Fan-filmed video of OVERKILL‘s complete June 4 efficiency on the Mystic Competition 2026 in Gdańsk, Poland will be seen under (recorded by MrTime2Travel on YouTube).
As was the case with this previous spring’s “Thrash Of The Titans” U.S. tour with TESTAMENT and DESTRUCTION, OVERKILL is presently performing as a four-piece, with Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth on vocals, Christian Olde Wolbers (ex-FEAR FACTORY) on bass, Jeramie Kling on drums and Dave Linsk on guitar. Longtime OVERKILL guitarist Derek Tailer is sitting out the present tour for causes that haven’t been disclosed.
This previous April, OVERKILL bassist D.D. Verni was requested by Drew Stone of The New York Hardcore Chronicles Reside! why he is not touring with the band proper now. He responded: “Ah, properly, there’s a couple of totally different causes for that, however I might say in all probability the principle one at this level is that I simply must sort of relaxation this arm some… I had one other surgical procedure accomplished a short while in the past, and simply at this level, for one thing like this, I am, like, ‘All proper, perhaps it is best I simply sit this one out.’ So our pal Christian is filling in. And it is simply rolling on.”
Elaborating on the bodily points that are stopping him from performing reside with OVERKILL for the time being, Verni stated: “I had the surgical procedure as soon as, I did all of the P.T. [physical therapy]. They advised me I used to be good. I went out on the highway, and I utterly ripped it off once more. And I got here again and I needed to do it once more. [I had] rotator cuff and a bicep tear — on each shoulders. It is simply old-guy shit. However now if I blow it off once more, if it tears off once more, it is shoulder substitute, and I am actually making an attempt to keep away from that. However you realize what’s fucked up, although? It is solely enjoying bass. I am unable to play sitting down anymore in any respect. I can play standing up, but when I sit with my arm sort of locked like that, I am unable to play it. I am unable to even get via a single music. However I can on a guitar. I do not know. It is one thing about the way in which I maintain the decide and the quantity [of weight and pressure] I am placing on a particular spot. However that is the way in which it goes proper now. I gotta get sturdy and get it again to put so I haven’t got to fucking fear about that shit anymore.”
Verni went on to substantiate that he’s nonetheless a full-fledged member of OVERKILL. “Oh, yeah,” he stated. “I am writing proper now. I’ve many of the new OVERKILL report accomplished, demoed up, for probably the most half able to go. I simply did a few new issues yesterday. I believed it was able to go. Then I had a pair different issues that I needed so as to add. So, for probably the most half it is all accomplished. I gave it to Blitz, I assume, some time in the past, and he is been noodling round with it. So over the subsequent — I do not know — six months or so, in all probability we’ll bounce within the studio someplace alongside the way in which. And I might suppose we’re in all probability a launch early subsequent yr, February, March, one thing like that. We obtained a few calls about some excursions and a few issues then. So we’ll see.”
Throughout a March 11 look on SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”, Ellsworth spoke concerning the progress of the songwriting classes for OVERKILL‘s follow-up to the group’s newest album, “Scorched”, which got here out in April 2023 by way of Nuclear Blast. He stated: “I believe we’re all the time engaged on new music. That is been the motif since all the way in which again within the [early OVERKILL] days. You are all the time sort of in a writing mode. You are conserving your eyes open, you are in a writing mode, or at the very least my finish of it. However we glance to report it perhaps on the finish of [our U.S.] tour [with TESTAMENT and DESTRUCTION]. It is just about accomplished musically. I’ve so as to add a couple of melody traces and some harmonies and melodies and some lyrics right here and there. However we’re a ’27 tour [and] perhaps a late ’26 launch.”
Olde Wolbers beforehand stuffed in for Verni within the fall of 2024 when OVERKILL supported KING DIAMOND on a North American tour.
For a few of its European exhibits in September 2024, OVERKILL recruited ex-KREATOR bassist Christian “Speesy” Giesler as a brief substitute for Verni.
Verni additionally sat out OVERKILL‘s April 2024 Latin American tour whereas he was recovering from shoulder surgical procedure. Filling in for him on the trek was former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson.
Final October, Ellsworth advised the Metallic Mayhem ROC podcast that he and his OVERKILL bandmates had “demoed out” the fabric for the group’s upcoming album. “Jeramie Kling‘s enjoying drums for us now,” he stated. “[Former OVERKILL drummer] Jason Bittner moved on to different issues… So we’re simply transferring alongside as if there isn’t a problem with D.D..”
In September 2025, Verni, who’s the principle songwriter in OVERKILL, advised Jeff Gaudiosi of MisplacedStraws.com about OVERKILL‘s upcoming LP: ”We’re demoing stuff proper now. We in all probability have perhaps 9 or 10 songs sort of scratched out that I gave to Blitz a short while in the past. Normally the method is I will demo the whole lot up musically [and] then I will give it to Blitz. He’ll spend a while with it and sort of do his factor with them. Then we get all people collectively, sort of that. So I gave it to Blitz perhaps not too way back.”
In August 2024, OVERKILL confirmed Kling because the group’s new drummer. Kling joined the veteran New Jersey thrash metallic outfit because the substitute for Bittner, who introduced his exit from OVERKILL earlier that month.
A founding member of THE ABSENCE, Kling appeared on VENOM INC.‘s second album, 2022’s “There’s Solely Black”, and has performed with such acts as FORE, RIBSPREADER, GOREGÄNG and NECROMANCING THE STONE. He was additionally briefly affiliated with the reunited Florida dying metallic band MASSACRE, which led to the formation of INHUMAN CONDITION, alongside Terry Butler (OBITUARY, ex-DEATH) and Taylor Nordberg (DEICIDE). Along with being a drummer, Kling is a recording engineer, producer and reside sound engineer.
Bittner joined OVERKILL in 2017 and performed drums on the band’s final two studio albums, 2019’s “The Wings Of Battle” and the aforementioned “Scorched”.
OVERKILL performed its first live performance with Kling on August 30, 2024 on the Posada Rock competition in Câmpulung Muscel, Romania.
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