Overt Enemy - Overt Enemy: Official Live Thunder in the Hill Review

Even though Metal music has a thing with alive albums they are not that common as they should be. I mean, alive gigs are the living reason of a Metal band. The stage is the most important place to a Metal band to be. Ask any Metal musician or Metal fan and alive albums will pop up from their wish list or their favorite albums. I have a plenty. Alive gigs are the ultimate test for a Metal band as each fan expects them to be only perfect. A Metal musician has to prove him/herself alive. There is a band, an over the top one, that I lost totally the interest after I saw them alive – Please, don’t ask. I swear I won’t tell which (here just laughing inside). I don’t know if it was that very especific show, but the drumming was so out, but so out that it ruined it all.

All right, then. Here we’ve got Overt Enemy with “Overt Enemy: Official Live Thunder in the Hill,” their one and only alive album with a story. Just let the band tell it:

“Unsuspecting victims no warnings, no signs…..
That’s a pretty accurate way to describe what went down in Bandera, Texas at the ‘Thunder in the Hill Country’ Biker Rally. We’ve been chopping away at our new album for a bit, really missed playing live and figured what better way to break in the new guy (drummer Saul Castillo) than to road test some new songs with a bunch of rowdy bikers! So we packed our recording gear into the rental van, grabbed the crew and hit the road for the ‘biggest little party in Texas’. Apparently we were the first metal band to play the event in its 21 year history and we kicked off Saturday night’s concerts with a proper Texas thrashing…75 minutes of pure face melting aggression….and captured the whole damn thing! Rather than wait for our new album release we thought the longtime Overt Enemy family would appreciate some new blood in their ear holes so we had our brother Rob Canales at Red Barn Studios mix the whole set. We appreciate you guys and hope you’ll crank it up in the car or at your next BBQ and have a good time…make sure you stretch your necks appropriately”

By the covers included in “Overt Enemy: Official Live Thunder in the Hill,” it’s possible to get for sure what is the band that influenced the band the most. It’s not only one song, it’s not two or three, but eight Slayer’s songs covered. A repertoire to raise any audience anywhere. Even though Overt Enemy declare to love Slayer their music goes in a very different direction. I could swear Metallica were their prime influence.

Alive albums are also great to reveal details that are hidden by studio albums and by that I don’t mean technical detailsas the instrument performing. I mean two very simple and curious things. One of them is bassist Laura Ortiz’s backing vocals – I don’t know if I can technically call them backing vocals because her voice appears during some tracks in the background as if she is one of the crowd. It’s like there is someone speaking near you but you can’t tell who it is or where it is. The other is the Hardcore burning vein of the band. By “Overt Enemy: Official Live Thunder in the Hill,” it’s possible to tell the band loves Hardcore.

I guess the band gave them hell for what I heard here. The album sound is surprisingly great having on account where, and the sondition, the band played. As I said before, Metal bands are made from alive albums. That’s when we know they’re really good. Damn, I wish I were there.

Great alive album to raise some hell. The kind of album to listen very, but very loud.

Overt Enemy “Overt Enemy: Official Live Thunder in the Hill,” will be released on September 22nd via Vault 32 Media/Confused Records.

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