Overkill (band)

Overkill is an American thrash metal band, formed in 1980 in New Jersey. They have gone through many lineup changes, leaving bassist D.D. Verni and lead vocalist Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth as the only remaining original members. The band's current lineup includes Verni, Ellsworth, Dave Linsk on lead guitar, Derek "The Skull" Tailer on rhythm guitar, and Jeramie Kling on drums. Notable former members include guitarists Dan Spitz, Bobby Gustafson, Merritt Gant and Joe Comeau, and drummers Rat Skates and Jason Bittner. Along with Nuclear Assault and Anthrax, the latter of which featured Spitz as a guitarist, Overkill is one of the most successful East Coast thrash metal bands, and have been called "the Motörhead of thrash metal", due to their unique playing style, which is influenced by punk and the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM). The band has a mascot named Chaly (a skeletal bat with a skull-like face, horns, bony wings and green eyes) that has appeared on many of their album covers. Overkill has released twenty studio albums, an album of cover songs, two extended plays (EPs), one demo tape, and three live albums. They were one of the first thrash metal bands to be signed to a major label (having signed to Atlantic Records in 1986), and rose to popularity as part of the genre's movement of the mid-to-late 1980s, along with the "Big Four" (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax) and other bands such as Exodus and Testament. Overkill achieved its first mainstream success with their second studio album and Atlantic debut, Taking Over (1987), which peaked at number 191 on the Billboard 200. The band's next five studio albums – Under the Influence (1988), The Years of Decay (1989), Horrorscope (1991), I Hear Black (1993) and W.F.O. (1994) – were also successful on the...