Alex Rochon Reviews Toxic Holocaust’s An Overdose Of Death

Hello everyone, I’m Alex, and I’m a Canadian metal fan. Scott has very kindly offered me a guest review, so I’ve taken him up on the offer. Today, I shall be writing an article on one of the most “metal” albums of 2008 – “An Overdose of Death“. Recorded by what essentially amounts to a one man act, Joel Grind’s Toxic Holocaust, “An Overdose of Death” is around thirty-five minutes of balls-out riffing, fearsome percussion, and harsh but intelligible vocals. It is definitely a formidable effort. Two-thousand-and-eight hailed the release of plenty of awesome metal albums. Judas Priest’s “Nostradamus”, Motörhead’s “Motorizer”, Jex Thoth’s eponymous debut (a little-heard stoner/doom record with a wicked female vocalist), and of course, Opeth’s “Watershed”. But certainly, Overdose is up there with giants.

It’s very hard to define a specific genre. It has the speed of early thrash, the rawness of early black metal (Venom is very clearly heard in all aspects, riffing, percussion, but especially the vocals), the energy of speed metal, and the power of the early, raw death metal (Wikipedia just calls it “Thrash Metal”). A fan of any of those genres would be hard-pressed not to love this album. But enough of genres – they’re just bullshit vocabulary used to describe a band in the loosest possible manner. I wasn’t around in the mid-80s anyway, so I don’t get particularly caught up in vocabulary. Perhaps “An Overdose Of Death” is one of those records that, instead of trying to define, I’ll just call Heavy Metal, in every sense of the term. Joel Grind, or as perhaps he should be known as, “The Grinder”, is one hell of a multi-instrumentalist. Not only does he perform every role, excepting drums, adequately, in most cases, they’re performed excellently. Joel Grind is clearly from the Tony Iommi school of riffing, but plays about twice as fast as Iommi ever did. I also definitely hear quite a bit of Dave Mustaine and early Megadeth, as well as a hell of a lot of Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman in his playing (and in his lyric writing). Nothing is overly complex, and everything feels completely natural. Also like Slayer, the songs are bloody short. The longest one on the record is City of a Million Graves, which clocks in at 4:51. The average length is around three minutes. Joel is a riff machine, and honestly, how can anyone not love the cover? Furthermore, the drumming is solid. He can keep up with Grind seemingly without effort, and occasionally indulges in some awesome fills. Apparently, he goes by “Donny Paycheck“, but anyone that good can go by whatever they want, really. One massive criticism that I have with the way metal has progressed is “bass drum spam”. Some drummers abuse the hell out of their bass pedals, and I just sort of tune out after a while. Paycheck thankfully does not typically fall victim to this trend.

As I said earlier, Venom is evidently a clear influence. Admittedly, I haven’t heard much recent Venom, but “Welcome To Hell” and “Black Metal” seem to be all over this record (Note: Venom may have sort of introduced the Satanic lyrics, pseudonyms and elaborate stage shows, but really, it’s closer to Thrash or Speed than Black Metal). Some of the lyrics and most of the vocal delivery is uncannily Venom, particularly in “March From Hell”. Lyrical themes are your standard thrash (Hell and religion, World War II, concentration camps, death, destruction, slaughter, nuclear warfare, etc.), but don’t get old, and Grind is very clever at keeping an old formula minty fresh musically, without altering it significantly. Not only does he know what he’s doing, but he evidently loves it. The flow is magnificent, and Grind is obviously extremely comfortable in the position he places himself in. Technical wankery is kept to a bare minimum – in fact, wankery for the sake of it never appears. All solos fit the songs gloriously, and flow easily in and out of the riffing. A back-to-basics thrash record goes down wonderfully, particularly in our showoff-laden scene at the moment. Now, if only Malmsteen hadn’t gotten so huge…

So, what’s wrong with the record? It’s really short. Some might say that this isn’t really a downside considering the repetitiveness of some bands that follow a similar formula, but I’ve listened to this album perhaps a half dozen times and I still haven’t tired of it yet. A lot of the songs are quite a bit shorter than I would have liked, and many of the riffs and ideas could have been built upon more. The fact that there isn’t enough of it is hardly a criticism geared towards what is already there. I will definitely be “borrowing” some of Joel Grind’s riffs for my own music, and this record will likely be in rotation in my house for weeks to come.

Toxic Holocaust stands in stark contrast to the showoffs, the harmonic squealers, the 100mph scale-wankers, and the “theory over feel” folks. It’s seemingly a massive “fuck you” to that wing of metal, and serves as an excellent return to the days of yore – when one dude with a practice amp and a lame mic could write one hell of a piece of music and be taken seriously. Big production, loads of people and over-reliance on musical theory are things that Joel Grind clearly doesn’t need to produce a meaty, powerful thrash record. I don’t care where or how, but acquire this album if you would call yourself a fan of early thrash metal. Track by track: Wild Dogs (2:18) has excellent riffing and is easily a favourite for the album, Nuke the Cross (2:48) has some great lead tremolo picking in parts, and a very Slayer-ish vibe to it. Endless Armageddon (3:15) ends very strongly, and the ending once again, absolutely reeks of Slayer. Future Shock (2:33) has a bouncy riff with desolate lyrics, War Games (0:59) is a case study of an entire song compacted into a single minute. In The Name Of Science (3:24) is great musically with stellar lyrics, March From Hell (2:53) is certainly quite reminiscent of early Venom, Gravelord (2:17) is maniacal and raw, War Is Hell (3:01) has plenty of nice riffs, Lord Of The Wasteland (2:48) has a permeating, maniacal southern-sounding melodic lick, Feedback, Blood and Distortion (3:27) has some wicked riffs just like the rest of the album, as well as stellar percussion. Death From Above (2:00) is over way too quickly, and is one of the highlight tracks. Cry Of A Million Graves (4:51) is pretty generic, actually, perhaps the weakest track on the album, and I’m relatively ambivalent towards it.

If I ever do more writing like this in the future (and believe me, I’ve had a blast of nuclear proportions), I’m going to need to obtain a more decisively descriptive vocabulary… Considering the fact that the music is, by all accounts, quite basic and following a substantiated formula, my writing probably got increasingly stale. Well folks, I didn’t have much to work with, and I will strive to improve for the future. Thanks for reading!

Image: Amazon.com