Overkill (band)

Overkill was formed in 1980 on the remnants of the punk band The Lubricunts, which was attended by Rat Skates and D. D. Verney (real names Lee Candrat and Carlo Verney). They placed an ad to find a vocalist and guitarist, which was answered by guitarist Robert Pisarek and vocalist Bobby Ellsworth. ^[6] Thus, the first composition of the Overkill group was formed, however, before choosing this name, the group went over several others, for example, Virgin Killer. Early songs, especially those that the band performed under the name Virgin Killer, were covers of punk bands such as The Ramones, The Dead Boys, etc. By the end of 1980, the group began to perform Motörhead songs (the song Overkill, with which the group and took its final name, half of the songs from the album Ace of Spades ), Judas Priest and Riot . Despite the fact that the group performed punk covers, the guys played with greater speed and energy and other elements of heavy metal , which allows them to be attributed to one of the first groups of thrash metal . In 1981, guitarist Robert Pisarek left, he was replaced by Dan Spitz and Anthony Ammendola, who, in turn, were replaced by Rich Conte and Mike Sherry, until finally Bobby Gustafson became the guitarist of the group in late 1982 ^[6] .

In 1983, a group of Rat Skates , D. D. Verney , Bobby Gustafson, and Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth released a demo of Power In Black , which made a splash in underground music circles (comparable to Exodus and Testament records). Power In Black enabled Overkill to appear on two compilations: Feel the Fire was featured on New York Metal '84, and Death Rider appeared on the fifth compilation from the legendary Metal Massacre series. In addition, the group was able to sign a small contract with Azra / Metal Storm Records, where in 1984 she recorded her EP Overkill with four songs, which was a success and the entire release of which was quickly sold out. This pushed the group to the forefront of the growing force of thrash metal .

In November 1984, John Zazula, the owner of Megaforce Records , one of the most famous metal labels, signed a contract with the group for several albums. In 1985, their first full-length album, Feel The Fire, was released . Despite the predominant influence of NWOBHM and speed metal , this album is often called by critics and fans a masterpiece of thrash metal, which has established the group as one of the main thrash metal bands not only on the east coast of the United States , but throughout the country. The group spent most of 1985 and 1986. on a tour in support of the Feel The Fire album, starting a tour in the USA opening for Slayer , and then touring Europe with Anthrax and Agent Steel ^[7] .

1987 marked the release of the second album, Overkill Taking Over . This is the first album released by Megaforce in collaboration with major label Atlantic Records . The album shows a higher level of songwriting and recording music; in addition, the album had a more “epic” style, which is reflected in songs such as “In Union We Stand”. This song was chosen to shoot the first Overkill clip, used to promote the band's popularity in the new era of music television. Later that year, a new European tour followed, this time with the band Helloween . In May-June, Overkill supported Megadeth . In July-August, Overkill were headlining their own concerts, they were opened by Testament ^[7] .

At the end of 1987, the band released a new EP called !!! Fuck You !!! , consisting directly of the song “Fuck You”, as well as several live recordings made earlier at a concert in Cleveland. In addition, in 1987, drummer Rat Skates left the band, who was replaced by Mark Archibol for several performances, and then on a regular basis by Danish Bob "Sid" om Falck from the band of ex-vocalist Paul Di'Anno Iron Maiden .

In 1988, Overkill released their next studio album Under the Influence , which differed from the previous one in a coarser and more “downhole” sound, having lost the “epic” style of Taking Over , so it was perceived as raw and considered a step backward in the group’s work. The song "Hello From The Gutter" was released by the single and the video for this song was constantly played on MTV. Overkill continued to tour all over the world, strengthening its reputation as one of the best metal bands playing live.

In 1989, Overkill released the breakthrough album The Years of Decay , which is still considered the best in the work of the group. It combined the harsh and coarse sound of Under the Influence with more complex compositions and “epic” elements, like on Taking Over , which led to more serious music and longer compositions, including an eight-minute title track and a ten-minute “Playing With Spiders / Skullkrusher” . The fast and tough song “Elimination” was released as a separate single and was constantly played on MTV in the program Headbangers Ball . The composition was a great success among the fans of the group and subsequently was constantly performed at all concerts, even many years later. On tour in support of The Years of Decay, the band performed with Dark Angel and Wolfsbane , and later they performed with Mordred . They also warmed up Testament . Then they were headliners in a series of concerts in the USA (they were warmed up by Violence , Deceased , etc.) ^[7] .

