OVERKILL Announces July 2023 U.S. Tour With EXHORDER And HEATHEN

New Jersey thrash metal veterans OVERKILL will embark on the "Scorching The Earth" U.S. tour with EXHORDER and HEATHEN this summer. The 16-date trek will kick off on July 13 in San Francisco and make stops in Dallas, Ft. Lauderdale and Silver Springs, among other cities, before ending in Huntington, New York on July 30.

OVERKILL singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth states: "Hey 'killers', the time has come to hit the road in the US of A! July the 13th starts the salvo in San Fran and we will be rolling down the West Coast to L.A., across Rt10 east to Florida then up the East Coast and back home. Been a long time, kids! Keep your eyes open, and get Scorched! Cya on the R.O.A.D.!"

EXHORDER's Kyle Thomas comments: "Rolling with OVERKILL is always nothing short of a family affair, but add HEATHEN and us to the mix too and it's like a family vacation! We can't wait to tear up the States with our family!"

HEATHEN comments: "We are absolutely stoked to continue this killer tour package with our friends in OVERKILL and EXHORDER and look forward to bringing it to the United States! We'll see you in the pit!"

Tickets for the tour go on sale this Friday, June 9 at 10 a.m. local time.

Confirmed dates for OVERKILL's "Scorching The Earth" tour with EXHORDER and HEATHEN are:

July 13 - San Francisco, CA - Great American Hall
July 14 - Anaheim, CA - The Grove
July 15 - Las Vegas, NV - 24 Oxford (Virgin Hotel)
July 16 - Albuquerque, NM - Sunshine Theater
July 18 - Dallas, TX - Trees
July 19 - San Antonio, TX - The Rock Box
July 20 - Houston, TX - Scout Bar
July 21 - Destin, FL - Club LA
July 22 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Culture Room
July 23 - Orlando, FL - House Of Blues
July 24 - Atlanta, GA - Masquerade
July 26 - Silver Springs, MD - The Fillmore
July 27 - Stroudsburg, PA - Sherman Theater
July 28 - Poughkeepsie, NY - The Chance
July 29 - Boston, MA - House Of Blues
July 30 - Huntington, NY - The Paramount

In a recent interview with Jorge Botas of Portugal's Metal Global, Ellsworth spoke about the realities of post-pandemic touring, including increased travel expenses — gas, tour buses, hotels and flight costs. He said: "Things have changed, obviously. From a personal perspective, you have to be ready for anything. But on a daily perspective of getting ready for the tour, I try to push that as much out of my head as I can, that it's been handled prior. We know that we're taking a risk when it comes to this. The logistics are different financially. It could be a tough situation, just based on regular costs, just the fact that transportation is that much more expensive at this point. And people don't wanna go into their pocket and pay for your transportation; they wanna pay for the concert ticket. So I get it. But I'm not gonna let those logistics be something that have us overthink something as simple as fucking touring."

He continued: "It's becoming complicated behind the scenes; it's not complicated on the stage. The stage is what the stage is. So I think if I use that as my motivation, all the other stuff just — I'm not gonna say 'falls into place', but for sure you figure out ways to work it out. You put good people around you. I have a great tour manager, I have a great booking agent, and she is all over this insurance and taxes and increased costs and making everything happen. 'Cause we still wanna present ourselves as OVERKILL. This is something that for years we've not just shown up with an amplifier and everybody with one guitar. We've shown up with drum risers and huge backdrops and big backlines and light shows. And this is still important to us. So we wanna present ourselves at the highest level. And the only way to do that is to go for it but also surround yourself with good people."

Asked if he thinks three-month tours are a thing of the past and bands like OVERKILL will concentrate on shorter runs covering smaller geographical regions, Blitz said: "We've been doing that for a long time anyway, because it is more cost effective. We've been doing three-week-to-month blocks now for at least a decade. And it works for us that way. Because, to some degree, there's less risk if it falls apart. If it falls apart on a three-month tour, there's expenses that go all the way through that three-month period. But if you're doing three weeks to a month, if you're doing it in a consolidated area, you can maximize, for instance, your revenue, but you can minimize your loss if something happens that's unforeseen, something that you don't know. It's easier to survive 10 shows when somebody gets sick at the tenth show and there's only 10 more than surviving 40 shows after that, where tickets have to be given back and buses have been paid for down the road and you sign contracts for three-month periods."

OVERKILL's twentieth studio album, "Scorched", was released on April 14 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Photo by Frank White