antiReviews: Overkill � Bloodletting
by Goth Brooks

Label: Metal-Is

Track Listing:

1. Thunderhead
2. Bleed Me
3. What I'm Missin'
4. Death Comes Out To Play
5. Let It Burn
6. I, Hurricane
7. Left Hand Man
8. Blown Away
9. My Name Is Pain
10. Can't Kill A Dead Man
 

Not since the early days has the band recorded as a four-piece, as with their first permanent guitarist Bobby Gustafson, who later went on to join Dave Lombardo in Grip Inc.  "Bloodletting" is a brutal slab of what Overkill self-describes as their trademark "Bloodmetal" brand of Heavy Metal.  With guitarist Dave Linsk the band really expands on their style of heavy music thanks to Linsk' heavily saturated guitar sound.  Linsk definitely adds something new to the sound while keeping it all identifiably true to vintage Overkill.  The voice is still the classic Blitz meets Udo hybrid of the evil squealing little troll who lives under the bridge, but the lyrics stand out more on "Bloodletting" than on any albums of the past.  Instead of the basic doom and gloom and the souls of the dead are coming to get you lyrics, Overkill has gone the creative wordplay route and treated us to thought provoking lyrics about living in our own personal hells.  Every song seems to have an interchangeable theme that runs along the lines of how we react to things like violence and alienation.

The very real themes throughout "Bloodletting" firmly set the lines of distinction between this and previous albums.  Just check out some of the lyrics to "My Name Is Pain."  "All givin', all takin' what I need/ For better, for better or worse, I'm gonna kill you/ Right here where you stand/ I'm wrapped around you, gonna pound you/ Welcome to my show/ Everywhere you go/ Make you think it's all unfair, here's what you need to know/ Let me introduce myself, you're gonna know me well/ When I take aim, you know my name/ My name is pain, my name is pain/ I am the flame, you know my name/ My name is pain, my name is pain."   Don't say I didn't I warn you. 
 

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