Despite the success of The Years of Decay , at the end of 1990 Gustafson left the group due to disagreements with other old-timers of the group over how Overkill should develop in the future ^[8] . Bobby Ellsworth in his place decided to invite two guitarists at once. Rob Cannavino, who was Gustafson’s guitar technician, and Faith Or Fear’s Merritt Gant fit in very well with the band, who offered the audience an excellent Horrorscope album the following year, dispelling fans' fears that Gustafson’s departure will destroy the group. New guitarists have brought a fresh stream to Overkill's musical concept. A higher level in sound density was achieved, and the tension and dynamism of the sound increased. The name of the album is just a lucky pun made by Verney. It was originally planned to name the record "Bare Bones" ("Naked Bones"), but then decided that "Horrorscope" is darker. According to the production technique, the disc has not undergone significant changes, this proves that the group always knew what sound it was striving for.

After the accompanying tour, Falk, who was not a big fan of thrash, retreated, and the installation was taken by Tim Mallar from MOD. In 1993, "Overkill" was returned to the production chair of Periales, and recorded the disc "I Hear Black". Significantly different from other opuses in their hard-rock orientation, this album was the group's highest chart achievement (No. 122 on Billboard).

However, the old fans of the innovation team did not like it, and at the self-produced WFO the team returned to the classic fast thrash. Unfortunately, grunge winds managed to make such music unpopular, and Overkill was fired from Atlantic. After Wrecking Your Neck, Kannavino and Gant left, and Joe Como from Liege Lord and Sebastian Marino from Anvil took the guitars instead.

If in The Killing Kind the group injected a portion of hardcore into the thrash, then From the Underground and Below an industrial flavor appeared. In 1999, two records of the group were released at once - the original Necroshine album and the cover program “Coverkill” with songs that had the greatest influence on the group (“Black Sabbath”, “Motorhead”, “Ramones”, “Sex Pistols”, etc. ) Shortly before the release of Necroshine, Marino decided to devote himself to family affairs, and Dave Linsk took the baton from him. In 2000, the team toured with Annihilator, and soon Como left for them, so four of them arrived at the next Overkill sessions. If on “Necroshine” the team allowed itself some deviations from the general course, then on “Bloodletting” the corporate blue-collar thrash again sounded. When Verni was to have a baby, the bass player was temporarily replaced by Derek Tayler, and when Dee Dee returned to the system, the recruit remained in the state, but already in the position of the second guitarist.

In 2002, the musicians signed a contract with Spitfire Records, and released a pair of number plates, Killbox 13 and ReliXIV , on this label (the first of them was of particular interest to the audience, returning the listener to the Feel The Fire era). Replacing Mallar with ex-Hades drummer Ron Lipniki, the team made a short stop on the Bodog label, which released Immortalis . Subsequently, Overkill moved under the Nuclear Blast roof and debuted there with an Ironbound record. This album, which observers called the “thrashter-piece” ^[9] , for the first time since I Hear Black, gave the band the opportunity to visit Billboard Top 200. March 27, 2012 the team released the album The Electric Age ^[10] , which took 77th place on the US Billboard 200 chart. The band’s next album, White Devil Armory , was released July 18, 2014, taking the top position on the chart at number 31, which is the best result for the group ^[11] . The album sold out at 8,600 in its first week.

On November 16, 2016, the band announced that the new album The Grinding Wheel would be released on February 10, 2017. They also posted a track list and album cover ^[12] . The official video with the lyrics of the song “Our Finest Hour” was uploaded to YouTube. Overkill and Nile conducted a joint tour in the USA in February-March 2017. On December 21, the next video with lyrics, “Mean, Green, Killing Machine” ^{[13], was released} . In May 2017, the band announced that Jason Bittner was taking Ron Lipniki as drummer ^[14] .

On November 28, 2018, the group announced that the new album The Wings of War would be released on February 22, 2019. She also published a tracklist of 10 songs and an album cover ^[15] . The band will be touring in support of the album at the 2019 Killfest festival with Destruction , Flotsam and Jetsam and Meshiaak. ^[16] In January-February 2019, the group will perform in Latin America ^[17] . The group will also take part in the MegaCruise of Megadeth, which will take place in the Pacific Ocean ^[18] . On December 14, 2018, the first single from the album “Last Man Standing” ^[19] and a video with lyrics ^{[20] were released} . On January 3, 2019, the group released the first trailer of the album in the form of a documentary series called “Welcome To The Garden State”, which tells about the history of the group ^[21] . A video with the lyrics for the song "Head Of A Pin" was released on January 18, 2019 ^[22] . On January 28, 2019, the group announced the American part of the tour in support of The Wings of War , in which they will tour with Death Angel and Act of Defiance ^[23] .

