Not a Character Assasination

When I heard that Livewire was releasing The Weight by Over the Line, I have to admit I was pretty excited but also a little skeptical. While I am a huge fan of whole period of the '88 revival (for lack of a better term regarding the late 90s), the bands can be very hit or miss. For every quality band, there would be three or four bad imitations that would end up getting sold back to the record store after a listen or two. This was especially the case later on as the success of Floorpunch and Ten Yard Fight brought more bands out of the woodwork and began to imitate what some of the bigger edge bands were doing. I remember Over the Line being reviewed in Contention Fanzine and being described as generic and while I was interested in checking them out despite the description, I never got the chance.

When Livewire said they were putting out the record, I figured, "what the hell" and ordered the red and the blue vinyl as any good record collecting scumbag would. The records arrived in the mail and while the layout was well done the art was kind of...well...different. Don't get me wrong, it was well done, it just was pretty cartoony, like a cross between pushead and a marvel comic. Not really what I expected from a band who named themselves after a Turning Point song. I thought the layout inside and the labels for the record were incredible and so without further ado, I dropped the needle and gave it a listen. Believe it or not,the it reminded me of Burn a lot of times, which was not what I was expecting. The songs had a lot of groove ala Burn and the vocals would sound like Chaka at times and other times Curt Canales. So yeah, somewhere between Burn and Chain of Strength is what I heard, which is a pretty interesting combo if you ask me. Very listenable. While it will not get as much play as my Rancor or Atari records, I will definitely be listening more.