Jon & Marsha Zazula
Recorded & Mixed at Carriage House Studios, Stamford, Connecticut, June-July 1989
Mastered by Howie Weinberg at Masterdisc, New York City

• Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth - vocals
• D.D. Verni - bass
• Bobby Gustafson - guitars
• "Sid" Falck - drums

Release Date: October 1989
Format: Original Recording Reissued
Label: Megaforce/Atlantic Records
Catalog No.: 82045-2