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One of the good things about attending the Classic Metal Festival is running into some little gems at the vendors booths. I picked this one up at the Crook'd Records booth. The origins of Sweden's Overdrive date back to around 1980. This live album showcases some of their best songs, with live recording dates in 1982, 1985 and 1997, plus two studio tracks recorded in 1982. It's difficult to compare Overdrive to a single band. They have some noticeable NWOBHM influences - of the more obscure bands mostly, and the vocals sometimes reminded me of Angel Witch. Add to this a little bit of ingredients from some of the early 80s US heavy metal bands, plus a hint of late 70s hard rock and you get a nice concoction of songs that procure one hell of a satisfying listening experience (I swear I wasn't drunk when I wrote this, I have no excuse really! :)) Galloping riffs, nicely put solos, clean vocals, some aggressive songs and some more "party-like" ones, the works. Overall the material here has aged very well.

The sound is OK but varies a bit - sometimes it's a bit too thin or too "detached", but that's not exactly unusual for live recordings. You can still hear things pretty clearly overall. There's just enough crowd noises and chatting by the singer between songs to remind you that this is a live album.

This is one band I had never heard of before and I was definitely taking a chance when I picked it up, and I do not regret it one bit. Any fan of classic heavy metal - NWOBHM or otherwise - should find something of interest somewhere in the near-71 minutes of music gathered here. Note that their studio albums have been re-issued by High Vaultage Records, and there should be a new album in 2004.