After a wildly successful and completely sold out mini tour this past week, the OVERCAST 3x CD Discography “Only Death Is Smiling” is out now! Check out this 2 minute teaser video showcasing the remastered music and a preview of the packaging. They will also be a featured headliner at this year’s New England Metal & Hardcore Festival on April 17 with Between The Buried And Me, The Red Chord, and many more.
“Only Death Is Smiling” is available on CD at Best Buy, Amazon, FYE, RevHQ, and MerchNow, downloadable at iTunes, Amazon, eMusic, Ban
dCamp, and streaming at Spotify, and Rdio. The band started in the early 90s long before the explosion of metal from the New England area, and released a few albums on indie labels until the late 90s when they broke up to focus on new bands likeSHADOWS FALL and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, and more recently, DEATH RAY VISION. As a lot of their titles are currently out of print, the band decided to release “Only Death Is Smiling” on Bullet Toothfeaturing 45 tracks on 3 separate CDs, including unreleased material.
To say that OVERCAST were legendary is fairly accurate, as most newer metal bands have paid tribute to the obvious influences in their music. In fact, some give OVERCAST credit for starting the massive sub-genre called METALCORE. Their recent performance at This Is Hardcore in Philadelphia sent hundreds of metal and hardcore fans into a frenzy with their brutal and technical metal written with the dancefloor in mind. You can watch the FULL SET here courtesy of Hate5Six.com!
Some heavy hitters in the current metal world are as excited as we are about this new release, and we checked in with both Jesse and Adam from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE and Ken from UNEARTH to see why OVERCAST was and is still exciting to them:
“In my eyes, Overcast was one of the most influential bands from their era. They came at a time where it wasn’t so commonplace to mix heavy musical styles as much as they did. (And their singer Brian looked like a spooky creature from the deep with his hair.) Their ability to make unique, heavy, aggressive, and melodic songs was such a cool thing to see back then, and ultimately was what brought me to want to do a collaboration with Mike.” – Adam Dutkiewicz (Killswitch Engage)
“When I was in the Danvers middle school system, one of my older high school friends Jay (Agoraphobic Nose Bleed) handed me ‘Expectational Dilution’ on a copied cassette. Needless to say, I was in awe! Overcast was and always be one of the greatest bands to come from the New England area! I followed them religiously from gig to gig and was lucky enough to share the stage with them once or twice. The Unearth camp still rocks the whole discography to this day! Fans for life!!!” – Ken Susi (Unearth)
“Overcast was Revolutionary! Back when I first saw them I was blown away and quickly became a fanboy following the band around the Northeast and eventually landing shows with them with my band at the time Corrin. Every show became more and more intense, you never knew what was going to happen at an Overcast show. They changed the face of music for many people like my self who witnessed the brutality and precision of this band. I recently saw them play at set at “this is hardcore” 2014 and I screamed along to every word! The blend of hard hitting hardcore and metal riffing along with Brian’s mid range guttural screams makes Overcast a crucial part of the history of heavy music. They changed the game and helped inspire an entire generation of bands.” – Jesse Leach (Killswitch Engage)
Overcast “Only Death Is Smiling” (Disc 1):
01. Grifter
02. Twodegreesbelow
03. Absolute Threshold
04. As A Whole
05. Allegiance To The Flesh
06. Iconoclasm
07. Bleed Into One
08. Diluting Inertia
09. Faceless (7″ Version)
10. Staredown (7″ Version)
11. Follow (7″ Version)
12. Bleed Into One (7″ Version)
13. Pure Agony
14. Grifter (7″ Version)
15. Forecast (7″ Version)Overcast “Only Death Is Smiling” (Disc 2):
01. Apocalypse Upon Us
02. Spun
03. Filter Of Syntax
04. Styrofoam Death-Machine
05. Your (destructive) Self
06. More Metal Than Your Ma’s Kettle
07. Seven ft. Grin
08. Dousing This Flame
09. Forecast
10. Seven ft. Grin (Split 7″ Version)
11. For Indifference (7″ Version)
12. Fate’s Design (7″ Version)
13. Your (destructive) Self (Demo)
14. Forecast (Demo)
15. Dousing This Flame (Demo)
16. Spun (Demo)Overcast “Only Death Is Smiling” (Disc 3):
01. Spun (Live)
02. Filter Of Syntax (Live)
03. Allegiance To The Flesh (Live)
04. Apocalypse Upon Us (Live)
05. Grifter (Live)
06. As A Whole (Live)
07. More Metal Then Your Ma’s Kettle (Live)
08. Seven ft. Grin (Live)
09. As A Whole (SMMDI Demo)
10. Iconoclasm (SMMDI Demo)
11. Absolute Threshold (SMMDI Demo)
12. A Means… (Demo)
13. Scar The Mind (Demo)
14. A National AcrobatOvercast live:
Jan 29 – Boston, MA @ The Middle East w/ PanzerBastard (SOLD OUT!)
Jan 30 – Providence, RI @ The Ruins w/ Empire Shall Fall (SOLD OUT!)
Jan 31 – Worcester, MA @ Ralph’s Dinner w/ Empire Shall Fall (SOLD OUT!)
Feb 01 – Worcester, MA @ The Middle East w/ Dissolve (SOLD OUT!)
April 17 – Worcester, MA @ New England Metal Fest! (TICKETS)Overcast is:
Brian Fair: Vocals
Mike D’Antonio: Bass
Pete Cortese: Guitar
Scott McCooe: Guitar
Jay Fitzgerald: Drums