"ALL RIGHT, DONORS.....DONAAAAAAAATE!"




Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, kiddies, and all our ships at sea... it's time to start digging into the discography of New Jersey's favorite sons and one of my all time favorite bands, OVERKILL! We'll start the ball rolling with some quickie background info and a pair of their earliest releases...

Overkill rose from the ashes of Lee "Rat Skates" Kundrat (drums) and Carlo "D.D." Verni's (bass) high school punk rock band, the Lubric*nts, who released one demo tape (REIGN OF TERROR) in 1980 and promptly split up (as so many high school bands do). Inspired equally by punk rock and the then-current NWOBHM explosion, Verni and Kundrat quickly formed a new, more metal-intensive combo (originally called Virgin Killer, after the Scorpions album) and played local clubs performing a mix of originals and cover songs by bands such as Black Sabbath, the Ramones, Judas Priest, and Motorhead (to name just a few) while they went through the usual rampant lineup changes common to all young bands. The band name "Overkill" was coined by early guitarist Anthony Pisarek, who was eventually replaced for a short time by a pre-Anthrax Dan Spitz. Eventually the first "classic" lineup gelled when Bobby Ellsworth (aka "Blitz") and guitarist Bobby Gustafson came aboard (circa 1982). For a brief period the band sported a theatrical, "gothic horror" look (vampire capes, black eye makeup, etc.) inspired by such local favorites as the Misfits and Twisted Sister, but as their music evolved in a thrashier direction they dropped much of this look and went back to basic leather-n-studs-n-ripped jeans.

In 1983, Overkill recorded and released their first demo tape, POWER IN BLACK.

POWER IN BLACK featured five songs - "Overkill," "The Beast Within," "There's No Tomorrow," "Death Rider" and "Raise the Dead." The band sold several thousand copies (!!) of this tape through the mail, at their live shows, and at local mom-n-pop record stores throughout New York and New Jersey (including the famed "Rock N Roll Heaven" store in Clark, NJ, which was owned by future MegaForce Records honcho Jon Zazula -- he will figure back into this story in a little while.). The band quickly became staples on the NY/NJ club circuit and were rapidly making a name for themselves in the worldwide tape-trading scene. In 1984, "Death Rider" from this demo appeared on the METAL MASSACRE V compilation album.

This lineup recorded a second (four song) demo in 1984, planning to release it themselves under the title ROTTEN TO THE CORE, but the band were strapped for cash at the time so they licensed the recording to the tiny metal indie label Azra/Metal Storm. This label released it as the self titled OVERKILL EP that same year. The EP was limited to only a few thousand copies (if that) and is a rather pricey collectible nowadays. (I've only ever seen one copy of it myself in all these years... tragically, it was in someone else's collection and he didn't want to part with it at any price!)

(The band decided that their logo would be green thanks to Rat Skates' observation that a green logo would stand out on concert flyers/posters where all the other bands' logos were either black or red.)
The four songs on the EP were "Rotten to the Core," "Fatal if Swallowed," "The Answer," and a new recording of "Overkill" from their first demo.

By this time Thrash Metal Mania was in full swing on both coasts of the U.S. and Overkill had quickly established themselves as a band to watch. Their first EP release suffered from limited pressing and distribution, but soon their old friend Jon Zazula and MegaForce Records would come knocking. To be continued....





Though the POWER IN BLACK tape has never been officially reissued as part of a compilation or album, the songs are widely available on teh internetz if you know where to look. The tape is a typically cheap-sounding, basement quality early '80s demo but is still a great listen.

The tracks from the four song Azra/Metal Storm EP reappeared years later added to the F*CK YOU (AND THEN SOME) reissue as bonuses.

OVERKILL RULES!!! \m/

Cool ! I'm looking forward to this thread !

I will watch this thread, I haven't gotten into Overkill at all. My buddy is all about them, and keeps saying I'd enjoy it, but it's so blase; so generic.

I am looking forward to this thread also

I love how you started this topic with that line from "Blood and Iron", very clever. I'm looking forward to this thread as well, I've been listening to Overkill since I was 14 years old (which isn't saying as much as some of you since I'm only 23 now). Bobby Ellsworth is one of THE best metal vocalists EVER IMO!!!

