OVERKILL BIOGRAPHY

OVERKILL
Biography

Overkill are a thrash metal band formed in New Jersey, on America's East Coast, in 1980, and named after Motörhead's 1979 album. Built around singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth and bassist D.D. Verni, they have changed line-ups without ever going on hiatus, releasing twenty studio albums from Feel the Fire in 1985 to Scorched in 2023. White Devil Armory (2014) reached number 31 on the Billboard 200 and The Wings of War (2019) number five in Germany, the band's best placings in each. They first played Japan in 1990 and have appeared at Thrash Domination three times and at Loud Park once.

Formation in New Jersey (1980-1984)

According to Ward Records, their Japanese label, and Creativeman, which promoted Loud Park 17, Overkill formed in 1980 around bassist D.D. Verni and drummer Rat Skates. The two had played together in a punk band, the Lubricunts; when it broke up they formed Virgin Killer, began playing with a local friend, Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth, and eventually took the name Overkill. Ellsworth borrowed his nickname from Johnny Blitz of the Dead Boys. The band's own X profile also says "Formed 1980."

Ellsworth remembers meeting Verni and Skates when he was rehearsing with a guitarist, Rob Pisarek, in Pisarek's parents' basement in New City, New York: the two walked in on a ninety-degree summer day in leather jackets and leather trousers. They started as a covers band, playing Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead, Riot, the Dead Boys and the Ramones, and Ellsworth says Overkill came out of mixing the punk the other two brought with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal he was into. The guitar slot changed hands several times, Dan Spitz, later of Anthrax, among them, until Bobby Gustafson joined in 1982 and the line-up settled.

The 1983 demo Power in Black travelled the tape-trading underground and caught the attention of Megaforce Records. At L'Amour in Brooklyn they became the house band, managed by two of the club's owners, and Ellsworth says an average Overkill show drew about 1,750 people to a room licensed for about 1,200. In 1984 they signed to Metal Storm Records and recorded the four-song Overkill EP, but its release slipped by seven months and it came out after the debut album.

Megaforce and the debut (1985-1987)

The debut album, Feel the Fire, came out in 1985 on Megaforce Records, the label of Jon (Jonny) and Marsha Zazula. All of the first three albums were recorded at Pyramid Studios in Ithaca, New York, with Carl Canedy and Alex Perialas. Each of them closes with a song named after the band — "Overkill", "Overkill II (The Nightmare Continues)" and "Overkill III (Under the Influence)".

Between the first two albums Ellsworth developed polyps on his vocal cords and took lessons to learn to sing correctly. The second album, Taking Over (1987), was the first to go out through Atlantic while remaining a Megaforce release, and it was their first entry on the Billboard 200, at number 191. The title song of that year's !!!Fuck You!!! EP is by the Canadian punk band Subhumans, and Ellsworth has called the EP the band's only political statement, aimed at the PMRC's campaign to sticker records. Founding drummer Rat Skates left amicably after the EP, and Bobby "Sid" Falck, a Danish drummer who had played in Paul Di'Anno's Battlezone, replaced him.

The Atlantic years (1988-1995)

The video for "Hello From the Gutter" from Under the Influence (1988) was played on MTV's Headbangers Ball. For The Years of Decay (1989) the band went to producer Terry Date and Carriage House Studios in Stamford, Connecticut. When the main songwriters, Gustafson and Verni, had eight songs ready, "Elimination" was still unfinished; it was completed in the studio, went into heavy rotation on MTV and became the band's signature song. The album was inducted into Decibel magazine's Hall of Fame as number 85.

When Gustafson left in 1990, the band brought in two guitarists, Merritt Gant and Rob Cannavino, and became a five-piece. Horrorscope (1991), a heavy record that brought in elements of doom, became a fan favourite and their best-selling album of the SoundScan era, which began that year. I Hear Black (1993) was the first album Atlantic released on its own, without the Megaforce credit; Tim Mallare took over on drums, and it reached number 122 on the Billboard 200. W.F.O. (1994), a self-produced return to fast thrash, was their last album for Atlantic, and the live Wrecking Your Neck came out on CMC in 1995.

The independent years (1995-2009)

After Atlantic the band took over their own management in the mid-nineties. Ellsworth counts that era among the proudest in the band's history, and says he and Verni still approve every product carrying the Overkill name. Joe Comeau and Sebastian Marino took over the guitars on The Killing Kind (1996), and Colin Richardson mixed From the Underground and Below (1997), his first record with them. The title song of Necroshine (1999) reached Ellsworth from Verni three days after he asked for something to take his mind off a carcinoma on his nose. The covers album Coverkill came out the same year.

Bloodletting (2000) was made as a four-piece with Dave Linsk as the only guitarist. Derek Tailer joined as second guitarist in 2002, the year of the live album Wrecking Everything, recorded in Asbury Park, New Jersey. On 27 June 2002 Ellsworth collapsed during a show in Nuremberg, Germany; it was a minor stroke, and he was released after two days of tests. Richardson produced and mixed Killbox 13 (2003). Mallare left after ReliXIV (2005) and Ron Lipnicki, formerly of Hades, replaced him. Immortalis (2007) came out on Bodog Music, which reunited the band with the Zazulas, the people who had first signed them, and Randy Blythe of Lamb of God sings on its "Skull and Bones".

