Ranking the Studio Albums: Overkill (Top 10 Favorites) 

RIP to Marsha Zazula who signed this great band to Megaforce

I give MAJOR props to Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth. The man has never sold out to different trends to try and sell records. He's old school thrash through and through and makes no apologies for it.

When metal was dead Overkill and Testament kept thrash alive!! My Top 10: 1 - Horrorscope 2 - Taking Over 3 - Years of Decay 4 - Ironbound 5 - Feel The Fire 6 - Wrecking Your Neck Live (Best Lineup and WFO Songs Sound Much Better!) 7 - Grinding Wheel 8 - Wings of War 9 - White Devil Armory 10 - ReliXIV

Don’t forget about Death Angel. All amazing albums. A ranking would be welcomed .

Hey Pete. I have an idea for a new series you could do that I think is interesting. It’s where you rank all of the songs off a certain album like for example you take Ride the Lightning and rank all of the songs off of it from your least favorite to your favorite and the rest of the videos of the series would be the same, but just different albums in each video. Just a thought and if you end up doing something similar that’d be cool.

1- W.F.O. 2- The Years Of Decay 3- From the Underground and Below 4- The Killing Kind 5-Ironbound 6-The Grinding Wheel 7-I Hear Black 8-Under the Influence 9-Necroshine 10-The Electric Age

Love Overkill, like Testament, the 2 best thrash bands since 2000, the one thing, both bands have in common, adding superior drummers to they're lineups, Bittner & Hoglan are the best drummers each band has ever had, they've take them to new levels.

I have loved Overkill since 10th grade when Feel The Fire came out. Taking Over is one of the 5 best thrash albums ever made. Their recent output has been excellent, from Ironbound through the last album. Bitter Pill is an awesome song. Pete, thanks for doing this video.

Horrorscope is a flawless thrash album from front-to-back. Years Of Decay is a close 2nd for me.

Love how dark and menacing Horrorscope sounds, considerably thrashy for 91 but adding more groove and more prominent slow, crushing parts, with some remarkable atmospheric moments too. Their finest album in my opinion, preceded by 4 excellent classic thrash releases.

Underrated Thrash band!!

Top 10: #1 - "The Years of Decay" - (1989) #2 - "Horrorscope" - (1991) #3 - "Taking Over" - (1987) #4 - "Under the Influence" - (1988) #5 - "Feel the Fire" - (1985) #6 - "Ironbound" - (2010) #7 - "The Electric Age" - (2012) #8 - "The Wings of War" - (2019) #9 - "The Grinding Wheel" - (2017) #10 - "White Devil Armory" - (2014)

Overkill was my fav as a teenager. Challenge accepted. 19. Immortalis 18. Killing Kind 17. Necroshine 16. I Hear Black 15. Underground and Below 14. Feel the Fire 13. Bloodletting 12. Grinding Wheel 11. Wings of War 10. Relix 9. Killbox 8. WFO 7. Under the Influence 6. Years of Decay 5. White Devil 4. Taking Over 3. Ironbound 2. Electric Age 1. Horrorscope

My top 5 1) Taking Over 2) The Grinding Wheel 3) Horrorscope 4) Ironbound 5) Necroshine --Honorable mention-- Overkill 4 song EP

Thanks Pete and Rich Catino for doing this list about this great underappreciated at times thrash band here are my top ten Overkill albums: 1. "Years of Decay" -------1989 2. "W.F.O"------- 1994 3. "Taking Over" --------1987 4. "Ironbound" -------- 2010 5. "Horrorscope" --------1991 6. "Feel the Fire" -------1985 7. "Wings of War" ------- 2019 8. "Under the Influence" --------1988 9. "Grinding Wheel" ---------- 2017 10. "White Devil Armory" -------- 2014

Overkill absolutely solid every time for me. Total frenzy and just album after album killing it.

1- The Years Of Decay 2- Horrorscope 3- Taking Over 4- The Grinding Wheel 5- Under The Influence 6- The Wings Of War 7- W. F. O. 8- The Electric Age 9- Ironbound 10- The Killing Kind

Can you rank Metal Church studio albums? They are one of my favorite bands. Love your videos Pete!

Great rankings. You really can't go wrong with such a consistent band. Would love to see a Flotsam and Jetsam rankings since they have been equally consistent.

