Vocalist BOBBY BLITZ ELLSWORTH Returns To The Gutter!

-by Dirt

Overkill and Metal Dreams go back a long way.  I’ve interviewed Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth, one of the most distinctive voices in metal, many times since the release of their classic From The Underground And Below.  The first conversation is one that I will never forget.  Blitz (as he is best known) phoned me up at the luxurious Metal Dreams offices (located in beautiful downtown Hawthorne, New Jersey at the time) way back in 1997, and suggested that we do an in-person interview rather than on the phone.  “Where should we meet?” I asked.  At McDonalds, of all places, located just off the Garden State Parkway.  I will never forget Blitz pulling up in his ‘old and beat up’ blue truck and his down-to-earth ‘haven’t I known you all my life’ demeanor.  Eight years later, Overkill and Metal Dreams still exist, trying to bring the metal to the people, both with that street level appeal.  It’s something I’m proud off, and something that I’m sure Blitz is proud of as well.  Overkill’s newie, RELIXIV (more on the pronunciation later) hit the streets on March 22, and here is what Blitz has to say about it (and much more).

I’m always happy to see a new Overkill record!

Isn’t that something.  It’s like your tax return.

I really don’t do too many interviews anymore.  It’s a bitch typing them up so I save them for those that I really give a shit about.

I feel honored.  We’ve come a long way since the Parkway, my friend.

Have you ever heard of Ian Christe?  He wrote a book called The Sound Of The Beast.

I know who he is, sure.

Well, he pulled a quote from that interview we did at the McDonalds on the Garden State Parkway in 1997.  It’s the only quote that you’ve got in the book.  You’ll laugh because you’ll remember this (our conversation about Headbanger’s Ball VJ Riki Rachtman).  I’m gonna read it to you…

“I thought that Rachtman was disinterested in what he was doing,” singer Bobby Ellsworth told Metal Dreams.  “I thought he couldn’t give a flying fuck who was sitting next to him.  Maybe he and I just didn’t hit it off but I really had no interesting conversation with this guy after meeting him four times.  He hasn’t heard one song on the record and he’s gonna talk it up like it’s the best thing since canned beer.  It was one of the more painful things to do.”

I was shocked when I saw it in the book because Ian didn't ask me if he could use the quote.

So he just ran rip-shot through everything then, huh?

It didn’t matter to me.  I thought it was just pretty cool that that interview was put in a book.

Memorialized.

Our McDonalds episode.  I don’t think he realized it was in McDonalds.

(laughing) Right, right, right.  Nobody did really.  Actually, you put it in there but they can’t picture that.

It made the interview extra special. 

No doubt.

We’re still talking about it, eight years later.

That’s the truth.  Two guys going out of their way to make sure stuff happens.

Of course I always enjoy doing an interview with you because it’s a good excuse for me to listen to all the Overkill records and go through Overkill history.  I was surprised by the new record, RELIXIV, because compared some of the albums since 1997, it seems like you’ve stripped back a bit.

Mmm.  Maybe more so rooted than ’97, ’99, 2000, but last year kind of set us up for that, I think.  The Killbox record was heading in that direction to begin with.  That was a little bit more thrashy, a little bit more what was.  I always like to think of it as two worlds collide, 'what was and what is', and out of that comes mostly ‘what is’ rules the day.  But I think, in this case, you’re probably right, ‘what was’ is quite obviously the spice used on this record.

From a sound perspective, can you remember what your motivation was for From The Underground versus say your motivation for RELIXIV?  And by the way, can you please pronounce the title of the new record?

(laughing) Oh, it’s just ‘Relics.’

(laughing) You’re pissing me off.  I’m looking at it going…what the…reli-fourteen…

(laughing) Just having a little fun with all those I talk to on the phone.

(laughing) Torturing the shit out of us.

(laughing) I’m having a riot with the Japanese.  ’97, I suppose was an evolutionary period for us.  We don’t ever think this out in visionary terms what this record is going to sound like, in 1997 or in 2005.  The ’97 release we’re talking about was The Underground, which was quite a piece of heavy, chunky real-estate.  By the time we were done with it, I think the record lent itself to that type of production, lent itself to that type of songwriting, lent itself to that part of the era.  The scales were tilted to the groove side on that record.  I think since then, the stuff that followed, Necroshine, Bloodletting, and Killbox, it kind of balanced out a little bit more.  This one leans itself maybe a little bit more toward the speedy, rock n’ roll side, maybe more aggressive side, as opposed to brutal – but still both elements of the band, and I still think both evident on this record.  It’s definitely the two worlds, it just peppered more with a little bit more of the speed. 

When I said ‘stripped down,’ I meant that there’s something different in the overall tonality on RELIXIV.

