Naked Raygun – Over The Overlords

Ever since their beginning back in 1980 Naked Raygun have been at the lead of punk music out of Chicago, with a sound that has been defined as the “Chicago Sound”, and few can argue that their place in the history of punk internationally is right up their with the best of them.

After an extended hiatus, well more of what feels like a 31 year starvation for a world wide fan base that have spent so long wondering if 1990 was going to be the end of the line.  

This album comes with as a moment of joy that is tinged with huge sadness too, with the death of long time bassist Pierre Kezdy who passed away in 2020 after a long battle with cancer, though Pierre still features on this album and will always have his place in the hearts of the fans.

Over The Overlords is now the sixth album in their career, the band actually resurrected it self back in 2006 and the line up as stands today is Jeff Pezzati, Eric Spicer, and Bill Stephens, with Fritz Doreza stepping in to take Pierre’s place on bass, so it has still taken 20 years to realise this latest album.  

Back when this was a fledgling band and punk was still I believe finding its way in the world, yes I know punk in the truest sense (well for us Brits anyway) died back in hmmm 1977-78, but from then on “punk music” or “punk culture” became an ever growing medium that grew like a Japanese Knotweed weed in the garden of the music business, well that’s when Naked Raygun took on their mighty form and spread their roots, 1980 was the beginning and now is this the end?, well going by this latest beast of an album, I’d say no.  

The ‘Intro’ as its called, does head you off in a very dystopian direction, but this is merely the precursor to what is one of the best tracks on the album following ‘Go The Spoils’ which bounces and smashes drum beats to a pulp, is ‘Living In The Good Times’, a song that explodes into your ears like a Ramones in the future moment, melodies and a chorus that are gonna stick in your head forever, the gas mask obscured vocal (and yes I did think this even before watching the video) is subtle yet evocative.  From this moment on in the album you’re well aware that the sound has taken a slightly mellowed direction yet without losing the same Raygun attitude.  

Although there are so many ups in here, like the greatness that is ‘Amishes’, a song that builds and builds, has all the pop punk melodies you could want, yet still finds time to be off kilter in a good way, add to that the simplicity of a line like “Jump With Me” and all its connotations and your hooked. What is a pity are tracks like ‘Soul Hole Baby’ that sets off with a kind of slowed down Rock Lobster bass line and never really gets going either, ‘Superheroes’ that has all the makings of a great song, but somehow misses the bar. Maybe this album could have been a few tracks shorter?  But all that withstanding, take out a few tracks and what you get is a 5 star album that is for me one of the bands best albums, they have polished their sound and vocal over the years and this is the result.

Hardcore punk with hardcore melodies and hardcore sounds that are now bang up too to date.

Out on October 15th via Wax Trax Records

Check out the band on their FACEBOOK or TWITTER to find out all you need to know.

Wax Trax Records