Ultra-Violence - Privilege To Overcome

Ultra-Violence

Privilege To Overcome

by Cameron Ervin at 25 April 2013, 3:04 PM

Thrash Metal is a pretty straightforward genre. It’s all about fast head banging riffs, pounding rhythms, upbeat tempos, and face melting solos. ULTRA-VIOLENCE comes out of the gate with their debut album, “Privilege To Overcome”, firing on all cylinders! This is a band on which you should keep your eye. If they carry the same talent and enthusiasm exhibited on this record to their next release it’s sure to be satisfactory. “Privilege to Overcome” reminds me of “Bonded In Blood” (EXODUS) or “Kill ‘Em All” (METALLICA) in the sense that this album possess the same chaotic riffs and rhythms and frantic solo work those classic albums pioneered. Most of these riffs on this album are pretty straightforward and will please any thrash fan but the opening riff for “Ride Across the Storm” is a Black Metal like tremolo style of riff. Not to worry the song soon returns to an all-out Thrash fest like the rest of the album. The guitar solo work is very impressive. Just about every song has a solo besides track eight, “You’re Dead”, which is a more punk influenced song that doesn’t even hit the one minute maker. The song “Voodoo Cross” is the longest and slowest off “Privilege To Overcome” coming in just a few seconds shy of the ten minute mark. The overall mix of this record is pretty clean for a debut album. The drums stand out but they really didn’t do anything that caught my attention. The bass was often buried beneath the rest of the mix at times making it a struggle to hear the bottom line. The vocals were the only major gripe I had with this album. They aren’t terrible for this type of music but I would prefer a vocalist with a bit more finesse.

I’m certainly not going to complain about this record. The riffs are killer; the solos are maddening and chaotic. It’s nice to see a newcomer to this genre with so much potential to carry it onward further into this century. Any fan of Thrash should definitely check this out.