Since we are apparently starting with the pre-album material, I actually have the 1984 EP included as a bonus on the Wrecking Your Neck Live CD set. I never listen to it, though. My friend was listening to them even before FtF came out, so I listened to his "Power in Black" demo tape with him one time. I don't remember thinking that the material sounded as good on that demo as it did on FtF, though. The version of "Death Rider" that they did on one of the Metal Massacre compilations was excellent. I'm disappointed that they don't have that as an mp3 on Amazon or anything.

Me like

Overkill is one of those bands whose records still sound just as vibrant to me today as they did back in the 80's. This should be fun!

Too bad I no longer have a copy of Feel The Fire, mine got CD-napped at a party a few years ago.

I have a cassette tape of it that I could trade to you. It'll be a little over a month before I'll have access to it (I'm away at school) but do drop me a PM if you're interested and maybe we can work something out.

I haven't owned a cassette player since 1993.

"Ride high, ride tall, Overkill will never fall!
Full Moon, sharp sword, Satan is your lord!
Midnight, dark sky, OVERKILL WILL NEVER DIE!"



OK folks, let's get down to bid'ness. Overkill's ascent to East Coast Thrash Supremacy officially began in 1985 when their debut full length, FEEL THE FIRE, was released on Jon Zazula's mighty MegaForce Records. MegaForce had been on a roll for a couple of years by this time, having already released future classics by Metallica, Anthrax, and Raven, and Overkill quickly established themselves as the next Great White Thrash Hope.

FEEL THE FIRE was produced by Carl Canedy (of The Rods) at Pyramid Sound in Ithaca, New York and is your basic slab of no-frills, snotty, loud, punk-influenced dirty thrash metal. You can practically smell the stench of New York City's worst neighborhoods when you put this one on your turntable.

Lyrically the band were no great shakes yet -- they were writing about typically juvenile topics like Satan, death, violence, etc. -- y'know, all the stuff that made such records instantly awesome to '80s teens -- but the band's musical attack could not be denied. FEEL THE FIRE is a record with TEETH! "Rotten to the Core" and "Overkill" were repeated from the first EP, while "There's No Tomorrow" and "Raise the Dead" from POWER IN BLACK reappeared in newly re-recorded form as well. "Rotten" quickly became one of the band's signature tunes, and "Overkill" began a multi-part epic saga about a character of the same name that would continue over the course of the next couple of records. Bobby Blitz's signature yelp was in fine form, and the musical backbone of Gustafson, Verni, and Skates simply crushed.

Nothing more to say about this one, really. FEEL THE FIRE is a stone cold classic that belongs in any '80s thrash collection and is one of the pillars of the Overkill catalog. The band came blasting out of the gate on this one and would only get better as time went on.

When the album made it to CD in the late 80s/early 90s, a cover of the Dead Boys' "Sonic Reducer" was tacked on as a bonus track and made an already awesome album even better. Most recently it was reissued as part of a two-disc set, paired with the F**K YOU AND THEN SOME collection.

In a nutshell, if you don't already have FEEL THE FIRE in your collection, you need to get it immediately, if not sooner. Go right now and pick up a copy. I'll wait.

OK you convinced me I will add this to my want list.

This is a great debut ! I don't think there's really a weak song on it but the highlights are Hammerhead (probably my fave on here),the title track, and Rotten To The Core. Like already stated,this is a must-have for any thrash fan. You will not be disappointed.

I always liked the logo cause it was Vago green....great debut

My copy on vinyl has a big giant scratch all the way across side two...the chick said she loved me. Then again so did her sister. Thus the scratch.

I also like the fact that they used a green logo, very different for a metal band. Some of FtF's highlights IMO are "Overkill", "Kill at Command" (this one has my favorite of Gustafson's solos), "Second Son", "Feel the Fire", etc. An excellent debut for sure.

Freddy - "Overkill" was on the "Power in Black" demo. I remember listening to it. Anyway, I think all of the songs sounded much better on this album than they did on the EP and the demo.

One of the best Debuts ever.Still doesnt sound dated all these years later.Its in my top 5 fave Overkill albums.

I whiffed on this album a couple of months back (the reissue that is). I wish I would have picked it up. Those songs sound great! I think the biggest thing for me was Blitz's voice. In some of the later albums it tends to wear on me, but not on those songs.

Great album!!!! I was never huge into Overkill, I just recently started collecting their discography. I borrowed their CD's from a friend for this thread and I am slowly picking up their stuff