Overloaded – Hail the Kingdom

Here’s something a bit different and not. What I mean by that is Overloaded is a band that sounds like they are from another era -my era to be more specific, which would be the mid 80’s. I can assure you that these cats are nowhere near 40, though. Which gives them a fire that most of the bands playing this type of music are missing.

Hail the Kingdom opens fire with Beaver Fever, kind of a slinky grove, again reminiscent of bands like Motley Crue and Guns n’ Roses. This band isn’t a rehash of the same old song and dance though. They are fresh. I say this because I was never really a fan of those types of 80’s bands but I do like Overloaded.

The groups anthem like, Feeling Overloaded, received a tremendous amount of radio airplay in the Detroit area. This is a definite achievement for a completely self-financed act. Other songs that stand out on Hail the Kingdom are the title track and the closing number, Sick.

I think what I’ve warmed up to with this band is the fact that drummer Lorenzo Gonzalez is not a card board cut-out like so many of the drummers of the ‘hair era.’ Also it is nice to hear someone who can sing, which vocalist Chris Gillen does exceptionally well. The rest of the band is top notch also, but when comparing them to the 80’s, let’s face it, some of the best guitarists to ever land on this planet came from that space in time.

Nonetheless, Hail the Kingdom is a great disc, giving us some gritty, powered up rock & roll. I’d like to see a lot more of the younger generation kick it into gear and play some party music like this young band. It beats all this death metal that has been circulating that I can’t understand the lyrics and don’t know that I want to. I surely would prefer kicking back with a few friends and some hot babes over a few beers and some rock and roll than conjure up demons from the underworld. Wouldn’t you?

That said, I recommend this disc to any fan of the ’80’s hair band days’ and to anyone who’s getting tired of death metal or the same old generic sounding stuff that you can generally hear on every rock station these days. Where every young lad seems to be whining about his girlfriend or how mistreated he was by his old man.