Aaah yes, I still remember hearing Overkill for the first time on a local metal radio show in my hometown. The song was ‘Elimination’ from the 1989 album The Years of Decay. Hopefully we’ll all get to hear that classic and many more in March because Overkill are coming to Australia. Their latest album (number 18) is The Grinding Wheel and the band drew on inspiration from Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden as well as their punk influences on this one. “You’re not going to hear any Green Day or Ramones in us,” says founding member D.D Verni, “but the energy and the attitude of punk mixed with the New York vibe… that’s what Overkill is. You don’t hear any of that in Megadeth; you don’t hear any of that in Slayer. It’s more specific to what we brought to the thrash world.” Witness these thrash legends at 170 Russell on Friday March 2.
The final lineup for Progfest has just been announced. New additions are Osaka Punch, Toehider, Breaking Orbit, Glass Ocean, James Norbert Ivanyi, Branch Arterial, Acolyte, Opus Of A Machine, Majora, Kodiak Empire, Hemina, Enlight, Balloons Kill Babies, Fierce Mild, Mercury Sky, He Danced Ivy, Logic Defies Logic and Genetics. They join headliners Leprous, Ne Obliviscaris, Caligula’s Horse, sleepmakeswaves and Twelve Foot Ninja, plus Perth prog legends Voyager, Melbourne’s Alithia and Orsome Welles, Sydney’s Meniscus and Adelaide’s Dyssidia. It’s going down at The Corner Hotel on Saturday January 27. Tickets on sale now.
Chicago post-instrumental group ZAIUS have just released a full-band live in-studio playthrough video for their track ‘Echelon,’ and will soon be posting more individual instrument playthrough videos. The track is from their debut album, Of Adoration, which was released last month via Prosthetic Records. You can check out the video online and while you’re on YouTube, check out the music video for their track ‘Seirenes’ too.
US supergroup Vessel of Light, featuring Dan Lorenzo of Hades and Nathan Opposition of Ancient Vvisdom), have just released their new self-titled EP. Think Danzig and Corrosion of Conformity meet Alice In Chains. It all came about when Lorenzo wrote an article about Ancient VVisdom for New Jersey’s Steppin’ Out magazine. “I mailed Nathan a magazine and I think an old Hades CD,” Lorenzo says. “We started communicating by email and then on the phone. I had no intentions of asking him to write with me because my musical career is long over. I’m considerably older than him and I honestly wasn’t playing guitar much, but when Nathan asked me if I wanted to write together I couldn’t say no.” Nathan adds, “Lorenzo and I became friends due to my inability to not be susceptible to flattery. Turns out he’s a really cool guy who writes awesome riffs too. Randomly one day I ask him about the band we are starting in joking fashion. I guess it was the right timing and the right person because we immediately agreed we should actually start a project. Before I knew it he was sending me CDs of riffs and I had lyrics flowing like a faucet.”
