Overkill is an American thrash metal band, formed in 1980 in New Jersey. They have gone through many lineup changes, leaving bassist D.D. Verni and lead vocalist Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth as the only remaining original members. The band's current lineup includes Verni, Ellsworth, Dave Linsk on lead guitar, Derek "The Skull" Tailer on rhythm guitar, and Jeramie Kling on drums. Notable former members include guitarists Dan Spitz, Bobby Gustafson, Merritt Gant and Joe Comeau, and drummers Rat Skates and Jason Bittner.
Along with Nuclear Assault and Anthrax, the latter of which featured Spitz as a guitarist, Overkill is one of the most successful East Coast thrash metal bands, and have been called "the Motörhead of thrash metal", due to their unique playing style, which is influenced by punk and the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM). The band has a mascot named Chaly (a skeletal bat with a skull-like face, horns, bony wings and green eyes) that has appeared on many of their album covers.
Overkill has released twenty studio albums, an album of cover songs, two extended plays (EPs), one demo tape, and three live albums. They were one of the first thrash metal bands to be signed to a major label (having signed to Atlantic Records in 1986), and rose to popularity as part of the genre's movement of the mid-to-late 1980s, along with the "Big Four" (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax) and other bands such as Exodus and Testament. Overkill achieved its first mainstream success with their second studio album and Atlantic debut, Taking Over (1987), which peaked at number 191 on the Billboard 200. The band's next five studio albums – Under the Influence (1988), The Years of Decay (1989), Horrorscope (1991), I Hear Black (1993) and W.F.O. (1994) – were also successful on the Billboard charts, with the latter two entering the top 10 on the Top Heatseekers chart. Following their split with Atlantic in 1995, Overkill went through label changes but continued to enjoy moderate underground success, particularly in Europe and Japan. The band experienced a resurgence in the U.S. during the 2010s, with three of their studio albums released that decade – The Electric Age (2012), White Devil Armory (2014) and The Grinding Wheel (2017) – reaching the top 100 on the charts. Overkill has sold over 16 million records worldwide. They are estimated to have sold more than 625,000 records in the U.S. since the beginning of the SoundScan era.
History Early years and Feel the Fire (1980–1986)
Overkill was formed in 1980 by members of the punk band the Lubricunts, which featured bassist D.D. Verni and drummer Rat Skates. Verni and Skates placed an ad looking for a guitarist and lead singer, which was answered by guitarist Robert Pisarek and singer Bobby Ellsworth, and the first incarnation of Overkill was formed. After rejecting several names (including Virgin Killer), the band settled on Overkill, naming it after Motörhead's second album.
Early on, they covered punk songs by the Ramones, the Dead Boys and others. By late 1980, the band's setlist included songs by bands such as Motörhead (including songs from Overkill and half of the Ace of Spades album), Judas Priest ("Tyrant" in particular), and Riot. Along with the influx of heavy metal covers, the band still played a smattering of punk covers, with extra distortion, intensity, and speed. In 1981, the band went through a succession of guitarists after Pisarek left, first being replaced by Dan Spitz (who later joined Anthrax) and Anthony , then Rich Conte and Mike Sherry, before settling with Bobby Gustafson in late 1982. Around this time, the band started writing original songs, including "Grave Robbers" (later renamed "Raise the Dead"), "Overkill", and "Unleash the Beast (Within)". More songs followed, including "Death Rider" (1981) and "Rotten to the Core" (1982). As the band continued to write original material, they became a staple at clubs in New York and New Jersey, including L'Amour.
In 1983, the lineup of Verni, Skates, Ellsworth, and Gustafson released the Power in Black demo, a recording that made as much impact in the underground tape trading circuit as demos by then-up-and-coming Bay Area thrash metal bands, such as Exodus and Testament (then-called Legacy). Power in Black gained the band two compilation appearances: "Feel the Fire" was included on New York Metal '84 while "Death Rider" appeared on the fifth volume of Metal Blade Records' Metal Massacre series. The success of Power in Black also enabled the band to secure a small recording deal with Azra/Metal Storm Records, resulting in the 1985 four-track extended play (EP) Overkill, which quickly sold out, pushing the band to the forefront of the fledgling thrash metal movement. Long out of print, the vinyl-only EP is now considered a rare collector's item, and all the songs appeared eleven years later on the compilation album !!!Fuck You!!! and Then Some.
