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Overkill are the first thrash metal band. They were formed in New Jersey when a previous D.D. Verni / Rat Skates (real names: Carlos Verni and Lee Kundrat ) project, a punk band called "The Lubricunts", broke up in 1980. (There's a picture of the Lubricunts demo cover in the "Wrecking Your Neck" liner notes.) D.D. quickly wanted to form a new band, so he put out an ad which was answered by vocalist Bobby Ellsworth . He was also a bass player at the time, but in the new band he would concentrate solely on vocals. He brought with him a guitarist from his old band (a punk/classic rock cover band), whose name is forgotten. After rejecting several names, including "Virgin Killer", this new band finally settled on "Overkill", naming themselves after a Motörhead album.Early covers (especially those done under the Virgin Killer name in the very very early days) were punk songs for the most part, including selections by The Ramones, and The Dead Boys. By 1980, they had recruited two guitarists (names forgotten over time) and the setlist included songs by Motörhead ("Overkill", half of the Ace of Spades album, and others), Judas Priest ("Tyrant" was their closer for a while), and later Iron Maiden and Riot, as well as a smattering of punk covers, which were played with extra distortion, intensity, and concentration on riffs, thus marking Overkill as the first thrash band.
In 1981, Dan Spitz (later of Anthrax) left the band and Rich Conte entered, along with Bobby G. At this point, they started writing originals, including "Grave Robbers" (later renamed to "Raise the Dead"), "Overkill", and "Unleash the Beast Within". This is the first thrash metal original, predating James Hetfield and Hugh Tanner 's "Hit the Lights" by several months.
More originals would follow, including "Death Rider" (1981) and "Rotten to the Core" (1982) - somewhere around this time Rich left and Bobby remained the sole guitarist. The band became a staple at New York and New Jersey clubs around 1982, and D.D. gave Bobby the name "Blitz" due to his over-the-top lifestyle. (It actually earned Bobby an ejection from the band for a few days in 1983!) Around this time, the green logo was adopted - it was specifically chosen to stand out on a poster with lots of red logos of other bands on the bill.
The lineup would stay consistent until 1987See also 1986 in music, other events of 1987, 1988 in music, 1980s in music and the list of 'years in music' Events January 3 Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. January 16 The Beastie Boys become the firs, when "Rat" Skates left the band. It is rumoured that he either became a truck driver, or died in a bizarre gardening accident. In any case, he was replaced by Mark Archibole for a few gigs, and then on a permanent basis Sid Falck , previously of Paul Di'AnnoPaul Di'Anno (Paul Andrews, born May 17, 1958) was the original vocalist in the now legendary heavy metal band Iron Maiden from 1977 to 1981. He was replaced by Bruce Dickinson in late 1981 but continues to tour today. He has released a critically acclaim's BattlezoneBattlezone is an arcade game from Atari released in 1980. It displays a wireframe view (using vector graphics rather than raster graphics) on a horizontal black and white CRT (with green color overlay). Due to its novel gameplay and look, this game was ve. (Bobby Blitz once said that the only former member he misses is co-founder Rat Skates.) Then, in 1990, Bobby G left and was replaced by Rob Cannavino and Merritt Gant (Faith or Fear).
This lineup lasted until 1992, when Tim Mallare came in on drums. Rob and Merritt both left the band in 1995 (Rob became a motorcycle racer, and Merritt formed several other bands), being replaced by Joe Comeau (Liege Lord) and Sebastian Marino . Joe left in 1999 to become the vocalist for AnnihilatorAnnihilator is a heavy metal band which started with the album Alice in Hell and now it has 12 albums including live albums. Annihilator was started by Jeff Waters in 1984. Him and singer John Bates wrote and recorded a song called Annihilaltor which was, and the Coverkill album was recorded with new guitarist Dave Linsk . Sebastian left to spend more time with family, so Linsk played all the guitar parts on 2000's Bloodletting album, and Derek Tailor joined for the subsequent tour, and was also featured on the band's latest album, Killbox 13.
