On April 14th, 2023, Overkill are set to release their 20th album packed with power and aggression called Scorched via Nuclear Blast. I’ve had the pleasure of listening to this album the past few weeks and I feel it is their best ever. Sonically, Scorched is a firestorm of metal music. Overkill have loaded this album with a massive amount of aggression all of which is superbly rendered in the final production.
Overkill’s vocalist Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth kindly took a few minutes while enjoying some coffee in New Jersey to talk with us about the new album. We talked about some of the unique tracks on the album and then got into a bit of Bobby’s history with music.
I started our conversation by asking Bobby which track on Scorched is his favorite and why. Bobby responded “Well, you know, it’s, it’s hard to pick a favorite and I’m not trying to just cop out in a question. Because we’re relearning the tunes for the road. It pops from one to the next, to the next. And, I think that there’s such a difference with regard to personality in each song. You got something slow and brooding, like, “Fever”, and then you have something that is just blast beat friendly like “Twist of the Wick”.
Or blues-friendly like “Wicked” (Place). It’s all over the map. So it’s kind of like choosing between your children. Which is the outspoken one and which is the smartest. I love all my kids. You know. I think the point is that I can’t really choose. I mean, it’ll come in time, right? But right now, that excitement of relearning the tunes; having the release, having a tour right on the horizon. This is the excitement around this. So, it all just kind of feels like it’s right, you know, at this point.”
One of my favorite tracks on the album is called “Twist of the Wick” and I was curious about the lyrics. Bobby filled me in “Well, I’ve been riding motorcycles for a very long time. I rode with a group here in Jersey and New York. It was a whole bunch of guys and it was just an expression that was always used. They use it in racing with regard to bikes. They use it with, let’s get the f*ck outta here. That’s twisting.. So there’s no huge depth to it. It was just something that was a definition of something that was, Hey, let’s move that. You know, let’s start that engine, move those wheels. And the only way to do that is to twist the wick.”
The most unusual tune on Scorched is called “Fever”. The beginning of the song channels Ozzy and Black Sabbath. I asked Bobby about those clean vocals which he relayed “So I was having the hardest f*cking time with this, you know, with that part of the song. D.D. was obviously playing Mr. Scary on his end, you know, it’s like “Ooh, look at Mr. Creepy over here.” And his emotions. And I was trying to match that with doing like whisper tracks on it and trying to get right up in somebody’s ear, kind of singing. And it was just f*cking ruining the whole f*cking vibe of what he had created. And I was out here in my kitchen and I told the story in other interviews.
I was out here and I was streaming some sh*t and I was cooking and singing. I mean, it was a pandemic. I was by myself and it was Ozzy I was streaming. I was making linguine with clams singing “Over The Mountain” right? And here I’m going, D*ck, that’s the f*cking answer to that song.
Every time this guy (Ozzy) opens his mouth, it’s perfect. You know it’s him. It’s always on. It’s always a great choice of the vocal line. I mean, why is the person iconic? Because they tick all the boxes, you know? And I said that’s what I gotta do. I said I’m not gonna steal it from him, but for sure I’m gonna use his approach. I’m just gonna open my mouth and I’m gonna make it happen. And that’s how “Fever” came about. I attribute it to the fact that maybe I have a classic rock or a classic metal background, and would go somewhere like that and even subliminally it snuck in and said, here’s your answer, you know?”
In terms of a world tour, Overkill is set to hit Europe with Exhorder and Heathen starting on April 23 in Germany. They are planning to tour the United States in June and July. Bobby added “It’s gonna be great to be summer touring again, because that’s just like, I mean, that’s just like a total vacation. Nobody has to sit on the bus all day. It’s a bunch of f*cking old guys hanging around a barbecue next to the bus somewhere around five o’clock, no shirts, drinking.”
Check out the full interview and be sure to pre-order your copy of Scorched coming out April 14th via Nuclear Blast. Stay tuned to their site and social media for tour dates near you.
