Album Of The Day: Possessed – Seven Churches
Heavy Metal Overload
by Heavy Metal Overload
1w ago
Possessed – Seven Churches (1985 Combat Records) It came out of the Bay Area thrash scene but Possessed’s 1985 debut Seven Churches is now renowned for getting the death metal ball rolling. And quite right too: Jeff Becerra’s voice is demonic and cavernous; the riffing is brutal and relentless; and it closes with a song called… Death Metal! But it’s really more than that. As with other early efforts from the likes of Sodom, Kreator, Slayer and Celtic Frost there’s a primordial stew of dark extremity at work here that doesn’t fit neatly into any genre but has elements that can be extracted into ..read more
Visit website
Bathory – One Rode To Asa Bay
Heavy Metal Overload
by Heavy Metal Overload
3w ago
“The God of all almightiness had arrived from a foreign land” I often worry I use the word “epic” too much in my reviews but there is no song more deserving of the term than Bathory’s majestic One Rode To Asa Bay. The Swedish band’s seminal 1990 album Hammerheart explores Viking life, belief and mythology but its climatic track One Rode To Asa Bay depicts the arrival of a Christian missionary intent on erasing that way of life. The use of choral keyboards and relentless, driving repetition gives the song a hypnotic grandiosity and it’s impossible not to get swept up in Quorthon’s raw, impass ..read more
Visit website
Album Of The Day: Blue Murder – Nothin’ But Trouble
Heavy Metal Overload
by Heavy Metal Overload
1M ago
Blue Murder – Nothin But Trouble (Geffen Records 1993) Blue Murder were starting to sounding hopelessly outdated on their second album, 1993’s Nothin’ But Trouble. But in 1993 my taste in music was hopelessly outdated so I gobbled it right up. Compared to their bold debut album, Nothin’ But Trouble is a more calculated, commercial effort and there’s some rote wimphem here like Love Child and Save My Love. But I didn’t mind… back then I would have listened to Mr. Blobby if John Sykes was his guitarist. And there are some blazing rockers here like We All Fall Down and Cry For Love that took me r ..read more
Visit website
Album Of The Day: Kreator – Pleasure To Kill
Heavy Metal Overload
by Heavy Metal Overload
1M ago
Kreator – Pleasure To Kill (Noise Records 1986 – 2017 Reissue) Today I’m indulging in one of my favourite extreme metal classics: Kreator’s Pleasure To Kill. This 1986 album is obsessed with the various ways one might meet an end (whether it’s death by the blade, an axe in the back or a ripping corpse attack). It’s a masterpiece of thrash but such a raw, violent and bloodthirsty one that it also satisfies a craving for death and black metal. And it’s strewn with absolute classics: unforgettable bangers like the title track, Riot Of Violence and Under The Guillotine. Pleasure To Kill is the kin ..read more
Visit website
Jethro Tull – The Witch’s Promise
Heavy Metal Overload
by Heavy Metal Overload
1M ago
“Lend me your ear while I call you a fool” I’ve always been a sucker for a bit of folk and fantasy in my rock so I instantly fell in love with The Witch’s Promise the moment I saw Jethro Tull’s 1970 performance of it on Top Of The Pops (as part of the 1993 BBC series Sounds Of The Seventies). It took me years to find it on an album but luckily I videotaped the show so I could continue to partake of the song’s wonderful vocal melodies and lush layers of acoustic guitars, flute and keyboards. It had the swinging, hippy pop style of the band’s early material but The Witch’s Promise also pointed ..read more
Visit website
Album Of The Day: Hawkwind – Hall Of The Mountain Grill
Heavy Metal Overload
by Heavy Metal Overload
2M ago
Hawkwind – Hall Of The Mountain Grill (United Artists Records 1974) Despite being a mellower and more conventionally “prog” album, with a soundscape reminiscent of Pink Floyd and mellotron-laden King Crimson, 1974’s Hall Of The Mountain Grill is one of my favourite Hawkwind albums and a great place to start if you’re new to these dystopian space rockers. Psychedelic Warlords (Disappear In Smoke) is worth the price of admission alone: the band at their anarchic, street-level best. And Lemmy fans will enjoy hearing an early, pub-rocking take on future Motörhead tune Lost Johnny ..read more
Visit website
Album Of The Day: Gary Moore – Run For Cover
Heavy Metal Overload
by Heavy Metal Overload
2M ago
Gary Moore – Run For Cover (10/Virgin 1985) Gary Moore had a good voice but never quite at the same level as his fiery guitar playing so on 1985’s Run For Cover he enlists two legendary, but troubled, vocalists to help out. “Voice Of Rock” Glenn Hughes lends his powerful, soulful singing to four songs, most notably the classy Reach For The Sky which could have fit right in on his superb 1982 album Hughes/Thrall. And then Moore’s old Lizzy pal Phil Lynott basically steals the show with his larger-than-life presence: duetting on bullet-strewn hit Out In The Fields and contributing his own thumpi ..read more
Visit website
HO HO HMO Digest – 25th December 2023
Heavy Metal Overload
by Heavy Metal Overload
3M ago
It’s a time for giving, a time for getting, a time for forgiving and time for another HMO Digest. Blog Shenanigans Since the last digest, I’ve been having fun with the new “Album Of The Day” posts. It’s giving me the opportunity to post photos from my collection and talk about albums again but without having to “review” the albums. I used to do posts like these on Facebook and I don’t see why they should have all the fun. Especially when they tried to ban me for posting a picture of boobs (the cover of Akercocke’s The Goat Of Mendes album). I photoshopped a goat over the nipples but that wasn ..read more
Visit website
Winger – Purple Haze
Heavy Metal Overload
by Heavy Metal Overload
3M ago
“Lately things don’t seem the same” Winger’s glam metal re-imagining of Hendrix’s Purple Haze was doomed to fail, considering the relative positions of Hendrix and Winger on the Cool-o-meter Of Rock. I’ll give Kip and pals kudos for being brave/cocky enough to put their own spin on such an untouchable classic but the end result leaves me neither happy or in misery. It’s not so awful that I’m thinking “scuse me while I skip this shite” but in bringing the song in line with their own brand of 80s virtuoso sleaze, Winger also manage to bash out all of the dark, lysergic funk that made the origi ..read more
Visit website
Album Of The Day: Incantation – Onward To Golgotha
Heavy Metal Overload
by Heavy Metal Overload
3M ago
Incantation – Onward To Golgotha (Relapse Records 1992) Immolation, Suffocation and Incantation, the big three of death metal’s “-tion” bands, are all equally deserving of umm… adulation. But these days it’s Incantation I’m enjoying the most. I’ve had their 1992 debut Onward To Golgotha on CD for years but when I saw this vinyl reissue in Edinburgh last week I had to pick it up. This is a churning, subterranean take on Morbid Angel style death metal, more concerned with blasphemy than gore. Over 30 years since it was released, it still sounds impressively brutal and atmospheric. So if you like ..read more
Visit website

Follow Heavy Metal Overload on FeedSpot

Continue with Google
Continue with Apple
OR