As much as we all love metal from various corners of the world, it’s become a tad predictable. Depending on the genre, we can predict, to a certain degree, how metal from Germany will sound, or Poland, or the US. Some countries are a little more ill-defined, and one of those places is southern Africa, home of the growing death metal brutalists Overthrust. This gruesome quartet hail from Ghanzi, Botswana, forming all the way back in 2008 with a bloodthirsty mission to put African death metal on the map, and considering they’ve hit numerous international stages, including the metal mecca that is Wacken Open Air, we’d say they’re more than halfway there. Mixing the grinding riff assault of Bolt Thrower, early Deicide, and the cavernous vocals of prime-era Morbid Angel, Overthrust’s 2015 debut ‘Desecrated Deeds To Decease’ wouldn’t have been out of place on the tape trading circuit in the early 90s, while last year’s second album ‘Infected By Myth’, their first on growing imprint Indian River Music Company, is a savage piece of gnawing death metal that absolutely hammers against the clickety-click modern tech-death scene, producing dark, malevolent music that would’ve made Grandfather Chuck grin like a maniac.
Beyond all this, they are tireless promotors of the scene that spawned them. They organize, for exmaple, the splendid Winter Metal Mania Fest in Ghanzi to benefit disadvantaged children. They popped over to the UK recently for a four-date tour, and FOM sent Sonny Tyler down there to get the goods on what horrors they unleashed.
OVERTHRUST – HOPE AND RUIN, BRIGHTON
“The legendary Overthrust from Botswana had arrived in Brighton, to unleash their Death Metal mayhem upon us. This was also the first date of their UK tour, after a monumental performance at Obscene Extreme Festival in the Czech Republic. This tour has been partly sponsored by the National Arts Council Of Botswana, and we were more than ready to welcome them to these shores. Support came from Human Leather and local thrashers, Crypsis who both dished out the ear-shredding goods. Zero hour was soon upon us as frontman/bassist, Vulture Thrust, took to the stage and led us into battle. The opening song, ‘Victims Of Curse’ wasted no time in whipping the crowd up into a frenzy. These stomping songs with low-end growls, sent members of the audience into a crowd-surfing whirlwind of bodies. We were informed that ‘everyone was going to die’, but not tonight, as everyone was having too much fun. The band’s lead guitarist riffed hard with his tongue out, as the rest of Overthrust banged their heads in unison to these devilish tunes. They ended this sold-out show with ‘Overthrust Deathmental’ which laid waste to the crowd assembled. Overthrust came and they conquered!”
There you have it, make sure you check them out on their socials, not to mention Bandcamp, where you can pick up some swag: https://overthrust3.bandcamp.com
For now, here’s a taste of the action:
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