Despite the fact that Overkill is less popular than larger bands of the same genre, Overkill is one of the oldest thrash bands performing today. Despite the fact that their debut album was only released in 1985, the beginning of Overkill was preceded by the formation of the entire “big four” thrash metal bands ( Metallica , Megadeth , Anthrax and Slayer ) for at least one year ^[24] . After the creation of the group, when time passed and the group began to create more music along with its rapidly growing competitors, she became known for her fast and heavy style. The music of the group did not have enough variety to compete with the names of the Big Four ^[25] , but Overkill invariably retained its unique sound throughout its career, instead of trying to gain popularity in a more commercial style ^[26] . Overkill is considered one of the most important thrash bands from the East Coast ^[27] .

Along with Exodus and Testament , Overkill was the subject of discussion about which thrash metal band should be included in the expanded Big Four. Answering a question in September 2014 about whether Overkill, Exodus or Testament should be included in the "big five" thrash metal, frontman Bobby Ellsworth answered: "Oh, this question will corner me! We measure our success in days, not dollars! But maybe you will find the answer in what I am going to say. When [playing thrash metal] became harder in the 90s with the advent of grunge music, we never had a question as to whether we would stop doing it and go work for our moms and dads or something like that . We just had to let this happen. We were not going to let the grunge stop us. And if that happened, we would just go back to the underground. I still liked it ^[28] ! ”Commenting on the fact that Overkill never became part of the Big Four, Ellsworth said:“ When it comes to being chosen or not to be, it's just on paper. When you talk about numbers, numbers make the world go round, numbers put food on your table, numbers put the Big Four into the arenas. And they sell enough records for this. It's not a problem for me. Even getting such a question from you is a compliment in relation to, say, our longevity or perseverance, doing what we like to do. But it's all just on paper. The one who sells the most gets polar positions ^[29] . ”

The sound of Overkill influenced the thrash metal genre. Their technique relies on pieces of punk and hard rock, as well as NWOBHM. These elements combine to create a fast, aggressive style unique to the band and make the Overkill sound easily recognizable to metal fans ^[30] ; as a result, they are often referred to as “ Motörhead thrash metal” ^{[3] [4]} . Among the influences of the group are Black Sabbath , Iron Maiden , Judas Priest , Aerosmith , Kiss , UFO , Motörhead , Ramones , Sex Pistols , Venom , Ted Nugent , Rainbow , Starz , The Damned , The Vibrators and Generation X ^{[31] [32] [ 33] [34]} . Many of today's newly formed thrash bands have been influenced by older bands in the genre. Some, including Mantic Ritual, include many stylistic features reminiscent of Overkill and other thrash bands that have been successful in the past ^[35] .

Current squad

• Robert Joseph "Bobby Blitz" Ellsworth - vocals (1980 - present)
• Carlo "D. D. "Return (04/12/1961) - bass (1980 - our time)
• David "Dave" Linsk - guitar (1999 - our time)
• Derek “The Skull” Tayler (1966) - rhythm guitar (2002 - our time)
• Jason “Sticks” Bittner (1970) - drums (2017 - our time)

Former members

• Lee John Candrat "Rat Skates" (05.17.1961) - drums (1980-1987)
• Robert "Riff Thunder" Pisarek - Guitar (1980-1981)
• Anthony Ammendola - Guitar (1981)
• Dan Spitz - Guitar (1981)
• Rich Conte - Guitar (1981-1982)
• Mike Sherry - guitar (1981-1982)
• Joe the guitar (1982)
• Robert Wayne “Bobby” Gustafson (07/15/1965) - guitar (1982-1990)
• Mark Erchibol - Percussion (1987)
• Robert Sid Falk - Percussion (1987-1992)
• Robert "Rob" Kannavino (1965) - guitar (1990-1995)
• Meritt Gant (02/18/1971) - guitar (1990-1995)
• Tim Muller - Percussion (1993-2005)
• Джозеф Туссэйнт «Джо» Комо (02.05.1964)— гитара, бэк-вокал (1995—1999)
• Себастьян Марино — гитара (1995—1999)
• Рон Липники (1971) — ударные (2005—2016)

Участники туров

• Майк Портной ( Dream Theater ) — 2004
• Эдди Гарсиа — 2016—2017

Timeline

• Official Overkill Website
• Overkill at Rate Your Music