Overkill (band)

Overkill
Overkill on the Rockharz 2019
General information
Genre (s)	Thrash metal
founding	1980
Website	www.wreckingcrew.com
Founding members
singing	Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
bass	DD Verni
Drums	Rat Skates (until 1987)
Current occupation
singing	Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
bass	DD Verni
guitar	Dave Linsk (since 1999)
guitar	Derek Tailer (since 2001)
Drums	Jason “Sticks” Bittner (since 2017)
former members
Drums	Sid Falck (1987-1992)
Drums	Tim Mallare (1992-2005)
guitar	Bobby Gustafson (1981-1990)
guitar	Rob Cannavino (1990-1995)
guitar	Merritt Gant (1990-1995)
guitar	Sebastian Marino (1995–1999)
guitar	Joe Comeau (1995-1999)
Drums	Ron Lipnicki (2005-2016)
Drums	Eddy Garcia (2016-2017)

Overkill is an American thrash metal - band of Greater New York , by bassist DD Verni, drummer "Rat" Skates and vocalist Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth was established in 1980.

history

The 1980s

Overkill was founded in 1980 by DD Verni and Rat Skates (civil Carlo Verni and Lee Kundrat). Bobby Ellsworth, who by then had gained his first musical experience as a bass player, joined the band as a singer and at the same time brought a guitarist into the formation. After some discussions about the future band name, the musicians finally agreed on Overkill . This designation was based on the Motörhead album of the same name . First, the band played punk - and heavy metal - cover versions , this but in a more aggressive version and higher speed than the originals. Since their own songs in this style were able to establish themselves in the band's live program, Overkill became one of the first bands of the style known as Thrash Metal .

In 1981, Rich Conte and Bobby Gustafson joined the band. This line-up recorded a demo called Power in Black in 1984 , a song of which appeared on a metal massacre sampler. Finally, a self-titled EP was released via the independent label Metal Storm Records , which was received very positively in the underground and sold out quickly. This release led to a recording deal with the New York label Megaforce Records . In 1985 the debut album Feel the Fire was released , which today is considered a classic with its aggressive but melodic style. The album was toured with Megadeth , Anthrax and Agent Steel .

Two years later the album Taking Over and the live EP Fuck You were released. The band undertook a European tour as the opening act for Helloween and soon became one of the most important thrash bands on the US east coast alongside Anthrax and Nuclear Assault . In 1988 Rat Skates left the band and was replaced by Sid Falck. With this, the formation released the album Under the Influence , recorded with Terry Date , which was very fast and aggressive, in contrast to its predecessor. Several songs from this album were later played live in the opening act by Slayer . The 1989 album The Years of Decay , on the other hand, emphasized the melodic-dark overkill style of the music and revealed hardcore influences. Overkill went on a tour for this album titled Dawn of the Decade with Testament .

The 1990s

Then Bobby Gustafson, the main songwriter, left the band after disputes. Two new guitarists took his place with Merrit Gant and Rob Cannavino; the latter was Gustafson's guitar technician. This new line-up recorded the 1991 album Horrorscope , which again contained more melodic and shorter songs. During the tour for the album, Sid Falck left the band in favor of the new drummer Tim Mallare. Falck stated that he would have preferred to steer the music in a more technical and complex direction and that his ideas had been disappointed.

The follow-up album I Hear Black , released in 1993 via Atlantic Records , went to the flop, however, as it offered musically out of the ordinary Doom songs with borrowings from Black Sabbath . On tour you could win Savatage as a support act. In 1994 the band returned to their old sounds with (WFO) Wide Fucking Open , but also used more modern sounds in the style of the then popular Pantera . However, the little commercial success of the album led to Atlantic dropping the band. With Necroshine , WFO is still the only overkill album that was never released on vinyl. New sales partners were CMC International in the USA and SPV in Europe . On the tour to the album, which was accompanied by Jag Panzer and Massacra , a live album was recorded for the tenth anniversary of the album and released under the title Wrecking Your Neck Live .

For personal reasons, Gant and Cannavino left the band in 1995. With Joe Comeau and Sebastian Marino, the album The Killing Kind was recorded a year later , which musically resembled its predecessor. A year later, !!! Fuck You !!! and then Some a new edition of the 1987 EP, which also included the songs from the debut EP. The album From the Underground and Below was also released as a new studio album, which even had elements of industrial metal with the use of samples and alienated voices . The band's companions on various tours to the album were Nevermore , Angel Dust and Nocturnal Rites .

Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth, in the background bass player DD Verni

In 1998, Bobby Ellsworth was diagnosed with cancer of the nasal mucosa . However, the tumor was removed in good time through several operations. Following the recovery, the singer returned to the band, who recorded their tenth album with Necroshine . The album was released in February 1999 and took us even further into the industrial direction. Just six months later, Coverkill, a pure cover album , was released, which contained songs from metal bands such as Motörhead , Manowar and Black Sabbath as well as songs from the Sex Pistols , the Ramones and Jethro Tull . In the meantime, Sebastian Marino had left the band for family reasons. He was followed by Dave Linsk as the new guitarist.

