I was listening to this again today, and my opinion on it has consistently been positive in the last few years. This record used to get so much shit, but let's be honest, it is better than anything they released in the next ten years up to Killbox 13. Blitz was deep into alcoholism at that point and the lyrics are really dark. There is quite a bit Sabbath influence, which the band always teases with occasionally. Damn, lots of great tunes: Dreaming in Columbian, Feed My Head, World of Hurt, the title track, Ignorance and Innocence, etc. The production sucks, and maybe this album's biggest fault is that it had to follow up Horrorscope.

EDIT: This is now the de facto OVERKILL thread.

I'm with you here. In fact, there's only one song that still hits me the wrong way, and that's Dreaming in Columbian. I liked the album a decent bit back when I first heard it, but I'll have to give it another visit to really let it sink it in some more. I especially enjoy World of Hurt and Spiritual Void.

I've never thought that I Hear Black deserved all the flak that it gets. There's a good collection of good-to-excellent songs -- they mostly just aren't balls-out thrash like the band's first five albums were. I also think it's one of Blitz's best vocal performances ever.

That's cool you brought this one up. I've been thinking about checking it out. Seen it on tape at a shop I frequent recently. Honestly, I haven't listened to much Overkill beyond The Years of Decay, and a bit of Horrorscope, but I plan on acquiring the first three albums, and perhaps I Hear Black as well. Also, really interested in From the Underground and Below. The cover art has really drawn me to that one for some reason.

Wait... didn't you do an I Hear Black thread some time ago?

I agree with the op that it's a pretty enjoyable album that gets more flak than it deserves (probably due to disappointing expectations of what Overkill ought to sound like at the time of its release ), and I also agree with the fellow above me; Overkill discussion ends up nearly monopolizing so many thrash based threads, perhaps you ought to create one umbrella 'Overkill discussion thread' at this point.

That's a good idea, let's wait until we have more to talk about with the next album and I can turn its dedicated thread into everything Overkill after the buzz dies down.

I may give this one a try again. I don't find it terrible, but it's certainly the least listened to of their discography for me.

Been a while since I spun that album. I remember the first half of the record (the first 5 or so songs up through Spiritual Void) a lot better than the latter part. I don't think there are a lot of cohesive and great songs, but there are some cool moments for sure. The main riff in World of Hurt always stuck out to me, and I think that the chorus in Feed My Head ranks among the catchiest that Overkill has produced. I'm gonna have to give the record another listen, because I'm looking at the tracklisting and I'm drawing a blank on a good five or six songs.

This album, kind of like Sound of White Noise,Ritual,and even Cryptic Writings and Roots, has the same issue that many attempted mainstream releases of the era had. That is, there are usually one or two great tracks on the album, but then the rest is too much filler. Its like the band and label put so much energy into what they anticipated the hit track would be that they felt they could just let the rest go. I think what separates those efforts from ones like the black album and Vulgar Display of Power is that the quality levels on the two I just mentioned were pretty consistent.

Ehh, I tried repeatedly back in the day with this album, but it just didn't do it for me. My interest with Overkill seriously died after "Horrorscope", and didn't really come back until they stormed back with "Ironbound".

Gave it listen last night and I still don't care for it that much. A couple good songs and that's about and I think that's what hurts this alum so much. Not enough good material to keep me interested on this one.

This album sucks.

Ah the bimonthly "Dia had a passing thought about Overkill" thread.

This album sucks, just like everything else they did between Horrorscope and Ironbound. The energy is lacking, the production is ass, the grooves are lame, the songs lack memorability, basically every complaint I can give every album in that stretch applies here as well.

Yeah, it's a pretty good album. Not essential or anything, but certainly not bad. In the top 50% of albums they've released IMHO.

A lot better than WFO but WFO has that crushing production that I really like.

I think of it sort of how I think of Kreator's Renewal. Both bands had just come off from a total peak of brilliance, but then took a sharp turn into a bit of interesting experimentation, to varying degrees of success. I have trouble getting into Renewal, but I can dig I Hear Black. Probably a weird comparison, but those two albums seem to share those split criticisms and I've always associated them (as well as both bands adding up to be some of my all time favorite thrashers)

Dude... what? WFO's production is anything but crushing. The guitars are tinny and overshadowed by the ridiculous bass.

That's a joke, right?

Haha!

Give me a break. Compare it to the guitars on say, Stained Class, which sound like they are powered by a 9 volt battery.



You call the bass ridiculous, I call it crushing. I like that they used a different sound on this one. Well, they were copying Pantera but it was different for them. They weren't copying Metallica at least.

I just didn't think many of the songs on WFO warranted repeat listens.

