Originally issued as a self-released EP in 1982 by the Kirkland, Wash.-based band that was too punk for the metalheads and too metal for the punks, Broken Toys has received an expanded reissue from NW Metalworx Music. Listening to Overlord today, with snarly vocals delivered by Steven Van Liew and such obvious influences as Alice Cooper and The Stooges, it’s also possible to hear early elements of fellow Washington bands as diverse as Queensrÿche, Metal Church, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains. With that much eclecticism at play, no wonder these guys got lost in the early-Eighties haze.
This reissue includes the original five songs (“Outsider,” “Another Lonely Nite,” “Had Enough,” “Looking At You” and “Blame It On the Kids”) taken from the original master tapes, plus five previously unreleased songs recorded in 1983 and 1984, a hard-to-find compilation-only track (“On the Edge”) and one live recording captured in 1983 (“Sometimes … Gets The Best of Me”). The booklet includes an essay from Dave Reynolds (who wrote about Overlord in the debut issue of Metal Forces magazine back in the day), as well as vintage photos of the band, gig flyers and even an odd 1982 letter to band manager James Tolin from the president of Canada’s Imperial Record Corporation -- which manufactured the first 500 copies of the original EP.
Overlord didn’t make it past 1984. In the liner notes, guitarist Glen Logan tells Reynolds that “we weren’t seeing eye to eye anymore. We had lost our camaraderie. We just couldn’t hold it together long enough to [realize] our full potential.”
Indeed, the bonus tracks here show how the band was evolving. At least we have this well-done reissue...
Track Listing:
1. Outsider
2. Another Lonely Nite
3. Had Enough
4. Looking At You
5. Sometimes … Gets the Best of Me
6. Blame It on the Kids
7. Screaming at the Walls
8. Promises
9. Leave It All Behind
10. On the Edge
11. Pushed Out the Door (Bonus Track)
12. Sometimes … Get the Best of Me (Live ’83)
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