Thrashcast Episode 40: Overkill's "The Years Of Decay" from 1989
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Thrashcast is the place to find riveting discussions on classic thrash albums, news and reviews. Your hosts are three thrash loving maniacs who grew up during the golden age of the genre. Kenneth, Billy and Jim will get together weekly to bring you a deep dive on some of your favourite thrash records.
Show Notes:
Episode Forty: This week we reach our fortieth episode to end our year of 2024. We go back to the year of 1989 to discuss NY thrashers Overkill and their fourth album The Years of Decay. Released October 13th on Atlantic and Megaforce records.
This album saw the band push the boundaries of the thrash template and add progressive elements to their core sound. Guitarist Bobby Gustafson would leave the band after this release due to conflicts with Blitz and D.D. Verni. The group hired producer Terry Date and enlisted him to help create a better sound with the guitars and became a major influence on bands like Pantera.
Much of the songs on Decay are lengthy affairs with Playing With Spiders/Skullkrusher clocking in at 10:15. Other tracks like Who Tends The Fire at 8:12 and The Years of Decay at 7:58 bringing the entire album close to a full hour at 56:17. The tone of this record overall proved the band was ready to break out and they had Terry Date to thank for that.
Fun Facts: The cover art was done by Fastner and Larsen; who created the artwork for the previous album Under The Influence. This album continues to use the band's mascot Chaly as a monolithic entrance to hell.
Kenneth Gallant, HMS
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