Overkill

Explore the band's historical lineups, musicians, and studio albums.

Active15 formations20 studio albums

Formation chronology

Newest first

Formation 15 of 15

Aug 23, 2024 – Present

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Dave Linsk
    guitar
  • Derek Tailer
    guitar
  • Jeramie Kling
    drums

Formation facts

  • Overkill announced Jeramie Kling, formerly of Venom Inc., as drummer on August 23, 2024. His first performance with the band followed on August 30 at Posada Rock in Romania.
  • D.D. Verni's ongoing shoulder trouble has led to temporary live bass coverage — including David Ellefson on the April 2024 Latin American dates and Christian “Speesy” Giesler for selected European shows — without changing who is in the band.
  • Overkill has continued working on a follow-up to Scorched. In March 2026, Bobby Blitz said the music was largely finished and that the band planned to continue recording after its spring touring commitments.

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Formation 14 of 15

May 4, 2017 – Aug 1, 2024

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Dave Linsk
    guitar
  • Derek Tailer
    guitar
  • Jason Bittner
    drums

Formation facts

  • Years before joining Overkill, Jason Bittner was the young fan Blitz kept noticing at Albany shows with drumsticks sticking out of his back pocket. Blitz nicknamed him “Sticks” and joked that he seemed to be waiting for Tim Mallare to drop so he could take the drum seat. Bittner's answer, as Blitz remembers it, was that he was ready.
  • On May 4, 2017 Overkill announced Jason Bittner — already known from Shadows Fall and Flotsam and Jetsam — as the band's permanent drummer.
  • Overkill normally worked on a much shorter album cycle, but much of Scorched had already been demoed before COVID stopped touring. Blitz later said he repeatedly wrote and tore down lyrics because the isolation was pulling the record into darker territory than felt right for the band. The extra time ultimately allowed the material to develop in ways their usual schedule did not.
  • While struggling with the more melodic vocal approach on “Fever” from Scorched, Blitz felt he was overthinking the song. He later recalled being in the kitchen making linguine and clam sauce while singing Ozzy Osbourne's “Over the Mountain.” That reminded him that sometimes the answer was simply to sing naturally. He went back to the microphone and found the approach that worked.
  • Bittner's last Overkill show was August 1, 2024 at Vagos Metal Fest in Portugal, ending a seven-year studio and touring run.

Studio albums

  • Scorched (Apr 2023)
  • The Wings of War (Feb 2019)

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Formation 13 of 15

May 2005 – May 3, 2017

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Dave Linsk
    guitar
  • Derek Tailer
    guitar
  • Ron Lipnicki
    drums

Formation facts

  • Mallare left in May 2005 after a long tenure, and Ron Lipnicki became Overkill's permanent drummer as the band entered its later-career revival.
  • According to Blitz, Ron Lipnicki attacked his first major Overkill touring opportunities with enormous enthusiasm. During Gigantour, Blitz says Dave Mustaine confronted him in a breakfast line and jokingly told him to put the new drummer “on a leash” or Overkill was going home.
  • Immortalis reunited Overkill with Jonny and Marsha Zazula, the founders of Megaforce Records who had helped launch the band in the 1980s. By 2007, the Zazulas were part of the U.S. team at Bodog Music, the label that released Immortalis. Randy Blythe of Lamb of God also guest-sang on “Skull and Bones.”
  • Blitz has recalled that while writing “The Goal Is Your Soul” for Ironbound, the vocal and lyric idea arrived so naturally that he finished the song in seven minutes.
  • Overkill did not record The Electric Age in one uninterrupted studio block. Blitz described an approximately eight-month cycle of recording part of the album, going back on the road, returning to record more, then touring again. He believed repeatedly coming straight back from live shows helped put stage energy into the record.
  • Immortalis, Ironbound, The Electric Age, and White Devil Armory rebuilt Overkill's reputation album by album, with Lipnicki, Linsk, and Tailer locking in a stable five-piece around Blitz and Verni.
  • The Grinding Wheel (2017) still belongs to the Lipnicki studio lineup. Eddy Garcia covered live dates around that period and is thanked in later announcements, but he was a temporary substitute — not the album's recording drummer.

Studio albums

  • The Grinding Wheel (Feb 2017)
  • White Devil Armory (Jul 2014)
  • The Electric Age (Mar 2012)
  • Ironbound (Feb 2010)
  • Immortalis (Oct 2007)

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Formation 12 of 15

2001 – Apr 2005

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Tim Mallare
    drums
  • Dave Linsk
    guitar
  • Derek Tailer
    guitar

Formation facts

  • Derek Tailer joined in 2001 and established the long-running twin-guitar partnership with Dave Linsk that still defines Overkill's later years.
  • During a show in Nuremberg in June 2002, Blitz collapsed onstage and was hospitalized with what the band described as a minor stroke. He spent two days undergoing tests and later joked that falling down the stairs beside the stage did more damage than the stroke itself.
  • Killbox 13 (2003) and ReliXIV (2005) are the two studio albums from the Linsk/Tailer/Mallare years, the last Overkill records with Tim Mallare on drums.

