Band:	Overcharge
Album:	Accelerate
Style:	D-beat, Speed metal
Release date:	September 30, 2014
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Accelerate
02. As If There Were No Tomorrow
03. Dirt
04. Drown In Your Own
05. Nothing On The Way
06. Leave Behind
07. Nowhere To Go
08. Water Of Fire
09. No Law
10. Don't Waste A Breath

Taking the curt clarity of punk and fusing it with extreme speed metal is, and always will be a really natural mix. It's so simple, yet satisfyingly primal it's pretty hard to mess up, right? Wrong. Despite being an album with the right ideas in the right places, Accelerate is a nifty example of everything that can go wrong with this fusion.

The direct approach Overcharge takes with their music makes for a lot of vague nods to a large cluster of bands; Sodom, The Casualties, Toxic Holocaust and of course, Motörhead. That's a hefty list of solid bands to take influence from, and hell, when Accelerate is at its best, it lives up to that resume. Before the faults become apparent (and they will, quickly) Accelerate comes across as a raw, unrelenting piece of face-ripping punk driven extreme speed metal. Unfortunately, it's an album that deflates itself the further it progresses.

The drums and the vocals are what carry this recording from top to bottom. The vocals are wonderfully reminiscent of Tom Angelripper, while the drums give the album title the little justification it deserves. The riffs usually kick each song off pretty nicely, but due to over repetition in pretty much every song, it becomes obvious the drums are what's setting the pace here. If the top-speed, frantic drumming wasn't present, Accelerate would be stuck in first gear from start to finish. Basically, if the speed-metal face-ripping solos were removed, you'd be left with a dime-a-dozen punk band.

Overcharge aren't totally without merit. There's hints of good things happening, but as a whole, Accelerate just feels half-cooked.