Though it is said that the band never received money from its release, the Overkill EP garnered the band massive underground interest and the attention of Jon Zazula, owner of Megaforce Records, a prominent independent heavy metal record label at the time. Megaforce signed Overkill to a multi-album record contract and released their full-length debut album, Feel the Fire, in October 1985. Hailed by many critics and fans as a thrash metal masterpiece, the album cemented the band's position as a driving force of the East Coast thrash metal movement. The band spent the better part of 1985 and 1986 touring in support of Feel the Fire, touring Europe with Anthrax and Agent Steel, and opening for Slayer on their Reign in Blood tour in North America. Overkill's tour schedule and the growing buzz for Feel the Fire resulted in several major labels courting the band. They eventually signed to Atlantic Records, making Overkill one of the early thrash metal bands to sign with a major label.
Rise to success (1987–1990) Overkill's second album, Taking Over, was released in March 1987; it was the first to be released by Megaforce with distribution from Atlantic Records. The album featured longer songs and improved production. Taking Over brought the band public recognition, becoming their first album to enter the Billboard 200 chart, while Overkill's first-ever music video, "In Union We Stand", received significant airplay on MTV's Headbangers Ball. Another European tour followed, this time opening for Helloween. Overkill also opened for Megadeth on their Peace Sells tour in North America, and headlined their own U.S. tour, with support from Nuclear Assault and then-labelmates Testament.
In late 1987, the !!!Fuck You!!! EP was released, consisting of a studio cover version of the Subhumans' "Fuck You" and a handful of live tracks recorded earlier that year at the Phantasy Theater in Cleveland. 1987 also saw the departure of founding drummer Rat Skates. He was replaced temporarily by Mark Archibole, and then permanently by Danish drummer Bob "Sid" Falck, formerly of Paul Di'Anno's Battlezone. Overkill closed out the year with a one-off show at the Christmas on Earth festival in Leeds, together with Megadeth, Kreator, Nuclear Assault, Voivod, the Cro-Mags, Lȧȧz Rockit and Virus.
Overkill released their third album, Under the Influence, in July 1988. Once again produced by Alex Perialas, who worked on the band's first two albums, Under the Influence was rawer and thrashier, lacking most of the epic atmosphere heard on Taking Over. "Hello from the Gutter" was released as a single, and its music video gained regular airplay on Headbangers Ball. Overkill kept touring all over the world, furthering their reputation as one of the most active live metal bands. This included opening for Slayer on their South of Heaven tour in the United States and Europe, and performing with Anthrax, Motörhead, Anvil, Nuclear Assault, M.O.D., Testament, Vio-lence, King's X, Prong, Murphy's Law, Ludichrist and Znowhite.
Overkill released their fourth album, The Years of Decay, in October 1989. Produced by Terry Date (who later worked with the likes of Pantera, White Zombie, Soundgarden and Deftones), the album featured the band's best production value to date, as well as Overkill's most progressive and diverse work compared to previous albums. It combined the raw approach of Under the Influence with more complex song structures and epic elements of Taking Over, resulting in a more serious atmosphere and longer songs, including the eight-minute title track and the ten-minute "Playing With Spiders/Skullkrusher", the latter being the longest track Overkill has recorded to date. Although the album charted lower than Under the Influence on the Billboard 200 at number 155, The Years of Decay was a breakthrough album for Overkill, selling over 67,000 copies within the next decade-and-a-half, and includes one of the band's best-known songs, "Elimination", for which a music video received regular airplay on Headbangers Ball. That song became a fan favorite and remains a staple in the band's live repertoire. Overkill toured extensively in support of The Years of Decay between November 1989 and June 1990, with bands such as Testament, Wolfsbane, Dark Angel, Vio-lence, Mordred, Powermad, Whiplash and Excel.
Horrorscope, I Hear Black and W.F.O. (1990–1995) After The Years of Decay tour ended in the summer of 1990, Gustafson left Overkill. Accounts vary as to how and why he split with the band: he had been either fired by Verni and Ellsworth, or had left Overkill following an argument over the band's musical direction. Gustafson said that one of the reasons he left Overkill was due to disagreements over royalties, during which he became embroiled in a feud with Verni and Ellsworth. The remaining members added two new guitarists to the band: Rob Cannavino, who had been Gustafson's guitar technician, and Merritt Gant, formerly of Faith or Fear. Ellsworth stated in an interview with Invisible Oranges years later that the reason Overkill hired two guitarists was mainly because they wanted to do something different: "We knew if we replaced Bobby with one guitarist, we'd get compared to what we were. So, it seemed like to logical thing to bring in two players. We didn't want anyone to say, 'Bobby was better than this new guy.' And we wanted to perform old stuff with two guitars to keep in fresh. We realized that change isn't a bad thing."