Studio albums

  • ReliXIV (Mar 2005)
  • Killbox 13 (Mar 2003)

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Formation 11 of 15

2000

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Tim Mallare
    drums
  • Dave Linsk
    guitar

Formation facts

  • Joe Comeau departed in 2000, and Bloodletting was recorded as a four-piece — Blitz, Verni, Linsk, and Mallare — without forcing a touring second guitarist onto the studio credits.

Studio albums

  • Bloodletting (Oct 2000)

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Formation 10 of 15

Mar 1999 – 1999

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Tim Mallare
    drums
  • Dave Linsk
    guitar
  • Joe Comeau
    guitar

Formation facts

  • Dave Linsk replaced Sebastian Marino in 1999, joining Comeau, Mallare, Blitz, and Verni while Overkill prepared the next original studio album.
  • Coverkill gathered Overkill cover recordings from more than one era rather than documenting a single studio lineup — a compilation of borrowed songs, not a twentieth original studio album.

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Formation 9 of 15

1995 – Feb 1999

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Tim Mallare
    drums
  • Sebastian Marino
    guitar
  • Joe Comeau
    guitar

Formation facts

  • When thrash fell out of favor in the 1990s, Blitz and Verni increasingly handled Overkill's business themselves. After CMC Records expressed interest, Blitz drove roughly 15 hours to North Carolina to deliver a demo personally. He later recalled that the label's head came to New York soon afterward to sign the band, impressed by their determination.
  • Sebastian Marino and Joe Comeau rebuilt the guitar team for The Killing Kind (1996), Overkill's first studio album after Cannavino and Gant.
  • During Overkill's difficult 1990s period, Blitz concluded that if he and Verni were effectively running the band, he needed a clear head. He later connected “Long Time Dyin'” from From the Underground and Below with that period of sobriety and turning his writing inward toward his own survival.
  • From the Underground and Below (1997) kept Marino, Comeau, and Mallare in place as Overkill doubled down on a darker mid-1990s identity away from the major-label glare.
  • After being diagnosed with cancer of the nose in 1998, Blitz underwent surgery and returned to perform while his face was still swollen, bruised and partly bandaged. He later remembered joking that somebody should photograph him for a live record titled You Should See the Other Guy.
  • Necroshine (1999) closed the Marino/Comeau studio run — the last original Overkill studio album before Dave Linsk arrived and the covers compilation Coverkill was assembled.

Studio albums

  • Necroshine (Feb 1999)
  • From the Underground and Below (Sep 1997)
  • The Killing Kind (Mar 1996)

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Formation 8 of 15

1992 – 1994

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Rob Cannavino
    guitar
  • Merritt Gant
    guitar
  • Tim Mallare
    drums

Formation facts

  • Blitz has said he and D.D. Verni wrote nearly all of Horrorscope, while Cannavino and Gant wanted a much larger role on I Hear Black. Learning to write together changed the chemistry. Blitz later described the recording period as tense and felt the album could have used more time to develop.
  • W.F.O. (1994) snapped the band back toward speed with new drummer Tim Mallare, closing the Cannavino/Gant studio chapter on a more feral note than I Hear Black.

Studio albums

  • W.F.O. (Jul 1994)
  • I Hear Black (Mar 1993)

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Formation 7 of 15

1991

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Sid Falck
    drums
  • Rob Cannavino
    guitar
  • Merritt Gant
    guitar

Formation facts

  • After Gustafson's departure, Blitz said Overkill intentionally chose two guitarists rather than another single replacement, because one new guitarist would be compared endlessly with Gustafson. Rob Cannavino and Merritt Gant allowed the band to change its sound instead of trying to reproduce the previous lineup.
  • Horrorscope (1991) was still driven by Blitz and Verni's writing, with the new guitar pairing learning the catalog while Falck completed his last Overkill studio album.
  • Blitz has singled out “Nice Day... for a Funeral” from Horrorscope as an important moment because its lyrics confronted youth suicide from the perspective of neglect. He later said it was one of the first times he felt he had something genuinely important to say.

Studio albums

  • Horrorscope (Sep 1991)

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Formation 6 of 15

1990

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Sid Falck
    drums
  • Rob Cannavino
    guitar

Formation facts

  • After Gustafson left, Overkill did not simply hire one replacement guitarist: Rob Cannavino first held a four-piece chair while the band decided a twin-guitar future made more sense than recreating the old shape.

