Wrecking Your Neck Live

by Vincent Jeffries

This live disc was recorded ten years and seven albums after the inception of Overkill, so the group had no shortage of energetic material and concert experience. All this helped to make Wrecking Your Neck a gratifying listen, but nothing more. The band doesn't hold anything back on this live set (captured during the W.F.O. tour.) The 22 tracks, packaged on two CDs, combine to expose one notable problem that plagued Overkill's career, while actually improving on, or limiting another. The creative stasis, that the East Coast thrashers wallowed in throughout their first decade together, is made supremely evident on this marathon collection. Just a few cuts into this sonic behemoth it becomes hard to distinguish one song from the next. But luckily, due to a lack of breath perhaps or maybe just the modified "live" production, singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth's vocal acrobatics are less annoying than usual, making for a more listenable, but still repetitive recording. All this leaves Wrecking Your Neck in the "toss-up" category. The music is impressive for sure, but the long list of very similar songs will take many listeners beyond the limits of their metal intake.