Veteran New Jersey thrashers OVERKILL have announced their first pandemic-era concert — "609 f!!kin' days" after they were supposed to play the same venue before the coronavirus crisis forced everything to shut down.
OVERKILL's November 13 performance at The Wellmont Theater in New Jersey is a make-up date for the show that was originally scheduled to take place March 14, 2020. Support at the gig will come from DEMOLITION HAMMER and SWORN ENEMY.
OVERKILL has spent the last few months recording its new studio album for a tentative late 2021 release.
Last November, OVERKILL bassist D.D. Verni told MetalAsylum.net that the band's new LP would be mixed by Colin Richardson. "He did a couple of records for us, and he's great," Verni said.
Richardson previously worked with OVERKILL on 1997's "From The Underground And Below", 2000's "Bloodletting" and 2003's "Killbox 13".
In June 2020, OVERKILL singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth told A&P Reacts that the band's new songs were "a natural progression from 'The Grinding Wheel' [2017] and 'The Wings Of War' [2019]. I think when we had done the 'Ironbound' record [2010], it almost became like a trilogy in there — it was kind of like 'Ironbound', 'The Electric Age' [2012] and 'White Devil Armory' [2014], and they seemed to be the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost kind of a thing," he said. "I think we kind of broke the mold a little bit with 'The Grinding Wheel', and then I think a little bit more with 'The Wings Of War'. And on this one, I see it way more. And what I mean by that is that we've used other tools from our toolshed in the past, and that's the slow grind that is coupled with that fast gallop. So it feels like a natural progression, but maybe two records ahead of what 'The Wings Of War' is. And that's probably as objective as I can be."
OVERKILL spent most of 2019 and early 2020 touring in support of its 19th studio LP, "The Wings Of War", which was released more than two years ago. The disc was recorded at Gear Recording Studio in New Jersey, SKH Studio in Florida and Jrod Productions with engineering handled by Verni and guitarist Dave Linsk. The album was produced by the band while Chris "Zeuss" Harris took care of the mixing and mastering. Travis Smith (NEVERMORE, OPETH, SOILWORK, DEATH) was again enlisted to create the artwork for the album.
"The Wings Of War" marked OVERKILL's recording debut with drummer Jason Bittner (SHADOWS FALL, FLOTSAM AND JETSAM), who joined the band in 2017.
