Review: Severe Overbite “Walk Your Own Way / Roll With the Punches”

Release date: Out now!

4–5 minutes

SEVERE OVERBITE is following up the 2024 debut album with two singles. The songs, “Walk Your Own Way” and “Roll With the Punches” are newly written in contrast to the album that consisted of material written between 1982 and 1985. The band continues on the beaten track with songs inspired by NWOBHM filled with heavy riffs, twin guitars and catchy choruses.

Review

I find it cute and refreshing when a band keeps the audience entertained and feeds it with follow-up creations after releasing an album or long-awaited work, which in this case was aging for decades before ever making it into digital recorded format. In that sense, it’s all worth paying proper attention to and praising what we have here, tiny as it comes, so let’s not waste any more precious moments and dissect what these couple of singles are made of.

Chronologically, “Walk Your Own Way” comes with priority, with a release date of February 17, 2025, and even before pushing the play button, it’s a no-brainer to realize that the cover is an absolute visual extension of the one we saw on the self-titled debut album exactly a year ago. No idea if this is some sort of band mascot, I mean the Viking lookalike warrior wearing the horned helmet, although I hope you’re all familiar that such portrayal is a widespread historical fallacy. Kudos to the consistency nevertheless, and time to turn to the main object of observation – the single itself!

Heavily distorted sustained guitar sound is what hails us in the welcome bars of the track, endorsed by well-positioned pummeling drums. Vocals kick in soon enough and establish a more mellow and serene feeling in the framework. All in all, we face a slow-paced, moderate, and balanced piece dominated by a strong lyrical message, kind of a motivational rant for personal development and facing the hurdles of life that grow you into a stronger and more accomplished persona. To take this further, at one moment we’re on the edge of monotony, and the brief guitar solo and some improvisational experiments halfway through are what save the day. It feels like it’s all centered around the chorus and all the preaching it delivers, but hey, perhaps that was the masterplan behind pulling it together after all.

Passing to “Roll With The Punches,” and to be fair, a short look at the cover could do some justice. No surprises here, as we see a simplistic fist shattering a wooden wall with bleeding knuckles – descriptive enough to herald the core message in the musical creation it pictures. Similar to the previously reviewed track, the first moments belong to chugging riffage and accentuated rhythm section, followed by a bit more enthusiastic vocal duties, making it one degree more vivacious compared to “Walk Your Own Way.” In my standard, the verses are way too short and put a dent in their significance, with the chorus arriving way too early, generally making the song structure a bit awkward, as if the band is rushing to reach a point where once more they can discharge those key phrases of empowerment and “go-getter” mentality. Nothing wrong with that, and it’s likely I’m misinterpreting the idea in the grand scheme of things; however, it comes off kind of cheesy when served in such a straightforward manner. For a change, the back vocals dialogue with the leads in the chorus provides a sip of fresh air, and plunging into the repetitious interlude near the 3-minute mark prevents us from feeling utterly baffled. The track closes with an ongoing title singalong and fade-out effect.

Conclusion

As much as I like positivity and promote an enthusiastic perspective on life, more often than not, that’s far from sufficient as a motive to create and record singles – especially in hard rock and heavy metal. Admirable effort from SEVERE OVERBITE and respect for the statements pushed with this couple of releases, yet doing something only for the sake of doing it often does great disservice to the doer, despite all the good intentions behind the endeavor. Unfortunately, both tracks leave this “cookie cutter” feeling of indifference and, to a certain extent, signal strong hints of creative burnout, a common pitfall for any formation that feels forced to output something new following a long period of hiatus. Self-awareness and inner reflection do help in such instances, so I’m curious to see what will be the next accomplishment this duo comes up with.

TheNwothm Score: 5.5/10

Links

Bandcamp:https://severeoverbite.bandcamp.com

Facebook:https://facebook.com/SevereOverbite

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/severeoverbite/

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@SevereOverbite/