Drummer JASON BITTNER Exits OVERKILL

Drummer Jason Bittner has announced his departure from New Jersey thrashers OVERKILL.

The 54-year-old musician, who joined OVERKILL in 2017 and played drums on the band's last two studio albums, 2019's "The Wings Of War" and 2023's "Scorched", said in a statement to Metal Injection: "On August 1, 2024, I played the Vagos Metal Fest in Portugal, and it was the last show I will play in the band OVERKILL.

"For a while now I have been juggling a few different bands along with OVERKILL, and I knew at some point something would have to give since I simply can’t be three places at once. Over the course of this last year, my schedule has reached that breaking point.

"At this time SHADOWS FALL is working towards completion of our new material that will take us back out on the road sometime in 2025, as well as our fall shows we have booked for the rest of this year celebrating 20 years of 'The War Within'. Compounded on top of this is my new band, Metal Blade recording artists CATEGORY 7, whose album just hit the shelves last month and will start touring soon through 2025. All of this adds up to something having to 'take a break', so as of today I no longer play drums in OVERKILL so I can concentrate solely on the bands that I am a full member/owner of.

"Now don't worry — they currently have another great drummer already learning the material, and he will be ready to do battle for the upcoming tours.

"I would like to thank EVERYONE in the OVERKILL extended family for 7 1/2 years of laughs, killer shows, and fun around the globe. All our crew members throughout my run, our agents Dolores Lokas and Mike Monterulo, my tech Animal for always having my back (Shake and Bake),as well as all of our crew past and present, the SKULLKRUSHERS (much love Jurgen),and all the fans who supported my tenure in the band, I love you all, thank you, and will miss you on the European and KING DIAMOND tours… but I'll see you out there with SHADOWS FALL and CATEGORY 7."

OVERKILL has not yet announced a replacement for Bittner.

Back in 2019, shortly after the release of "The Wings Of War", OVERKILL frontman Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth told the "Do You Know Jack?" podcast about Bittner's contribution to the album: "It's priceless to be able to know the guy who's going to be steering the ship from a live perspective before writing. That's just the way it is. It's the drummer's band, and the rest of us are just hanging on and following him, playing with him. I knew three songs in [at Bittner's first show with OVERKILL] in the Ukraine, a year before he had recorded one track for the band, that the band had changed. The question posed to us is, do you embrace that change and become part of it, or do you force it in another direction? I think in this case, we embraced that chance, and again, [the result was] a surgically precise, brutal display in the drum corridor on 'The Wings Of War'... You don't want a drunk doctor working on your heart — you want somebody who knows what he's doing, making precise cuts. The idea with him is that he's schooled. He's probably the most trained musician we've ever had in the band — outwardly trained, with regard to a degree in what he does. I think he brings a different flavor to the band. Us not being trained outwardly but being self-taught musicians, he brings in that other element, and we feel it. This could be the most brutal drum record we've ever had. That being said, he created so much space with that precision that it gave guys like Dave Linsk or myself the opportunity to instill melody, so you have brutality and you have melody creating kind of a third entity. These are part of the differences that we saw as a band with regard to writing, recording and performing these songs for 'The Wings Of War'."

Photo credit: Frank White