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Formation 5 of 15

Jan 1988 – 1989

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Bobby Gustafson
    guitar
  • Sid Falck
    drums

Formation facts

  • Rat Skates left in the fall of 1987 during the Megadeth-support touring cycle, closing the drum chair of the classic four-piece just as Atlantic-era Overkill was taking shape.
  • Sid Falck joined in the first week of January 1988 after a late-1987 audition, then had only weeks to lock in before Under the Influence was tracked that spring.
  • The Years of Decay (1989) is the second and last studio album from the Blitz/Verni/Gustafson/Falck four-piece, stretching Overkill's writing while keeping Gustafson's guitar at the center.
  • The end of the Gustafson years remains contested. Gustafson has said the final confrontation involved a proposed local show after Overkill had sold out Studio 54 and his belief that the band was making decisions he disagreed with. Blitz has acknowledged that the split was not amicable and that different accounts exist.

Studio albums

  • The Years of Decay (Oct 1989)
  • Under the Influence (Jul 1988)

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Formation 4 of 15

Dec 1982 – Dec 1987

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Rat Skates
    drums
  • Bobby Gustafson
    guitar

Formation facts

  • Before Overkill became a fixture at Brooklyn's L'Amour, the band promoted itself relentlessly, wearing out shoes putting flyers under windshield wipers and repeatedly delivering promo packages to the club. Blitz remembers one owner finally telling him that roughly 40 Overkill packages were sitting on his desk and that the band was no good. About a year later, Overkill was L'Amour's house band.
  • Gustafson has recalled joining Overkill at about 17 while the band was still playing large amounts of cover material. He quickly became frustrated practicing other people's songs and pushed the group toward writing originals.
  • Bobby Gustafson's arrival locked in the classic four-piece of Blitz, Verni, Skates, and Gustafson — the lineup that turned underground tapes into a record deal.
  • The 1983 Power in Black demo spread through tape-trading networks and became the calling card that put Overkill in front of Megaforce Records.
  • While Overkill was making Feel the Fire, Blitz was also taking literature classes in Manhattan. He later laughed about borrowing ideas from Shakespeare and King Lear for the lyrics to “Overkill.”
  • Megaforce signed the band in 1985, and Feel the Fire arrived that October as Overkill's first studio album, documenting the four-piece at full underground velocity.
  • Blitz later called the 1987 Fuck You EP Overkill's only real political statement. It landed during the PMRC censorship fight, with its raised-middle-finger cover provocative enough that many stores hid it in black wrapping or craft paper.
  • Taking Over (1987) pushed Overkill onto the Billboard 200 and produced the “In Union We Stand” video, the first time many MTV viewers saw the Megaforce four-piece.
  • During Overkill and Megadeth's 1987 U.S. tour behind Taking Over and Peace Sells, Dave Mustaine asked Bobby Gustafson to join Megadeth. Gustafson declined. He later said Taking Over had just come out, he believed strongly in Overkill, and Megadeth looked chaotic enough that he preferred staying somewhere he felt he had more control. By the end of the same tour, Rat Skates had unexpectedly left Overkill.

Studio albums

  • Taking Over (Mar 1987)
  • Feel the Fire (Oct 1985)

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Formation 3 of 15

1982 – Nov 1982

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Rat Skates
    drums
  • Rich Conte
    guitar
  • Mike Sherry
    guitar

Formation facts

  • Rich Conte and Mike Sherry held the twin-guitar chairs through late 1982, a poorly documented stretch that still sits between the Spitz experiment and the classic four-piece that followed.

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Formation 2 of 15

1981

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Rat Skates
    drums
  • Dan Spitz
    guitar
  • Anthony Ammendola
    guitar

Formation facts

  • In 1981 the band briefly ran as a quintet with Dan Spitz and Anthony Ammendola on guitars — Spitz's Overkill stint predates the Anthrax career that later made him a household name in thrash.

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Formation 1 of 15

1980

Members

  • Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth
    vocals
  • D.D. Verni
    bass
  • Rat Skates
    drums
  • Robert "Riff Thunder" Pisarek
    guitar

Formation facts

  • Overkill grew out of a New Jersey punk band called D.O.A., with D.D. Verni and Rat Skates carrying that club-circuit energy into a heavier sound as the 1980s opened.
  • Early Overkill grew from two different musical worlds. Blitz has described the band's formative mix as New York-area punk such as the Dead Boys, Ramones and Misfits colliding with Judas Priest and other British heavy metal. That collision helped produce Overkill's version of thrash before the genre had a fixed template.
  • Blitz went to jam with the musicians expecting to play bass. They already had a bassist, so they asked whether he could sing. He said yes, later crediting a childhood of hearing his mother sing constantly with making him unafraid to stand behind a microphone.
  • The name Overkill was taken from Motörhead's song “Overkill,” after a brief Virgin Killer experiment proved too close to a Scorpions album title.
  • Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth, Verni, Skates, and guitarist Robert “Riff Thunder” Pisarek formed the first Overkill identity before the later two-guitar experiments of 1981.

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Historical memberships, formation facts, and studio-album associations follow the published Headbangear archive. Studio albums are linked to formations via curated association — not inferred from release dates alone.