The procedure was that of performance, as opposed to computer-laden moving of every individual note that exists on the record.  You can move things around all over that computer, drum hits, etc., etc. to make it air-tight.  The upside is you have perfection but the downside is that you sterilize it.  In this, we went, as the last song suggests, a little bit more old school.  The idea was “where do we come from, what do we do?”  I think what you’re probably hearing with regard to tonality is maybe sacrificing a little bit of that computerized recording method and instilling what we knew best from ‘when,’ and maybe that’s why the whole thing come across that way a little bit more.  We’ve always had the speed and aggression but there’s some songs on here that… “Pound Of Flesh” is cut from ’87 but to some degree it’s fresh.

You’ve went through many guitarists over the years.  What do Dave Linsk and Derek Tailer bring to the fold that maybe the others didn’t?

Dave has a great sense of brutality when it comes to playing.  It’s not about finesse.  It’s about getting the point across, musically of course, but he can still beat it into you with what he does with that guitar.  I think that’s a necessary element for this band at this time.  Derek is a solid rhythm player with a great voice, and probably brings a cohesiveness with his personality.  He’s one of the most fucked up individuals I’ve met but really a pleasant person to be around.  If you’re gonna gel it has nothing to do with being virtuosos, it has to do with personality.  He really is the glue when it comes to that.

I remember Derek played bass for Dee Snider’s SMF’s.

That’s when we met him.  He played eight shows with us, as bass player.  D.D. went home for the birth of his daughter and Derek filled in while we were in Europe.

Was Dave playing guitar by himself?

No Joe Comeau was with him.

Speaking of Joe, he got booted out of Annihilator not too long ago.  At one point, he wanted to be in both Annihilator and Overkill, and now he’s left with nothing.  Have you had any contact with him?

Yeah, I called him and left this on his answering machine – “Ha, Ha.”  (laughing hysterically) No…oh no I didn’t.

You’re horrible.

Ah, I really haven’t had contact with Joe.  There were a few things that happened with regard to…an attorney got involved.  I was really blindsided by it.  Really blown away.

That will change a relationship.  Was this when he was in Annihilator?

Yeah.  Then we worked it out.  As I understand it, the same thing happened with Annihilator.

He did a bit of vocal work when he was in the band.  Do you miss that?

Derek is doing the vocal work now.  Throughout the record, there’s three different lead voices in it.  Derek sings the chorus in “Love.”  I just do the scream over the top of it.  Derek is equal with me in “The Mark” and “Play The Ace.”  Derek’s voice is most outstanding in the backgrounds of “Bats In The Belfry.”  D.D. sings in “Old School.”  We trade lines back and forth.

You’ve went with ‘Overkill Orange’ for the cover, this time. 

Again. 

You usually stick with ‘Overkill Green.’  Do you go through the colors of the spectrum?

(laughing) Both of them.

(laughing) All two of them.  What’s the thought process there, or is there none?

We did the artwork with Travis Smith.  He really has a good feel for the band.  We send him rough stuff.  It looks like kindergarten drawings.  He deciphers this and says, “Is this what you meant?”  I said, “Not really but you’re close.”  We go back and forth like this for a few months.  He started doing it in orange.  We got about halfway through and I said, “Send me the whole thing with a green overlay.”  He did and I went, “Yick!”

Do you feel From The Underground and Below (ed. they ventured into 'Overkill Blue' for this one) got a fair shake?

It’s hard to say.  I think From The Underground was ahead of itself.  What changed with regard to U.S. metal happened after From The Underground, it’s just that everybody borrowed Phil Anselmo to present the vocals, but a lot of the approach, the same type groove.  I don’t want to say we got shorted on it but that’s how I feel about the record.  I think it’s one of the greatest releases we ever did because of its cohesiveness.  It sounds like a band that knows what it’s doing, that’s been around, but decided...I’m not gonna say went totally off the path but went a little bit left, and still presented it with the ferocity of the early releases.  That’s what’s unique.  There’s nothing timid about that record.

Do you know what happened to your old stompin’ ground, The Birch Hill Night Club in New Jersey?  It was THE place to play in the 90s and then all of a sudden it was gone.

It was community complaints fired by developers.  There were liquor violations.  They kept fining them.  The last note was played and within twenty-four hours the place was leveled for condos.  I think they just sold it and said, “The hell with this.”

So what’s the live set-list gonna look like?  That’s gotta be a chore to choose?

This is a hard record to choose from because there’s a cohesive vibe to this record.  The song “Love” is not cut from the 80s.  It’s different.  Neither is “Bats In The Belfry” but maybe “Loaded Rack” is and “Pound Of Flesh” is. 

I love “Keeper.” That’s a great song. 

That’s cut from somewhere in the mid-90s.  It seems like different eras of the band showed up on this record.  It’s almost like having a ‘best of’ without having to reduce yourself to a ‘best of’ status.  We should celebrate the fact that this band released it’s first record 20 years ago and play “Feel The Fire” and not just that song, but possibly the whole record.  It’s a short record.  I think it’s a forty-two minute record and as fast as we play stuff on stage…

That’s a twenty-minute performance!

Toward the end of the year that’s what we plan on doing but for right now as we get the machine up and oiled again we’re gonna just do as we normally do, throw some odd ones in, do some new ones, keep some standards.