I’ve rewatched this video so many times and I don’t know why, it’s a comfort video

1.Horrorscope 2.Taking Over 3.Under The Influence 4.The Years Of Decay 5.The Grinding Wheel 6.W.F.O. 7.Ironbound 8.The Electric Age 9.I Hear Black 10. The Wings Of War I could list the other 9 but they’re all great! 🎸

Overkill is amazing! Loved the selections

Horrorscope will always be my favorite. Flawless. They have so many kick ass albums. Very difficult band to rank.

I read an interview once where Blitz said that whenever they go to make a new album, they listen to all of the past ones in the hopes of not repeating themselves too much. This is a really unique approach and maybe why they are so consistently good.

Seeing Rich with a Helloween t-shirt on takes me back to when I saw Overkill support them at Hammersmith Odeon in 1987. Overkill were superb, as were Helloween. Saw Helloween the following year as well at the same venue. In my opinion Taking Over is Overkill’s finest hour.

Such a solid discography. I've been a fan since I first heard "Deny The Cross" back in '87. 10) Killbox 13 9) W.F.O. 8) The Grinding Wheel (Some of these songs run a little long) 7) From the Underground and Below 6) Horrorscope 5) The Electric Age 4) The Years of Decay 3) Feel the Fire 2) Under the Influence 1) Taking Over I like all of their albums, actually. The only one I don't listen to much is I Hear Black. It's not bad, but it's my least favorite, for sure. They have always been my go-to thrash band (of the big ones). Thanks for the video, guys! Any chance of a Nasty Savage list?

Great Channel by the way. Thanks for putting me on to a lot more new bands

1. Horrorscope 2.The Years of decay 3. Ironbound These are my absolute faves, but they release a lot of other good stuff as well. Impressive how good they been on the last 5 albums.

KILLBOX belongs on every OVERKILL 10 list. Great lists nonetheless!!

Such a deep catalog must present headaches selecting concert setlists! Great job Rich and Pete.

Pete, you should do a room tour video.

Thrash Metal Gods

"The One" off Killbox 13 is awesome

Even though it’s not an official studio album, I really dig the coverkill album. Great covers of Hymn 43, Space Truckin’ and Duece.

I'm so thankful : I discovered really Overkill with you ! Killing !

Testament next?

Taking Over 🤘 Feel the Fire. Horrorscope. The Years of Decay. Under the Influence. Ironbound. The Wings of War. The Electric Age. The Grinding Wheel. I Hear Black.

They are my favorite thrash band. My top 10 : 1 - The Years Of Decay 2 - Horrorscope 3 - Feel The Fire 4 - Ironbound 5 - The Electric Age 6 - The Wings Of War 7 - Taking Over 8 - W.F.O. 9 - The Grinding Wheel 10 - Under The Influence

1. The Years of Decay (1989) 2. Horrorscope (1991) 3. Killbox 13 (2003) 4. Taking Over (1987) 5. The Electric Age (2012) 6. The Grinding Wheel (2017) 7. Ironbound (2010) 8. Feel The Fire (1985) 9. White Devil Armory (2014) 10. The Wings of War (2019)

Best metal band,most consistent, still relevant, one of the best metal bass players and song writers.never sold out.never quit playing and writing. better than any big four bands,although, of course like all them also.jmo.

I still revisit this excellent ranking. Everytime I dig into a past overkill record / cd. To see what you guys had to say on it, where you ranked it. Horoscope is really great.

I don't know if they're even capable of putting out a "bad" album but here's my top ten. 1- Feel the Fire 2- Years of Decay 3- Taking Over 4- I Hear Back 5- Under the Influence 6- From the Underground and Below 7- Electric Age 8- Ironbound 9- Necroshine 10- W.F.O.

They blew me away opening for Helloween in 1987. The pumpkins were smashed big time.

Taking Over

I was in Afghanistan for most 2010 and ordered a bunch of CDs from Century Media including Ironbound. Finnish Demobe and got home on a Friday, went to Cleveland to see them the next Tuesday. Talked to them after the show and told them I'd see them again back home in Pittsburgh on Thursday. D.D. asked if I had my ticket yet, I said no. He told me to check at the box office when I got there. No shit, they put me on a VIP list, they got me in for free! Have seen the a dozen times over the years and the only thing that matches how great they are live is how cool they are to meet.

