OVERKILL Has 10 Songs Written For Next Album; April 2021 Release Targeted

OVERKILL frontman Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth has confirmed to A&P Reacts that the band is working on material for a new studio album. Speaking about the musical direction of the new OVERKILL songs, Blitz said (see video below): "I see it as a natural progression from 'The Grinding Wheel' [2017] and 'The Wings Of War' [2019]. It 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. 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."

According to Blitz, "there's 10 songs right now" in various stages of completion. "I'm messing around with them, Dave Linsk [guitar] is messing around with them," he said. "Listen, there's no better time to have the old norm for us during a time when the new normal is obviously right around the corner for all of us in the world. So I think that we're gonna have more time to write it, and I think this also gives us the opportunity to scrutinize it a little bit more, which we didn't do on the last record, and I'm happy to have that extra time."

As for a possible release date for the next OVERKILL album, Blitz said: "April 2021 is what we're targeting. We're looking to start mixing it mid-December, so it should be done somewhere around the holidays or delivered in the first week of January type of thing. We've also gone so far as to tentatively search out [tour] dates on the release — 2021 in the U.S., or in North America for that matter. And then Europe would be October of 2021. But we have the whole festival season that's been canceled from this summer, is gonna be shifted to summer of 2021, so we're gonna slide over into that Wacken and the Wacken cruise and a bunch of other things that we have on the plate."

Ellsworth is currently promoting "American Made", the debut album from the BPMD project, also featuring drummer Mike Portnoy (THE WINERY DOGS, SONS OF APOLLO),bassist Mark Menghi (METAL ALLEGIANCE) and guitarist Phil Demmel (VIO-LENCE, ex-MACHINE HEAD). Due on June 12 via Napalm Records, the LP is described in a press release as a "10-track homage to some of rock music's greatest treasures."

OVERKILL has spent the last year touring in support of its 19th studio album, "The Wings Of War", which was released in February 2019 via Nuclear Blast. The disc was recorded at Gear Recording Studio in New Jersey, SKH Studio in Florida and Jrod Productions with engineering handled by bassist D.D. 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.