Hot damn, who is this trying to blow me away from the get go? It is OVERT ENEMY, and opening song “Resinated” has a very strong riff and an immense intensity that makes you take notice, whether you want to or not. This track is a mix between early MACHINE HEAD, Max era SEPULTURA and early FEAR FACTORY. Unfortunately, it is also the best song on the album “Insurrection”, which really is their debut album. OVERT ENEMY has been around since 2013, but only started releasing music in 2018. The first two EP’s “Inception”(2018) and “Possession” (2019) were pit on one album “Inception x Possession” in 2020, but “Insurrection” is the first time the band wrote, recorded and released over 36 minutes especially made for a single album.

OVERT ENEMY is a Texan band from Mission, and in the last 11 plus years they have been trying to perfect the music they play. I already stated three bands that could be seen as peers, but on their own site they also state PANTERA and SLAYER as influences. The thing is that I can understand why they have done that, but the other three are far more in your face. Is that a problem? Not at all, as it does make OVERT ENEMY deliver music that is really intense in every aspect. Musically as well as vocally, they are throwing everything at you from all angles.

Like I said in the first paragraph, in my opinion opener “Resinated” is easily the best song on the album. The rest of the OVERT ENEMY compositions might be heavy as fuck, blow you off your chairs with intensity and forcefully remove your hairs with the beautiful and perfect sound that “Insurrection” houses, but there is no disguising the fact that the tracks are not very inventive. And therefore, lack that little bit of extra that makes them a cut above the rest. OVERT ENEMY knows how to play, let me make that understood quite clearly, but on “Insurrection” they unfortunately lack the ability to write more than one song that stands out, that makes you interested in hearing more of that calibre. That is something OVERT ENEMY needs to work on as far as I can see it. I will gladly be the one who is proven wrong when they are able to deliver a really good successor to “Insurrection”. If they do, I will be the first to openly applaud them.