The 2000s

After a tour with Annihilator and Dew-Scented in 2000, Joe Comeau replaced the recently dismissed singer Randy Rampage with Annihilator. Derek Tailer was announced as the second guitarist alongside Dave Linsk, who had previously represented DD Verni on bass on various occasions. Tailer was already on the album Bloodletting , released in the fall of that year , after which the band took a break. Overkill only appeared again in 2002 and released their second live album, Wrecking Everything , their first on the new label Spitfire Records . Then the band completed a European tour accompanied by Blaze , but Bobby Ellsworth suffered a stroke on their penultimate appearance in Nuremberg . After various rumors, the band announced that the stroke had been very weak and that Ellsworth had not suffered any consequential damage. In the meantime, the band called for a boycott of the best-of compilation Hello from the Gutter , published in the same year by SPV , which was put together without consultation with the band.

The band immediately worked on new material, entitled Killbox 13 , which was released in the spring of 2003. The album largely found its way back to the melodic sound of the early works without giving up the more modern peculiarities of the previous albums. However, Tailer was no longer involved on the tour for the album (with Seven Witches and After All ). At the end of 2004, the band recorded new songs in Verni's private studio, which appeared on the ReliXIV album in April 2005 and followed on from their predecessor. After the recordings, Tim Mallare announced his departure, his successor was Ron Lipnicki. Overkill also took part in the 2006 edition of the Gigantour .

In October 2007, Immortalis, the band's fourteenth (without cover compilation) studio album, was released on Bodog Music Europe . In addition, the Overkill website announced a further technical production collaboration with Jon Zazula and his wife Marsha, who, as owners of the Megaforce label, had already published Overkill's early work. In January 2010 the album Ironbound was released , which was followed by a world tour for the band's 25th anniversary. The album was very successful for the band, for the first time since 1993 an overkill album was placed on the Billboard 200 .

The 2010s

At the end of March 2012, the album The Electric Age was released . On July 18, 2014, the follow-up album White Devil Armory was released . The follow-up album The Grinding Wheel was released on February 10, 2017 . The current album The Wings of War was released on February 22, 2019.

gallery

• Band members at the Rockharz Open Air 2019
• 

  Singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth

• 

  Bass player DD Verni

• 

  Lead guitarist Dave Linsk

• 

  Rhythm guitarist Derek “The Skull” Tailer

• 

  Drummer Jason “Sticks” Bittner

Discography

Demos

• 1983: Power in Black
• 1984: Rotten to the Core
• 1984: Feel the Fire

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	US
1985	Feel the Fire Megaforce Records	-	-	-	-	First published: April 15, 1985
1987	Taking Over Megaforce Records	-	-	-	US191 (1 week) US	First published: September 1, 1987
1988	Under the Influence Atlantic Records	DE42 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	US142 (13 weeks) US	First published: July 5, 1988
1989	The Years of Decay Atlantic Records	DE58 (7 weeks) DE	-	-	US155 (8 weeks) US	First published: October 13, 1989
1991	Horrorscope Atlantic Records	-	-	-	-	First published: September 3, 1991
1993	I Hear Black Atlantic Records	DE82 (1 week) DE	-	-	US122 (2 weeks) US	First published: March 9, 1993
1994	WFO Atlantic Records	DE93 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	First published: July 15, 1994
1996	The Killing Kind CMC International	DE60 (7 weeks) DE	-	-	-	First published: March 5, 1996
1997	From the Underground and Below CMC International	DE80 (2 weeks) DE	-	-	-	First published: September 30, 1997
2000	Bloodletting Metal Is	-	-	-	-	First published: October 24, 2000
2003	Killbox 13 Spitfire Records	DE93 (1 week) DE	-	-	-	First published: March 25, 2003
2005	ReliXIV Spitfire Records	-	-	-	-	First published: March 22, 2005
2007	Immortalis Bodog Music	-	-	-	-	First published: October 9, 2007
2010	Ironbound Nuclear Blast	DE31 (2 weeks) DE	AT61 (1 week) AT	CH77 (1 week) CH	US192 (1 week) US	First published: January 29, 2010
2012	The Electric Age Nuclear Blast	DE34 (2 weeks) DE	AT73 (1 week) AT	CH62 (1 week) CH	US77 (1 week) US	First published: March 27, 2012
2014	White Devil Armory Nuclear Blast	DE20 (2 weeks) DE	AT53 (1 week) AT	CH31 (1 week) CH	US31 (2 weeks) US	First published: July 18, 2014
2017	The Grinding Wheel Nuclear Blast	DE10 (3 weeks) DE	AT33 (1 week) AT	CH23 (2 weeks) CH	US69 (1 week) US	First published: February 10, 2017
2019	The Wings of War Nuclear Blast	DE5 (3 weeks) DE	AT23 (1 week) AT	CH13 (2 weeks) CH	US158 (1 week) US	First published: February 22, 2019

Live albums and compilations

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	US
1995	10 Years of Wrecking Your Neck	DE65 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	-	Live, double CD
2018	Live in Overhausen	DE12 (2 weeks) DE	-	CH91 (1 week) CH	-	live

More live albums and compilations

• 1999: Coverkill
• 2002: Wrecking Everything (Live)
• 2002: Hello from the Gutter ( best of , double CD)
• 2004: Unholy (Live, double CD)

EPs

• 1984: Overkill
• 1988: !!! Fuck You !!!
• 1997: !!! Fuck You !!! and Then Some (with bonus tracks)
• 2012: 6 songs (supplement to Rock Hard , April 2012)

Video albums

• 2002: Wrecking Everything (Live DVD)
• 2008: Live at Wacken Open Air 2007 (Live-DVD)
• 2018: Live in Oberhausen 2016 (Live DVD)

swell

1. ↑ http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=192796
2. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE AT CH US

Web links

Commons : Overkill  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website
• Official German fan club