1) Horrorscope 2) The Years of Decay 3) The Grinding Wheel 4) The Wings of War 5) Feel the Fire 6) Under the Influence 7) W.F.O. 8) I Hear Black 9) The Electric Age 10) Ironbound

my Favorite Overkill Albums is Horrorscope and Tracks that i Love is Coma and Horrorscope. Taking Over and Tracks is Deny the Cross and Fear his Name. I Hear Black and Tracks are Spiritual Void and Ghost Dance. the Years of Decay and Tracks is Time to Kill and Evil Never Dies. The Killing Kind and some Tracks are The Cleansing and God - Like. IronBound and Tracks The Goal is Your Soul and The Head and the Heart. BloodLetting and Tracks Death Comes out to Play and Can't kill a Dead Man. from the Underground and Below tracks Genocya and Save Me. Necroshine tracks are I am Fear and Revelation. Killbox13 tracks is The sound of Dying and Until i Die. RELIXIV tracks Keeper and Love. Feel the Fire Tracks Second Son and Rotten to the Core. Under The influence Tracks Hello from the Gutter and Drunken Wisdom. I Love Bobby Blitz's Vocals on Horrorscope I Loved that Album and it's favorite 90s Overkill Album. 🤘🏻🤘🏻

Overkill !! Best Thrash Metal Band Ever! 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻 1 - Taking Over 2 - The Years of Decay 3 - Horrorscope 4- Killbox 13 5- The Grinding Wheel 6- Ironbound 7-The Wings of War 8- Feel the Fire 9- Under the Influence 10- ReliXIV 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

Thank guys. One of the greatest bands ever. Quite agree with these selection though I would have preferred you ranked the whole discography. Those albums from 1995 to 2007 are quite amazing too

Thanks for this ranking! Overkill is one of the thrash bands that I largely missed out on, back in the day, but have recently wanted to get more into, so this video will be a good guidebook! On a similar note, I've been going back and collecting the older albums of Testament and getting some of their newer material too. I would love to see a studio albums ranking for them!

Great video, guys! My favorite thrash band, and they have the discography to back it up. My favorite Overkill album in the catalog is "The Electric Age", followed closely by "Ironbound" in my #2 slot. I'd have "Horrorscope" at #3, "Taking Over" at #4, and "The Years of Decay at #5. They've never released a bad album in my opinion, although if I had to pick a least favorite, it would be "I Hear Black" or "Immortalis". Rock on!

One of my favourites! Thank you!!!

Feel The Fire might be my favourite Thrash Metal album of all time. Favourite debut in league with Kill 'em All. The tracks got a bit long at a later time, 90's syndrome. Sonic Reducer is Dead Boys.

you gotta respect Blitz for never compromising when it came to vocals .... or giving the audience an intense performance ..... the Dude had a stroke on stage .... he's performed while battling pneumonia .... the band should have been way bigger than being an underground band with a devoted thrash following.

I met Alex P. at Pyramid Records. Walking in, I saw my two favorite lps at the time hanging on the wall; F n J's "No Place For Disgrace" and Testaments "The New Order." A.P. was the best producer of the late 80's, early 90's

Pete you are the best outlet for me to watch metal and prog reviews, love your work. I recommend ensiferum a while back but that might be out of your viewer base. But since you did overkill and the last record with Jason bittner on drums ranked fairly high you should do a discography ranking of the band he played in Shadows fall. Jersey band that is mostly awesome thrash with singing and tons of accessibility. Your listener base would enjoy that!

I still have their debut EP and first full album! Bought on import here in the UK... I'll have to dig them out!

Pete pardo brought me here from show with Brice😊listen to overkill feel the fire freaking awsome between digging in overkill albums and a few pics from the monsters den looks like going to be a a very enjoyable week end thanks Pete your channel never disappoints more metal shows with Brice would be cool especcilly rankingvtge albums his rankings probably seem insane to most but me and him are pretty close on some bands especially kiss he digs the mid late 80s kiss like me

My favorite thrash record of all time is The Years of Decay.

Saw them open for Helloween (t-shirt!!) in 1987(?)... there were constantly 20 people on stage: band and stagedivers.. insane!

10-White Devil Armory 9-Wings of War 8-Under the Influence 7-The Grinding Wheel 6-Ironbound 5-The Electric Age 4-Horrorscope 3-Feel the Fire 2-Taking Over 1-The Years of Decay I enjoy all of Overkill's music. My favorite is the 80s and the last 5 albums.

