Thrash steel stalwarts Overkill are losing no time shifting ahead after a serious lineup change. Simply over a 12 months since releasing Scorched, the New Jersey veterans are already writing and demoing materials for its follow-up.
Earlier this week, the band gave followers a glimpse into the method after they shared a put up from Jeramie Kling, their lately recruited drummer, who revealed he is been utilizing a Roland digital package through the writing periods. For Kling, it is a new method to experiment with Overkill‘s fast-paced, riff-driven thrash sound: “Loving my new Roland package,” he wrote, noting that it has been invaluable throughout “writing” and “demoing” periods.
Kling formally grew to become Overkill‘s drummer in August 2024, changing Jason Bittner, who had held the place since 2017. Whereas finest generally known as a founding member of The Absence and for his work with Venom Inc. (showing on their 2022 report There’s Solely Black), Kling‘s résumé is huge. His profession contains stints with FORE, Ribspreader, Goregäng, Necromancing the Stone, and a short tenure in Bloodbath, which in the end led to the formation of Inhuman Situation alongside Terry Butler (Obituary, ex-Loss of life) and Taylor Nordberg (Deicide).
Past his drumming chops, Kling can be an completed recording engineer, producer, and reside sound engineer — talent units that might simply bleed into Overkill‘s subsequent period each within the studio and on stage. Kling‘s reside debut with Overkill got here on August 30, 2024, on the Posada Rock pageant in Câmpulung Muscel, Romania.
Kling steps into a job vacated by Jason Bittner, who recorded on The Wings of Battle in 2019 and Scorched in 2023. Bittner‘s departure was not a shock to these contained in the band. In November 2023, he revealed on the Pod Scum podcast that he hadn’t been proud of Overkill “for, like, two fucking years.”
“I might been dissatisfied for a very long time, however I am a workforce participant. I do not like to go away issues. I like the fellows personally. So I simply type of simply hung in there, however I used to be not joyful the place I used to be career-wise throughout the confines of that band. I wasn’t a bandmember. And that is the principle factor for me to maintain doing this at this level in my lifetime.”
Bittner went on to clarify that he felt underpaid and in the end left for monetary {and professional} causes, including that he might make more cash enjoying 5 exhibits with Shadows Fall than thirty with Overkill. Regardless of that, he emphasised there was “no animosity,” calling it “only a enterprise factor.”
In September 2024, bassist D.D. Verni echoed these sentiments in an interview with Capital Chaos TV: “We type of knew that that was coming. He had informed us some time in the past that he was simply type of burned out on too many issues and had his palms in too many pots. So I feel we type of knew that was coming.”
Overkill‘s choice to push shortly into new music with Kling displays the band’s relentless work ethic. With almost 20 studio albums below their belt and over 4 a long time within the sport, the band continues to evolve whereas sustaining the thrash ferocity that outlined their Nineteen Eighties classics.
Kling‘s presence might sign contemporary power and maybe even some technical experimentation within the drum division. And given his expertise behind the console, he might also affect the manufacturing method to the following report.
For now, followers can solely speculate on how Overkill‘s subsequent launch will sound. However one factor is definite: with a revitalized lineup and new materials within the works, the veterans present no indicators of slowing down.
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