The Nuclear Blast years (2009-2023)

At the end of 2009 the band signed a multi-album deal with Nuclear Blast for the world outside North America and E1/Koch for North America, and released Ironbound in 2010. Peter Tägtgren mixed it, and it put them back on the Billboard 200 after seventeen years, at number 192. The Electric Age (2012), recorded at Verni's own Gear Recording Studios, reached number 77, and White Devil Armory (2014) number 31, the highest placing of their career. In 2015 the Nuclear Blast deal became worldwide, and the box set Historikill, covering 1995 to 2007, came out.

On 16 April 2016 in Oberhausen, Germany, the band played Horrorscope and Feel the Fire in full for their twenty-fifth and thirtieth anniversaries. Their sound engineer, Eddy Garcia, played drums in place of Lipnicki, who had stayed home for family reasons, and the show was released in 2018 as Live in Overhausen. The Grinding Wheel (2017), the first album mixed by Andy Sneap, reached number 69 on the Billboard 200 and number ten in Germany. That year Jason Bittner, known from Shadows Fall and Flotsam and Jetsam, became their drummer. The Wings of War (2019) entered the official German chart at number five, the band's best placing there. Scorched (2023) was recorded during the pandemic with each member working on his own, and came after the longest gap between albums in the band's history, a little over four years.

Since 2024

Bittner left after a show in Portugal on 1 August 2024, and Jeramie Kling, who had played with Venom Inc. and The Absence, took over; Ellsworth calls him an old friend who had worked with the band around the time of Ironbound. Since then other bassists have sometimes stood in on tour while Verni has his shoulder treated. In the spring of 2026 the band toured the United States with Testament and Destruction. In April 2026 Verni said he had most of the next album written and demoed, and expected it to come out early in 2027.

Chaly, the mascot

Many Overkill albums carry Chaly, the band's winged, horned skull. On Under the Influence (1988) he fires lasers from his eyes; on Ironbound (2010) he is locked up in prison; on The Electric Age (2012) he is strapped into the electric chair; and for Scorched (2023) Travis Smith painted two of him, as serpents. The news posts on the band's official site are signed "Chaly".

The members

The current members are Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth (vocals), D.D. Verni (bass), Dave Linsk (lead guitar), Derek Tailer (rhythm guitar) and Jeramie Kling (drums), as listed on the band's official site. Ellsworth and Verni have been in the band from the start, and Verni is also its main songwriter. Ellsworth explains their partnership by saying they had the same upbringing and understand each other.

Former members include founding drummer Rat Skates (1980-1987), Bobby Gustafson (guitar, 1982-1990), Bobby "Sid" Falck (drums), Merritt Gant and Rob Cannavino (guitars, from 1990), Tim Mallare (drums, from before I Hear Black until 2005), Joe Comeau and Sebastian Marino (guitars, from The Killing Kind), Ron Lipnicki (drums, 2005-2017) and Jason Bittner (drums, 2017-2024). In 2007 Skates released Born in the Basement, a documentary film looking back on those early years. Ellsworth has also made American Made, an album of 1970s American rock covers, with Mike Portnoy and others as BPMD.

Concerts in Japan

The band first came to Japan in 1990 and returned eleven years later, in 2001, according to Ward Records, Loud Park 17 and Ellsworth himself. The dates and venues of the 1990 shows could not be established from a reliable source, so they are not in the table below. From 2004 they played Thrash Domination, the festival Club Citta' promotes, three times, headlining in 2004 when Testament withdrew. In 2010 they came back after six years, with a headline show of their own in Osaka as well, and in 2017 they played Loud Park for the first time, on the festival's first day. They were booked for Thrash Domination 2020 in September 2020, but the event itself was cancelled because of COVID-19. Ellsworth says Japanese audiences are very quiet until a show begins and then as crazy as any in South America.

Date	Venue	Event
30 January 2001	Shinsaibashi BIGCAT (Osaka)	—
31 January 2001	Nagoya Bottom Line (Aichi)	—
24 September 2004	Namba Hatch (Osaka)	Thrash Domination 04
25 September 2004	Club Citta Kawasaki (Kanagawa)	Thrash Domination 04
26 September 2004	Club Citta Kawasaki (Kanagawa)	Thrash Domination 04
17 September 2010	Umeda Shangri-La (Osaka)	Kill Fest Japan Tour 2010 (headline show)
18 September 2010	Club Citta Kawasaki (Kanagawa)	Thrash Domination 10
19 September 2010	Club Citta Kawasaki (Kanagawa)	Thrash Domination 10
21 March 2015	Club Citta Kawasaki (Kanagawa)	Thrash Domination 2015
22 March 2015	Club Citta Kawasaki (Kanagawa)	Thrash Domination 2015
14 October 2017	Saitama Super Arena (Saitama)	Loud Park 17

About the sources

This page is based on the band's official site, wreckingcrew.com (The History and the news posts, with the 2001 pages as the Internet Archive kept them); the band's own X profile; Nuclear Blast's album pages and news; the album pages of Ward Records, the band's Japanese label; the official site of Loud Park 17 (Creativeman); the Thrash Domination organiser's site and the schedules of Club Citta', Namba Hatch, Shinsaibashi BIGCAT and Nagoya Bottom Line, all as the Internet Archive kept them; Billboard's chart records; the official German chart; Blabbermouth.net, Louder (Metal Hammer), Loudwire, Decibel, Songfacts, BARKS, Gekirock, rockin'on, CDJournal and Tower Records' articles and product pages; MusicBrainz; and Wikidata. The English and Japanese Wikipedia were used only as a starting point, and every fact taken from them was checked against one of these sources. The Japanese editions' dates and catalogue numbers are on each album's page.