Overcast - Reborn to Kill Again Review
Posted by Matt Shoemaker on 10.04.2008
The legendary Boston metalcore band reunites to bring their old material back to life. How does it stack up almost ten years after their split?
The History
Overcast is something of a metal supergroup, formed by members of Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, and Seemless. The band formed in 1991, well before any of the member’s current bands were formed, and is credited with pioneering the metalcore scene. The band split in November of 1998, after their last tour didn’t do as well as they hoped. It was after this that the members went off in their own directions to focus on new projects. In 2006, the band announced they would be getting back in the studio, re-recording “10-14 classic tracks, and 2 unreleased songs”. The band released the album, Reborn to Kill Again in 2008.
The Band
Vocals: Brian Fair (Shadows Fall)
Guitar: Pete Cortese (Seemless)
Guitar: Scott McCooe
Bass: Mike D’Antonio (Killswitch Engage)
Drums: Jay Fitzgerald
The Album
Track Listing:
1. “Diluting Inertia/ Grifter”
2. “Root Bound Apollo”
3. “Seven Ft. Grin”
4. “Filter of Syntax”
5. “Reborn to Kill Again”
6. “As a Whole/ Two Degrees Below”
7. “Spun”
8. “Your (Destructive) Self”
9. “For Indifference”
10. “Styrofoam Death Machine”
11. “Fates Design”
12. “Apocalypse Upon Us”
13. “Bleed Into One”
Having never listened to Overcast before, despite a mild interest in them, I had no idea what to expect coming into this. Coming out of it, I can say I am very impressed with this band. Re-recording old material is usually a solid way to go when it comes to releasing new material, especially if the band has been broken up for a while like Overcast. It allows the artist(s) to take things back to their roots, and freshen things up.
This album is pretty damn brutal. From the onset of “Grifter”, you can tell this isn’t the kind of metalcore that’s circulating today. This is more in vein of death metal than metalcore, to be honest. It’s fast, heavy, and yet, it still manages to come out as a very catchy album. There’s not one song on this album I didn’t find myself headbanging along to. Overcast uses melody perfectly; not every song has the melodic aspect to it, but the ones that do use it sparingly enough that it doesn’t become a crutch, allowing the band to focus on power.
The production helps a lot, too. At first, the band claimed Killswitch Engage guitarist and renowned metalcore producer Adam Dutikiewicz, but it was later revealed that Nick Raskulinecz had helmed the effort. Everything is crisp and clean, especially the guitars. You can hear every little chug and mute of Cortese and McCooe as they crush everything in their path.
One of the best songs of the album, “As a Whole/ Two Degrees Below” is what really sets this band apart from others. The song clocks in at 7:42, the longest on the album, and none of those near eight minutes are wasted. The song is very strong, with a great buildup intro, moving into a slow, pounding riff, then changing pace back and forth between “death metal breakdown” slow and an upbeat riff in the same style as Shadows Fall. This alternates back and forth until Fair’s vocals come in around halfway through the song, and then abruptly breaking into a near thrash tempo. This helps to showcase the versatility of the band, which is what I think helped establish them as one of the most prominent metalcore bands of the genre.
This is one of those albums where a mix of great sounds come together to form something even better. Musically, this album is brutal and punishing, and the vocals just help to emphasize that. The band sounds like they never even broke up, which is a shame, because it seems like aside from a small tour, the band won’t be doing too much more due to their commitments to their other bands.
The 411: Yep. This band's definitely still got it. Brutal, ass kicking riffs, crushing drums, and some of the best vocals metalcore has to offer. This is an incredibly solid album, from start to finish.
