Urge Overkill: Rock & Roll Submarine

The Urge re-emerge.

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

During the dark days of grunge, Chicago’s Urge Overkill acted as a beacon for those who liked their rock stars to glow in the dark, their sartorial swagger matched on 1993’s Saturation by retro-riffage every bit as dazzlingly as their matching UO medallions.

Having split up acrimoniously in the wake of 1995’s Exit The Dragon, their long overdue return, sadly minus drummer Blackie Onassis, finds them, ironically, in grungier waters, the keening vocals and intertwining guitars of Eddie King Roeser and Nash Kato combining to spine-tingling effect on Effigy and Mason/Dixon.

If their melodic gifts remain intact, Rock & Roll Submarine also comes with a warped aspect you’d expect from a band whose creative instincts have been submerged for fifteen years. Quiet Person is a decidedly un-Urge like display of humility, while The Valiant finds an unrepentant Kato groaning ‘It always pays to be valiant’, triumphant like a crazed U-boat captain on one final, doomed mission.

Fans, however, will just be ecstatic they’re finally back on the radar.

Paul Moody is a writer whose work has appeared in the Classic Rock, NME, Time Out, Uncut, Arena and the Guardian. He is the co-author of The Search for the Perfect Pub and The Rough Pub Guide.

Latest in
Foreigner at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2024
Foreigner will complete their Historic Farewell Tour with four different singers – and one of them has recorded Spanish versions of their hits
Linkin Park 2024
Linkin Park launch "the best song we've ever made" Up From The Bottom
Vera Farmiga in 2021
The Conjuring star Vera Farmiga announces debut album with her heavy metal band The Yagas
'Emo' Ed Sheeran busking
Watch Ed Sheeran cover Chappell Roan's Pink Pony Club on the New York subway while disguised as an emo busker
A close-up shot of the Marshall Major IV on-ear headphones on a turquoise, blue and black background.
I’ve never seen the Marshall Major IV headphones this cheap before - get them for half price in Amazon’s big spring sale
Evanescence in 2025
Evanescence release new song Afterlife from Devil May Cry TV series soundtrack, have their next album in the works
Latest in Review
The Horrors
Ghouls Aloud: The Horrors come back from the dead with "a dazzling nocturnal spectacle of sombre reflections and oozing catharsis"
/news/the-darkness-i-hate-myself
"When the storm clouds clear, the band’s innate pop sensibilities shine as brightly as ever": In a world of bread-and-butter rock bands, The Darkness remain the toast of the town
Sex Pistols at the RAH
"Open the dance floor, you’ll never get to do it again." Forget John Lydon's bitter and boring "karaoke" jibes, with Frank Carter up front, the Sex Pistols sound like the world's greatest punk band once more
Arch Enemy posing in an alleyway
Arch Enemy promised they'd throw out the rule book for Blood Dynasty. They didn't go quite that far, but this is the boldest album of the Alissa White-Gluz era - and it kicks ass
The Darkness press shot
"Not just one of the best British rock albums of all time, but one of the best debut albums ever made": That time The Darkness added a riot of colour to a grey musical landscape
Roger Waters - The Dark Side of the Moon Redux Deluxe Box Set
“The live recording sees the piece come to life… amid the sepulchral gloom there are moments of real beauty”: Roger Waters' Super Deluxe Box Set of his Dark Side Of The Moon Redux