OVERKILL Frontman: 'Democrats Are Elitists'

On April 6, vocalist Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth of New Jersey thrash metal veterans OVERKILL was interviewed by "The Red Switch" show, which airs on York University's CHRY 105.5 FM radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Watch the chat in two parts below. An excerpt follows.

The Red Switch: The Bush Administration spawned a lot of great songs, a lot of songs about political awareness. Do you think the Obama Administration is able to do the same thing?

Blitz: "I mean, you could probably just do one record and call it 'Liar'. [cracks up laughing]"

The Red Switch: Why so?

Blitz: "He [Obama] wasn't in office for more than two months 'till he raised taxes on the middle class, which is what got him elected. He is now in office for over a year and had every environmental group backing him because he would never do offshore drilling, and he's just planned a map as of last week. This health-care situation has put another nail in the coffin, so, as far as I'm concerned, to the middle class and to the guy who works for himself, he [Obama] could care less.

"In my opinion, Democrats are elitists — they're just out of touch with what the regular American guy who works for himself does and think that they know better because we're a little bit less educated than they are, so they align themselves with [actor] Leonardo DiCaprio, who's telling us to stop wiping our ass with so much toilet paper when he owns nine fucking houses. [cracks up laughing] And they align themselves with [former Vice President] Al Gore, who says, 'Everybody's gotta have to have a carbon footprint.' And when you look a little bit deeper, he owns the only company that does that. [cracks up laughing]

"So, really, that whole Democratic party, as far as I'm concerned, really stabs the guy who works for himself. I mean, it's an awful thing.

"People can hate what happened prior with the Republicans. We didn't really have the biggest, let's say, profile with regards to the world and what they thought of us, but the reality is that if you work for yourself, under the Republicans, you get to keep more of it and not give it away. The Democrats make bigger government and they say, 'We have to guide you, sheep.' [cracks up laughing]

"So, I'm not a big fan. [cracks up laughing]"

Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth on Obama Administration (click on player below to launch audio):

OVERKILL will join forces with reactivated San Francisco Bay Area metallers FORBIDDEN for the second leg of the "Killfest" U.S. tour in November. The full tour lineup and exact cities/dates will be announced on May 2, with tickets going on sale that day.

OVERKILL's new album, "Ironbound", sold 4,100 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 192 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD landed at No. 4 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

OVERKILL's previous album, "Immortalis", opened with 2,800 units back in October 2007 .

OVERKILL's top-selling album of the SoundScan era (1991-) is "Horrorscope", which has shifted more than 120,000 copies in the U.S. since its 1991 release (there is no SoundScan data available for LPs sold prior to 1991).

"Ironbound" was released on February 9 via E1 Music (formerly KOCH Records). The CD, which was issued in Europe on January 29 via Nuclear Blast Records, was mixed by PAIN/HYPOCRISY mainman Peter Tägtgren and is described in a press release as "a true thrasher-piece."

OVERKILL filmed a video for the song "Bring Me The Night" on January 9 in Brooklyn, New York with director Kevin Custer (HATEBREED, TESTAMENT, SUFFOCATION).

Part 1:

Part 2: