Original OVERKILL bassist D.D. Verni, who was forced to miss the band’s Latin American tour while he was recovering from shoulder surgery, returned to the live stage this past Friday (May 17) at the Milwaukee Metal Fest at The Rave/Eagles Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen below (courtesy of WORT Mosh Pit Radio).
For the Latin American tour, OVERKILL recruited former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson as Verni‘s temporary replacement.
In a recent interview with The Metal Podcast, Ellefson was full of praise for Verni, saying: “D.D.‘s amazing, man. Look, I may be David Ellefson, but I ain’t no D.D. Verni, man. I mean, that guy, he’s a masterful songwriter. His arrangements are killer and his parts are very clever and cool. And so, yeah, it’s got my thrash chops up and it’s an honor to just step in and help them out.”
Ellefson made his live debut with OVERKILL on April 11 at C3 Stage in Guadalajara, Mexico.
OVERKILL‘s 10-date “Scorching Latin America 2024” tour wrapped on April 28 in São Paulo, Brazil.
The band is continuing to tour in support of its twentieth studio album, “Scorched”, which was released in April 2023 via Nuclear Blast Records.
“Scorched” offered a new recording environment for OVERKILL as all members were able to record on their own. The mixing of the record was handled by Colin Richardson and his assistant engineer Chris Clancy. Johnny Rodd helped with producing vocals, and finally, Maor Appelbaum took over mastering and adding finishing touches. The band returned to artist Travis Smith to create the album cover art.
Richardson previously worked with OVERKILL on 1997’s “From The Underground And Below”, 2000’s “Bloodletting” and 2003’s “Killbox 13” albums.
