Unitron The Years of Decay's album cover is a great representation of the album, sounding like entering the foreboding temple in places, though not without the fun that's synonymous with Overkill. Lumbering grooves meet rapid moshing perfectly with Time to Kill, Elimination, Nothing to Die For, and especially Birth of Tension. The instant headbanging short groove at around the minute mark on that song is one of my favorite moments in thrash. They also perfect grungy doom thrash with the colossal Playing With Spiders/Skullkrusher and Who Tends the Fire, and is a sound that I wish more thrash bands would play.

D.D. Verni is one of my favorite bassists, and his perfect thumping tone has never sounded better, and even throwing in a bit of funk in Nothing to Die For. Bobby Blitz's is one of my favorite vocalists, with few coming close to his charisma. So much attitude and so much fun, even when the music's at a doom crawl he's bursting with personality. The production helps everything as well, having what I'd call the best for a thrash album. Fantastic low end bringing the best in the bass and the guitars and drums have some real oomph.

There's a Metallica album and a couple Anthrax albums that are higher on my personal favorites list, but Overkill's The Years of Decay is my idea of the perfect thrash album. It just includes everything I love thrash for, and done in the best ways to really get me hooked.

Warthur Overkill's Years of Decay is oft-lauded as a thrash classic, but for me it seems to fall short on more or less all metrics. The sense of fun that was Anthrax's strong suit is largely absent; the cover's scary but the actual music feels weak compared to the likes of Slayer or Kill 'Em All-era Metallica and simplistic by the standards of Megadeth or golden-era Metallica. I suppose it's rather accessible and easy on the ears, but it doesn't quite satisfy me; all it does is remind me of a whole swathe of other US thrash bands that Overkill sound like a slightly wimpier version of. In short, it's OK thrash-by-numbers which will satisfy addicts but is decidedly inessential.

UMUR "The Years Of Decay" is the 4th full-length studio album by US thrash metal act Overkill. The album was released through Megaforce/Atlantic Records in October 1989. "Under The Influence (1988)" saw the band pursue a more "pure" thrashy direction compared to the more traditional/NWoBHM sound of their first two albums. "The Years Of Decay" pretty much continue down the same road as the band travelled on "Under The Influence (1988)".

...the riffs are thrashy and aggressive, the vocals by Bobby 'Blitz' Ellsworth are generally more raw and less melodic and rythmically we´re talking an album that shifts between fast paced and heavier sections. "The Years Of Decay" is actually a pretty varied album. Energetic and faster paced tracks like "Elimination", "I Hate", "Birth of Tension" and "E.vil N.ever D.ies" are complimented by heavier tracks like the 10:15 minutes long "Playing With Spiders / Skullkrusher" and "Who Tends The Fire". The title track starts out as a ballad and then goes through various heavier changes and is a track that stands out too.

Featuring a full playing time of 56:22 minutes, "The Years Of Decay" is pretty long for a thrash metal release, but because of the variation (and the generally high quality of the music) it doesn´t feel that long. The fact that we´re talking high quality musicianship and a relatively strong sound production too don´t exactly lessen my excitement about the album. This is a kickass album by Overkill. It´s memorable while still snappin´ necks and a 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.