New Jersey thrashers OVERKILL have recruited KREATOR bassist Christian “Speesy” Giesler as a temporary replacement for D.D. Verni, who is dealing with an ongoing “shoulder issue”.
Fan-filmed video of OVERKILL‘s September 9 concert at Collosseum Club in Košice, Slovakia, featuring Giesler on bass, can be seen below.
In a recent interview with Portugal’s Caminhos Metálicos, OVERKILL frontman Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth addressed Verni’s physical ailment, saying: “D.D.‘s got a shoulder issue that’s been going on for this entire time, even back to the last record, [2019’s] ‘The Wings Of War’, it was beginning back then. So I think that the amount of shows that we did was actually a light amount. We would normally do more shows, if he was healthy enough to do them. And he’s gotta rehab that shoulder, so he can only do so much, put so much stress on it… Then we do another tour coming up in September, and he’s only gonna do — I think he’s gonna do maybe 10 shows and then he’s gonna go home and we’re gonna have a replacement for him.”
Verni previously sat out OVERKILL‘s April 2024 Latin American tour as he was recovering from shoulder surgery. Filling in for him on the trek was former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson. Verni returned to the live stage on May 17 at the Milwaukee Metal Fest at The Rave/Eagles Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
OVERKILL‘s 10-date “Scorching Latin America 2024” tour kicked off on April 11 in Guadalajara, Mexico and included stops in Costa Rica, Chile and Peru before closing on April 28 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
OVERKILL will support KING DIAMOND on a North American tour this fall. The “Saint Lucifer’s Hospital 1920” trek will commence on October 15 in San Antonio, Texas and run through December 6 in Dallas, Texas. Additional support on the tour will come from NIGHT DEMON.
OVERKILL‘s latest album, “Scorched”, was released in April 2023 via Nuclear Blast Records.
OVERKILL played its first concert with the band’s new drummer Jeramie Kling (VENOM INC.) on August 30 at the Posada Rock festival in Câmpulung Muscel, Romania. Kling joined the veteran outfit as the replacement for Jason Bittner, who announced his exit from OVERKILL earlier last month.
A founding member of THE ABSENCE, Kling appeared on VENOM INC.‘s second album, 2022’s “There’s Only Black”, and has played with such acts as FORE, RIBSPREADER, GOREGÄNG and NECROMANCING THE STONE. He was also briefly affiliated with the reunited Florida death metal band MASSACRE, which led to the formation of INHUMAN CONDITION, alongside Terry Butler (OBITUARY, ex-DEATH) and Taylor Nordberg (DEICIDE). In addition to being a drummer, Kling is a recording engineer, producer and live sound engineer.
Bittner joined OVERKILL in 2017 and played drums on the band’s last two studio albums, 2019’s “The Wings Of War” and “Scorched”
