OVERKILL Frontman Comments On Current Tour, New Record Label

Legendary New Jersey thrashers OVERKILL are currently on tour in support of their new release, "Immortalis". The trek began on October 3 in Elmira, NY at The The Amp and will conclude with a special appearance at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York City on Sunday, October 21.

"Immortalis", has sold 2,800 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Released on October 9 via Bodog Music, the CD marks OVERKILL's reunion with Jonny and Marsha Zazula, previous owners of Megaforce Records, the label responsible for putting metal on the map and bringing OVERKILL's New Jersey thrash metal to the world. The Zazulas are now a part of the Bodog Music team in the United States.

Singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth comments, "We are looking forward to playing B.B. King's. Playing B.B. King's is like playing in our own backyard; it is always nice to go home.

"The U.S. tour ends tomorrow. We break for three weeks then begin our tour in Germany with MOTÖRHEAD in November.

"We will be performing three songs off our new album, 'Immortalis', 'Devils In The Mist', 'Skull and Bones', and 'Walk Through Fire' at the B.B. King's show.

"D.D. [Verni, bass] has written some of his best stuff on 'Immortalis'.

"We will be home for Christmas, and will head back over to Germany in February. We hope to put together a double tour package for the European tour. Obviously, OVERKILL does very well in Europe and it is a huge market for us.

In regards to the new label, Blitz said, "we had done the Gigantour and we were in the process of negotiating with a few different companies. We had waited to sign. We were going to wait to sign until the Gigantour was done. Obviously, this business move was something to up our value, we had large exposure. Some of the shows were arena-size and with decent crowds in them and a lot of sheds. So we waited until the end of Gigantour. Actually, we did the Gigantour without a record label, came back and we were about to ink a label that was in Germany but has worldwide distribution and Jonny Z called me maybe two days before and said, 'Hey, I saw the tour when it went through here. I am interested; this is what I am doing.' All negotiations stopped with everybody else and we just kind of focused on this.

"It is kind of cool to be able to start with somebody who has turned themselves into a legend or icon like Jon and Marsha did. But to be able to do it twice is a pretty unique situation to be in. D.D. and I weighed out all the pluses and minuses, and said this could be an old-school band meets old-school record company philosophy and it could be just what the doctor ordered for us. It is not the formalized way of doing things, it might be back to doing videos, back to doing promotional tours, and it might be back to getting tour support to be on larger tours again. So far that has all worked out.

"We are in the process, in getting our video together, which will be for Fuse and MTV.

"Some good things have happened. The things that we hoped would happen are happening."

"Immortalis" is the follow-up to 2005's "RelixIV", which has sold 15,500 copies in the U.S. to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

OVERKILL's top-selling album of the SoundScan era (1991-) is "Horrorscope", which has shifted 118,000 units in the U.S. since its 1991 release (there is no SoundScan data available for LPs sold prior to 1991).

"Immortalis" was released in Germany as a limited-edition digipack featuring a bonus DVD containing footage from the band's August 2, 2007 performance at the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany.

Footage of the band performing "Rotten to the Core" at Wacken Open Air can be viewed below.