OVERDRIVE – The Final Nightmare (2014)

Hailing from Grantham in Lincolnshire, OVERDRIVE are a band often overlooked from the early ’80s British metal scene. Strange, because they have created some great rocking music since their inception.
“The Final Nightmare” is their 9th release, and they truly show they know what they’re doing here; classic hard rock with a magical feeling.
[spoiler]I can basically tell you that there isn’t a present band playing Overdrive’s type of old-school hard rock / melodic metal. They’ve whipped together the basic foundation of melodic hard rock, added crisp guitar leads, a deeper rhythm section, and some interesting keyboards that range from piano to straight synths to old school hammond organ.
Opening up with “Invited To Hell” and its dramatic spoken word intro, this is a great start to the album, with some absolutely stunning riffs, some great classic sounding vocals and a really grooving rhythm section. There’s nice keyboard moments to spice things up a bit, bringing a bit of the ’80s Deep Purple / Uriah Heep atmosphere to the proceedings.”Twice Shy” is another with an awesome sense of style and melody to it. Plenty of nice riffs and a great pacing throughout, this is a very well written tune with plenty of cool moments to be found. “Glass Game” offers something a little different, with a very old school heavy rock sound to it, supported by quite powerful vocals and an organ background.

One of the best cuts comes with “Twisting My Mind”, a bass pumped rocker with an almost funk (heavy) groove and a catchy chorus. The song display lots of different sections, some awesome emotive vocals and a really tight and dynamic overall sound. The fadeout here is really well executed too.
“Wasted” bumps up the tempo for some more lively and, once more, has a crafty chorus. “Lost on a Mountain” has a steady melodic metal groove, a rather sharp solo after the half way point, but then this interesting flourish of piano.
Within both “Nightwalker” and “Taken Young”, Tim Hall keyboards gain more presence, the nearly classic piano in the latter, the combination of piano and symphonic synths in the latter. These two songs are easily the highlights of the album, and my favorite cuts.

“Taken Young (Ben’s Song)” is a really epic sounding and emotive song about loss that really hits you hard, with some mighty riffs and really melodic almost classical style keyboard parts too. Yo can feel real passion intensifying the performance.
“Final Nightmare”” closes up the album on another epic note, a long composition of about 8 minutes including many movements that keep the song fresh throughout. There’s some great talent on display in this one, and the fact they keep it interesting throughout is remarkable.

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