Overcast
Reborn To Kill Again
8.3
Now that metalcore is a well-established force in our particular little corner of the music world, it’s easy to forget that the genre was still in its infancy not ten years ago. Through the nineties it evolved from the more metallic end of the traditional hardcore perspective into the saturated juggernaut of today, and for most of that period it was still a pariah niche, rejected by both the metal and hardcore camps. That neither-here-nor-there status was hard on the genre’s early lights, and many of them—Botch, Turmoil, and Prayer for Cleansing amongst others—broke up before their time under the strain. Another such short-lived act was Boston’s Overcast. Paradoxically, members of Overcast went on to contribute to two of metalcore’s most successful stalwarts, with vocalist Brian Fair moving on to Shadows Fall and bassist Mike D’Antonio going on to found Killswitch Engage with guitarist Pete Cortese. Both of those groups owe a heavy stylistic debt to their roots in Overcast, which may be why the band has chosen to reassemble and re-record a number of their old tracks, along with a few unreleased ditties (the title track and “Root Bound Apollo”) to draw in the vets.
Even with a full knowledge of Overcast’s historical importance, it’s difficult for those who weren’t fans during the band’s original span to listen to Reborn to Kill Again with anything but late-00's ears. Despite knowing how influential these songs would go on to be, I had difficulty thinking of them as anything but quality-yet-by-the-numbers metalcore tunes. Just as children of the eighties and nineties can’t quite grasp the innovation of a Tolkien or Asimov, those who knew the basic tenets of metalcore for their entire music-listening careers will hear those tenets all over these tracks. The trick for us younguns' is to keep in mind that said tropes are only there because of Overcast and their peers, and to try and experience them with as little modern context in mind as possible. That said, such mental exercises will only go so far, and younger listeners with tons of metalcore experience under their belts will still be faced with some excellently written but straightforward mélanges of breakdowny hardcore and thrash metal, fronted by Fair’s distinctive vox. The performances are rock-solid, as is the Adam Dutkiewicz production—just don’t expect them to reinvent your life if they haven’t already done so in the past.
That said, anyone with a soft spot for metalcore who hasn’t experienced Overcast before is absolutely duty-bound to track down Reborn to Kill Again for the history lesson as much as for the songs.
Track listing:
1. Diluting Inertia / Grifter
2. Root Bound Apollo
3. Seven Ft. Grin
4. Filter Of Syntax
5. Reborn To Kill Again
6. As A Whole / Twodegreesbelow
7. Spun
8. Your (Destructive) Self
9. For Indifference
10 .Styrofoam Death Machine
11. Fate’s Design
12. Apocalypse Upon Us
13. Bleed Into One
