Overkill Frontman Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth Says Thrash Stood Out Because It Had ‘No Rules’
Overkill are one of the pioneering metal bands in the thrash scene. Metal is actually one of my favorite subgenres of metal music. Now, in a new interview, Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth recalls the early days of thrash and what made the genre so special.
“I think the beauty of the origins of this music is that there (were) really no rules to it,” the Overkill frontman told Anne Erickson during an interview on the Audio Ink Radio podcast. “It was taking different genres and scientifically and musically experimenting with them by mixing them up in the lab, whether that be the new wave of British heavy metal and West Coast punk rock for the West Coast guys or the new wave of British heavy metal and East Coast punk for us. Or maybe for the German guys, German punk. I think that’s where it got its wings.”
Later, he added again, “I think the best part of it, or when the pillars were being made to hold this up, was that there were no rules. That was the best part of it. That has obviously changed. I mean, thrash is, to some degree, a formula this many decades later, but the exciting part at the beginning was anything goes, everything goes.”
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