Overkill

What Springsteen is to rock, Overkill is to thrash: uncompromising and honest music from start to finish. Both acclaimed and ignored by critics, Overkill were sporting bullet belts and devil horns before many younger metal fans were even conceived. Ergo, Wrecking Everything should appeal to the old school types and is a definitive update of 1995's double-CD set Wrecking Your Neck Live. The newer "Thunderhead" and "Necroshine" draw just as much venom alongside such live standards as "Shred," "Deny The Cross," and the Iron Maiden-esque "Overkill." Front-man Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth offers between song commentaries on everything from the ugliness of the Asbury Park, NJ, crowd, to the renewed patriotism after September 11 (the chestnut "In Union We Stand" is submitted here). But what this album offers above all are a whopping three cuts from their 1989 masterpiece The Years Of Decay: "E.vil N.ever D.ies," "I Hate" and the rarely performed title track, which is worth the sticker price alone. Despite their naysayers, Wrecking Everything proves that the original wrecking crew is here to stay.