While doing research for this review, I found out that there are 21 bands that are called OVERLORD, only in the different sub-genres of Metal. Maybe there are even more named like this in other music styles, who knows? I assume that it is a popular appellative. And with this discoverment, I felt a little intrigue and mentally weak to listen to their full-length “Fake Salvation”. OVERLORD is a duo, that was formed by Johan de Jager (all instruments) and Justus Meineke (vocals) in Germany, despite Johan de Jager was born in Namibia and to this day, they have only released their debut album “Fake Salvation” in January 2023 via French label Great Dane Records. It consists of eleven songs (whose longest one is 7:22 minutes and the shortest one is compound of 262 seconds), that according to OVERLORD and Great Dane Records, represent a sound of old school Death Metal. I really disagree with that statement. Nowadays that term “old school Death Metal” is more prostituted and raped than the inner core of the Earth, used by people who do not listen to this genre regularly and just want to feel rude or tough. OVERLORD does not play old school Death Metal (they do play Death Metal, but in a shameful way), with a sound that could be for beginners or as a soundtrack of a book made for dummies. Imagine the transition of a boy that used to listen to Nu Metal or happy Punk and his first approach to Death Metal is OVERLORD. Ah, what a nauseating image. For me, OVERLORD is a really poor band. In most of the songs, the vocals are out of time, the production has big issues when the volume differs in four of the eleven pieces. Sometimes it has some saturation for the drums, at other times with the guitars and in different situations with the bass. Regularly, I felt that the singing of Meineke was made out without any comprehension of the riffs or music, just to fill something with a brutal voice. There are too many turns for the same riffs in each composition, too repetitive, really long songs that could be shorter. OVERLORD has choruses and conceptions that are too flat, empty and commercial for me. The lyrics are something that you can find in the masses of horrible bands, those whose creations are rotting in the virtual dumps. For example, in ‘Hideous Reprisal’, the following lines can be found: “Uarrrrgghhhh. Arrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhh. Screaming for your life, mercy please won’t help you now, dying by the knife, as the hogs wait to devour.” In general, OVERLORD is like a sour milkshake. Sometimes, you can listen to some influences of DEICIDE or BOLT THROWER, but that’s all. Nothing new and nothing unique. Maybe I have become a new enemy of this duo. Sorry for my honesty. More info at https://overlord666.bandcamp.com, www.facebook.com/greatdanerecords