Game Over "Crimes Against Reality"

    The fierce ambitious drive of Italian thrashers, Game Over, is back for another full-length release full of killer riffs and stage diving songs. “Crimes Against Reality,” marks the band’s third full-length release and is the follow up to their crushing sophomore release, “Burst Into the Quiet.” 

    Upon receiving this album for review, I was quite aware of Game Over and I knew what these dudes were capable of delivering. I reviewed, “Burst Into the Quiet,” which I thought captured the true spirit old school thrash, while offering listeners an exciting and enjoyable sounding release. Of course, they are not reinventing the wheel, but the quality of music and talent level is still very impressive. For their new album, “Crimes Against Reality,” I can honestly hear where the band has become even stronger, for example their songwriting. On their previous releases, they seemed to offer a very straightforward headbanging rapid riff assault in the vein of bands such as Municipal Waste and Nuclear Assault. The new material in my opinion is written in a very thoughtful manner that compliments the band’s creative social issue and horror movie inspired lyrics. 

    Opening the album is the epic guitar driven and massive sounding drum build up instrumental piece called, “What Lies Within...”. Shortly after a slight fade out, the next song, “33 Park Street,” kicks off with a unforgiving explosion of palm muted guitar riffs. The lead guitar playing bleeds with technical passion and instantly draws my attention. I am thinking to myself, damn these dudes are raising the bar right off the bat! The following song, “Neon Maniacs,” has a very thrash based sound, but also gives off this punk vibe that I think really constructs a solid song. There is no need to constantly push unnecessary technicality on listeners, because if the rhythm is catchy the lyrics sound badass that is all that matters in the end. Again, the leads are incorporated when necessary and the recording of all the instruments allows listeners to follow along and not get lost in a blizzard of random notes. 

    Track number four, “With All That is Left,” is another impressive piece and the use of different tempos stands out the most. There is this mellow acoustic part that grows until it reaches a powerful climax of raw emotion that comes from the singers strong vocal tone. It reminded me of the band Xentrix, because there is diversity in the compositions to where the thrash riffs do not dominate the song and it allows for more thoughtful songwriting. The next thrash’n song, “Astral Matter,” begins with an astral sounding bass riff and the song’s overall atmosphere is rather science fiction like, which I of course find to be completely awesome. Game Over even offers a fun classical thrash fusion piece called, “Fugue in D Minor.” They lay down some very impressive guitar playing as the drums attack with insane double base force. Until the very end, this album offers solid song after solid song. 

    Overall, I think Game Over put together a great sounding third release that shows their hard work and determination. Three full-length albums since 2012 is pretty darn good. Also, they are improving with each release, so I am already expecting the fourth album to be another headbanging smashing release. From the songwriting, to the musicianship, to the old school thrash looking album cover... (Yes, I sometimes factor album covers in reviews, so sue me)...Game Over is an up and coming band waving the flag for global thrash fanatics. Seriously, give them a listen and get this album! \m/ 

Check out this video for "Neon Maniacs": 

Game Over Facebook Page: 

https://www.facebook.com/GameOverThrashMetal/