Born In The Basement | 66 Minutes | Kundrat Productions | 2007
1. Being a fan of his work in Get Thrashed, I made it a mission to find out, and possibly get my filthy hands on any of Rat Skates other film works. Wish granted, I got Born In The Basement. What I loved about Get Thrashed was its total honesty and sincerity. You will get that sensation that the video was made out of his love for the music and none other. It all rolls down to this video that I am about to review, Born In The Basement.
2. Born In The Basement is basically some type of a memoir of Skates time struggling keeping his band, the mighty Overkill, afloat, back in the 80s. I do not consider this a full fledged documentary about the band, even though the focal point of BITB revolved around Overkill. Like I said, it is more of a memoir with Rat Skates recalling war stories from his days in Overkill.
3. Overkill is a legendary Thrash Metal band hailing from New Jersey and for you who are not in the know, Skates was the bands original founder and drummer. Despite Skates resignation from the band due to exhaustion, the New Jersey wrecking crew soldiered on releasing albums after albums through out the year without ever compromising their sound one bit (unlike certain famous big four bands), and remained one of the best Thrash Metal band, unchallenged till this day.
4. My experience with Overkill is rather new. Despite very familiar with the status of the band being one of the earlier Thrash bands from the States, I never had the desire to check their music out. Not until I feasted my ears to their come back highly praised critically acclaimed album, Iron Bound, which was released back in 2009, I became an Overkill convert. Who is the best thrash metal vocalist of all time? No, not Mustaine nor Araya. Belladonna came close. Hetfield is lightyears away compared to the deafening howls of Bobby Blitz. That guy is a freaking monster.
5. Back on the video, BITB recalls the band in its earlier formative years, back when the band was still wearing ghoulish make up and scary vampire capes. Rat Skates would do anything and everything to make his band successful. Extravagant live shows, extravagant stage props, crazy DIY merchandising, the blood, the sweat and the fucking tears made you want to stand up and give five salutes to the man. It was all Skates.
6. The dedication that this man gave to the band, the amount of hard work that this man put into the band, were nothing less then phenomenal. It was really sad that he decided to give up the band after all the years he sacrificed for Overkill.
7. If you love Overkill or Thrash Metal in general, then you should go out and find this documentary. If you are not a fan but would like to discover the secret to success as a musician in a band despised by the society, then you should also try and get this.
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