New Jersey thrash metal vets OVERKILL have released the official music video for the title track of their new album “Scorched”
OVERKILL‘s twentieth studio album arrived yesterday (Friday, April 14) via Nuclear Blast Records.
“Scorched” was mixed by Colin Richardson and his assistant engineer Chris Clancy. Johnny Rodd helped with producing vocals, and Maor Appelbaum took over mastering and adding finishing touches. The band returned to artist Travis Smith to create the album cover art.
In a recent chat with The Metal Voice, OVERKILL singer Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth spoke in more detail about “Scorched”. When it was mentioned that the pandemic has been “good” to OVERKILL by giving them the opportunity to work on a new album without distraction, Bobby clarified: “It hasn’t been good to us. We took advantage of the opportunity of the luxury of time. I think that that would probably be the best way to put it.
“It’s directly responsible, I think, for the results, especially my results on it. I think the other guys, they tweaked and pushed and pulled and pinched and added things over that three-year period. But for me, I tore that record down a few times, just to make sure that it was a metal record worthy of the luxury of time, as opposed to a hit-and-run kind of a thing.”
Ellsworth also discussed what fans can expect when it comes to the sound of “Scorched”. He said: “We used [producer] Colin Richardson again. This is his fourth project with us. He’s a friend. We trust the guy. He did a record for us from soup to nuts called ‘Killbox [13]’ [2003], and that is a heavy piece of real estate. I think it was just released in 2004 when the popularity of the genre was not way up there; it wasn’t at its healthiest state. But that’s one of the best-sounding fucking records we’ve ever done, and he’s directly responsible for that.
“So when he did this mix, we didn’t give him a lot of guidance. I mean, we did the production and kind of guided him along with regard to what our ideas were, but not generalization in sound. But I do remember saying to him — or D.D. [Verni, OVERKILL bassist] saying to him, rather; we agreed on this — we wanted a record that you could play really loud but it doesn’t tire you out. Sometimes you get one of those records, you put on four tracks, you’ve got it on at nine, and you go, ‘I’ve gotta take a break. I need a nap. It’s heavy as fuck, but I need a nap.’ And I think he did that.
“And the way he did it was that he used, for instance, some of the natural drum resonance from the room that he mixed in with whatever was digital. He did a throwback guitar back to the kind of early ’90s. So it’s like capturing two eras — it’s like capturing something in the past and exactly the present, and listening to those two eras simultaneously.”
Discussing further the musical direction of “Scorched”, Bobbu said: “It’s eclectic. It’s diverse. It’s got different dynamics and characteristics. How do you make that in an OVERKILL record? It’s traditional heavy metal. It’s got mellow sections. It’s got groove. It’s got thrash. It’s got rock and roll. It’s got blues. It’s, like, all over the fucking map. But you have to sew those pieces together and then take the whole thing and try to make it — you know, put your brand on it. And I think that that’s what we succeeded in doing. And what’s directly responsible is the amount of time that we had.”
Richardson previously worked with OVERKILL on 1997’s “From The Underground And Below”, 2000’s “Bloodletting” and “Killbox 13”.