WFO's production was shit, but I like it better than I Hear Black. I Hear Black is not a good album. IMO it's the worst one they put out. It's Pantera's fault. They ruined Anthrax at the time too...lol

I wouldn't mind the bass as much if the guitars were stronger in the mix. The first time I heard the album I thought it was clipping.

And yeah, WFO is way thrashier than I Hear Black but the songs are mostly forgettable. I do enjoy "Under One" though and "Bastard Nation" is a good anthem type tune.

The only good thing about W.F.O. is the breakdown in "Gasoline Dream". Or is that NecroShine?

C'mon dude Fast Junkie rips...

I can't fucking have this conversation with you.

To me, that's the "correct" way to do it. The meat of the song, guitar riffs, in your face. But that means something has to get pushed to the back, usually bass guitar and drums.

DD Verni is usually one of the most audible metal bassists so I thought it was a cool thing to try.

Mixing engineers need to learn about dynamic EQ.

Because you have trouble admitting when you are wrong, and I am invariably correct about everything OVERKILL.

If I listen to a Temple Of Blood release and it sounds like dogshit, I know exactly who to blame for that monumental fuck up.

Also, your double-spaces after periods is fucking annoying. It's not 1945. Stop it.

I don't really like it but I'd rather listen to this than new Overkill albums. Fuck your Nuclear Blast comeback!

Absolutely!

Gant/Cannavino >>>>>>>>>>>> Linsk/Tailer

Yeah, for once in his teensy-weensie itsy-bitsy Scottish life Acrobat is right. These new thrash albums from old thrash bands are forgettable at best.

But I Hear Black is an awful album though.

I don't care what anyone says, Ironbound ruled and I would way rather have more of that than more of this.

Diamhea brings up I Hear Black being pretty good every year or so it seems. And every time he does I go back and give it a listen. I did so today and yep it still sucks. I'll never get over the disappointment of hearing it the first time after the original release. After living with Horrorscope for a couple of years and eagerly buying IHB when it came out....what a letdown. The years have not washed that away.

True, I will never know how it felt first-hand but I could only imagine disappointment. I do think it has aged well, at least better than many of their contemporaries' "post-Grunge" efforts.

You sir, are a dunce.




That ain't the only one.....

It was a big disappointment but I still spun it several times. Wfo is when I gave up on them.

Yeah, may as well be a general Overkill thread (and simmilar threads for other bands frequently brought up, since threads about specific albums always quickly goes into comparison with other albums by the same band and then into discussion about several other albums without connecting it back to the album of the OP).

Anyway, my cents on some of the stuff discussed in this thread:

1. As an Overkill fan boy, I like all their albums to some degree, including IHB. I agree about IHB being clearly better on songs 1-6 than on 7-11. And yeah, obviously the production is weird, though pretty much anything is better than modern Nuclear Blast-type of production, including IHB production. However, it doesn't make IHB better than all their NB-era albums.

2. Someone brought up checking out From the Underground and Below too. That album is also like IHB in the sense that the first half or so is significantly better than the other. Same with The Killing Kind, by the way, which is of course part of that same mid-era of theirs. In both cases, it's songs 1-5 which are as a whole clearly better than 6-10.

3. W.F.O. is undoubtedly better than I Hear Black. And on a song ranking of W.F.O., I would place Fast Junkie on the bottom half. That album has a bunch of underrated songs. Gasoline Dream is one of my favourite Overkill songs ever.


I guess it's you they are referring to by the lyric "Mr. Can't-Be-Wrong" in the song What's Your Problem (underrated song) from the W.F.O. album...

Same here. I threw it in my CD player in the car the day I bought it and just remember thinking wtf. Thankfully, Metal Church released Hanging in the Balance that same year so 1993 wasn't all bad. I took a break from Overkill after I Hear Black. Got more into death and power metal. Didn't really revisit them until Necroshine and then went back to listening to them again pretty regularly and picking up the back catalog. The production on WFO is shit, but I prefer it over I Hear Black. After a couple of songs, I don't notice DD's bass as much.

1. I'll agree that I Hear Black is a little top-heavy, but the best song on the album has got to be #8, "Weight of the World". It's the only true thrasher on the album, and a pretty good one at that.

2. I've never had much time for either From the Underground... or Killing Kind. I'd rank both those albums under I Hear Black. In fact, the only Comeau/Marino album worth its salt is Necroshine.

3. WFO absolutely wrecks I Hear Black. "Supersonic Hate", "Gasoline Dream", "Where It Hurts", "The Wait/New High In Lows"... Hell, even "Bastard Nation", while pretty corny is fun as hell.

Nah Necroshine is garbage past the first two tracks and maybe Black Line. The Killing Kind is underrated if you remove the two slower nonsense tracks "Mourning After" and "Burn You Down."