Review: Overdose – Addicted To Reality (1990)

Overdose Addicted To Reality
Cogumelo Records

Addicted To Reality is a great endorsement of the phrase “never judge a book by its cover”. Seeing how absolutely atrocious that album artwork is, the music doesn’t match it by any means. Only one year following the power/thrash masterpiece known as You’re Really Big!, Overdose dropped this one a year later, embelishing on the thrash side of it a little more, which finally draws an even balance of power and thrash. It’s also the last record to feature Pedro on vocals, before the band would completely turn to a different energy to power up their formula. To put it simple, this one is more similar to the last record than anything, just falling a hair short in the magic.

First and foremost, it’s definitely evident that the vocals have a tougher push to them than previous efforts, shown very well in “White Clouds”. Being one of the heavier tracks, there’s a more menacing punch to all of it. On the flip side, the emotional and buffed out edges aren’t lost in the mix, as the following track “Pain” takes the warmer path, stacking acoustics and clean distortions on top of the heavy bottom that never went away. For this, it’s one of the best tracks on the album. Melody never drops off of the cliff either, and remains the biggest thing that the band focuses on. One thing that has changed a bit, and likely to the slight steering away from power metal is the lacking of medieval tactics. Don’t view this as a flaw; even though they pulled it off very well before, it likely would have gone over the top at some point, and I’m glad that they stopped when they did.

Strong solos are everywhere, higher squeals and deep dirty riffs still make up a lot of the dish, and the bouncy flow of the instrumentation is on point. Really, the only thing that makes this fall a little short is the fact that the ropes could be tied a little tighter. By that, I mean that some parts get a little bit long, and the whole release could be trimmed a bit, but what’s important is how well put together the songs are. Harmonics are brought in here and there, and though the production is cleaner than before, it still has a noisy aura to it. Again, this falls under the “take it or leave it” category. At the end of the day, it’s a solid album that comes close to the strength of the sophomore record, utilizing most of its qualities, however taking an eighth step backwards.