psychotic overkill

• Edition: Official archival reissue
• Packaging: New artwork with liner notes by original guitarist and vocalist Martin Weaver

Psychotic Overkill collects the final recordings of Wicked Lady, the uncompromising Northampton power trio led by guitarist and vocalist Martin Weaver. Recorded during 1972 but unreleased at the time, these seven tracks capture one of the heaviest groups operating beneath the surface of the British psychedelic underground.

Wicked Lady formed around 1968 and developed a fierce local reputation through exceptionally loud performances, extended improvisation and Weaver’s heavily distorted fuzz-and-wah guitar. Rather than pursuing polished studio production, the group recorded its working live repertoire with the directness and intensity of a rehearsal-room performance.

By the time of these sessions, Weaver and drummer Dick Smith had been joined by bassist Del “German Head” Morley. The revised trio pushed the music into darker and more excessive territory, combining blues-based hard rock with pounding repetition, feedback, primitive heavy-metal riffing and long psychedelic guitar excursions.

“I’m a Freak” opens the collection with a fast, aggressive riff and snarling vocals, while “Tell the Truth” and “Passion” allow Weaver’s guitar to stretch into lengthy fuzz-driven passages. Their treatment of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile” retains the original song’s blues foundation while transforming it through Wicked Lady’s raw and overloaded sound.

“Why Don’t You Let Me Try” and “Sin City” move between doomy riffs and uncontrolled acid-rock soloing. The collection culminates in the monumental twenty-two-minute “Ship of Ghosts,” which develops from crushing power-trio sections into quieter atmospheric passages before returning to full-volume psychedelic overdrive.

The band separated shortly after these recordings, and Martin Weaver subsequently joined Dark, appearing on their legendary private-press album Round the Edges. Wicked Lady’s surviving tapes eventually developed a cult reputation among collectors of proto-metal, doom and underground heavy psychedelia.

This Guerssen CD forms the second part of the label’s Wicked Lady anthology, completing the story begun with The Axeman Cometh. It presents the complete 1972 recordings with artwork and firsthand liner notes by Martin Weaver.

Personnel:

Track listing:

1. I’m a Freak – 5:01
2. Tell the Truth – 5:09
3. Passion – 9:29
4. Voodoo Chile – 4:42
5. Why Don’t You Let Me Try – 5:00
6. Sin City – 7:05
7. Ship of Ghosts – 22:00