Long-in-the-making, Thrash Metal legends Overkill have announced their new album Scorched, their twelfth in their career will be released on April 14th, 2023 via Nuclear Blast Records. Today the band has dropped a new single “The Surgeon” along with a visualizer! The sound of the track is vicious, with all the power of a band rocking it for 40 years, but still present and modern as any band! Watch the visualizer for “The Surgeon” here:
Sebastian Marino, former guitarist of both Overkill and Anvil has died. No cause of death has been revealed. According to a post from Sebastian’s friend and business partner Bruce Pilato, Marino died suddenly early on January 1st, after being rushed to a hospital while doing a sound job on New Year’s Eve in Florida. Since leaving the performing, recording, and touring world; Sebastian owned and operated Audio Images, and sound tech, and visuals, and crew services company. Sebastian played on Anvil’s 1991 album Worth The Weight, and was featured on three 1990s-era Overkill LPs in the 1990s:The Killing Kind (1996), From The Underground And Below (1997) and Necroshine (1999). Pilato, Overkill, and Anvil frontman Steve “Lips” Kudlow posted about his passing. RIP Sebastian. Continue reading
It’s really good to visit The Chance for a show after two years. It’s a long Metro-North Railroad train ride from the city but it’s always worth it once you’re there.
Bay Area thrashers Vio-Lence might have only been around for eight years but what a magnificent near-decade it was. From their classic hyper-aggressive debut Eternal Nightmare (MCA Records) to the controversial lyrics of ‘Torture Tactics’ and a deliciously questionable vegetable soup and vinegar “vomit bag” plastic record sleeve, the band also launched the career of a certain Robb Flynn who went on to form 1990s game-changers Machine Head, eventually to be followed by guitarist Phil Demmel. With three studio albums under their belts, the band went their separate ways in 1993, only becoming a full-time going concern again in 2019.
By 1992, Metal was all but on its knees. Traditional bands had become dinosaurs and previously popular scenes were burnt out. There were exceptions, of course. Slayer were playing arenas, Metallica had global domination in their sights, death metal was approaching its peak and across northern Europe, black metal was literally rising from the ashes of burned churches. But for the rest of the world, grunge and other alternative scenes were the new kings, all drawing inspiration from the bands they were replacing but without any of that old fashioned baggage.Continue reading
Thrash metal veterans Overkill have announced a headline tour for the USA, starting in March of 2022. Direct support on the trek will come from Prong. All tour dates can be seen below. The band has been working on a new album for release next year and just released a boxed set of their Atlantic Records output in the 1980s and 1990s.
Overkill has booked its first show back – “609 nine days later” since their last time on stage was supposed to happen at the same venue. The legendary thrashers will perform at The Wellmont Theater in New Jersey, in a show that was to have taken place last March 14th and featured M.O.D., now off the bill. Direct support will come from Demolition Hammer and Sworn Enemy. The public on-sale went live today and this show is expected to sell out! Overkill has been in the studio working on a new album, according to social media posts from drummer Jason Bittner.
Sad news to report as Marsha Zazula, the legendary co-founder of Megaforce Records which launched the careers of Metallica, Anthrax, King’s X and many others, has died. She was 68 years old. News of her passing was shared by her daughter Rikki, writing: “RIP Mom April 21, 1952 -January 10, 2021 Your love, Your strength, Your memory and Your music has changed lives and will continue to FOREVER.” Marsha formed Megaforce with her husband Jon “Jonny Z” Zazula in 1983, as metal music lovers and entrepreneurs with no prior industry experience, but founded a brand that will always hold an iconic place in the hearts of metal fans and band. In Jonny’s 2020 memoir, he largely credited a lot of the success of the label to Marsha. The label released Metallica’s first two albums, 1983’s “Kill ‘Em All” and 1984’s “Ride The Lightning”, before the band signed to Elektra. Other bands they fostered and worked with included Testament, Overkill, Ace Frehley, Ministry, Stormtroopers Of Death, Raven, and many more. The Zazula’s latest venture was Breaking Bands, a music management, and services company run with Chuck Billy of Testament and Maria Ferrero. RIP Marsha.