1 years of decay 2 under the influence 3 feel the fire 4 Ironbound 5 the grinding wheel 6 Horrorscope 7 the electric age 8 taking over those are my favorites 🤘

Pete and Rich nailed the top 5, 1st Overkill album I ever bought on Vinyl Taking Over brilliant album, even though Ironbound and The Wings of War could get into the top 5 on any given day. Sodom next the whole 17 albums 👍👍

Great review...my friends & I were at that “Club Bené” show (Route 35)...it was the night of a blizzard and OverKill didn’t cancel...They still took the stage performing for at best 50 people and rocked the joint as if they were playing to a packed house... My top 5 would be: 1. The Years of Decay(flawless Album) 2. Wrecking Your Neck(I know that this is a live album but this was the first CD I picked up by OverKill that a friend recommend to me...long story short, it made me a fan) 3. Necroshine(a lot of good Birch Hill memories at the time of this record) 4. From the Underground & Below (Once again nostalgic reasons) 5. Ironbound(as you said it was like a return to form; and a killer album cover)

Very interesting to see this. I bought Taking Over, Under the Influence and The Years of Decay back in the day and loved them but then generally lost interest in metal, like so many others it seems, so I've never really listened to anything else by them, but I definitely need to check out Horroscope and Wings of War (as a start). Great show!

1. The Years of Decay 2. Horrorscope 3. W.F.O. 4. I Hear Black 5. Under the Influence 6. Bloodletting 7. The Killing Kind 8. Taking Over 9.The Grinding Wheel 10. Killbox13

Derek Tailer has been on guitars since 2001. His first record was "Wrecking Everything" (Live) 2002. Just to clarify

I've been an Overkill fan since even before the first EP came out. First time we saw them at L'amour in '84 we were hooked and we went to every show we heard about from that point on. Best 80's thrash band for my money bar none. I love that everyone ranks their albums so completely differently. There are no wrong answers. These are my top 10 Kill albums: 1. Taking Over 2. Horrorscope 3. Killbox 13 4. Bloodletting 5. Feel the Fire 6. Wings of War 7. Years of Decay 8. I Hear Black 9. Under the Influence 10. The Electric Age/WFO Most overrated: Ironbound Worst album: Immortalis

At first I didn't like this band but now I want to get more into them.

WSOU was the best. Overkill is practically synonymous with it. So many great memories of ‘90-‘96.

all love from Italy 🇮🇹

HEY!!!😁❤ HORRORSCOPE\,,/❤\,,/ MY FAVORITE. TOP 10 BEST THRASH ALBUMS ALL TIME!!

Great #1 choice...Taking Over is THE Overkill album for me. Heard In Union we Stand on TV...bought vinyl the next day. Still have the record.

It's absurd that Anthrax is part of the so-called Big 4 of Thrash, but not Overkill. Anthrax lost credibility with I'm The Man. Overkill has always been superior to Anthrax.

My top 10 favourite Overkill albums would be 10. W.F.O. 9. From The Underground And Below 8. I Hear Black 7. The Killing Kind 6. Necroshine 5. Horrorscope 4. Feel The Fire 3. Taking Over 2. Under The Influence 1. The Years Of Decay

I really enjoyed this video. It's great to see the best thrash band ever get such a thorough discussion. I totally agree Taking Over at number 1. I disagree on Drunken Wisdom and think it's the best track on Under The Influence. I agree with Rich on Relix and Immortalis, though I do like Old School. I definitely have more love for the Comeau/Marino years. The Killing Kind is so dark and ominous. Necroshine and From The Underground And Below are great too. Great show guys!

WSOU was always on in my 87 trans am, my first time seeing overkill was at L'Amour's in Brooklyn with SOD

Love the Al Pacino cameo on W.F.O. 🙂

1. Under the Influence 2. Horrorscope 3. Years of Decay 4. Taking Over 5. Feel the Fire 6. Bloodletting 7. W.F.O. 8. I Hear Black 9. Killbox 13 10. Relix IV

All I ever had by them was "Taking Over" and "Under the Influence." Recently ordered "Ironbound", just arrived today.

How is this band not more known throughout society?

9. The Electric Age 8. Iron Bound 7. W.F.O. 6. Horrorscope 5. Under The Influence 4. Power In Black demo 3. Feel The Fire 2. Taking Over 1. The Years Of Decay

Hi Pete, not related to this video but SOT has been a great help in 2020 and as the UK is back in lockdown I have been exploring a few more of your suggestions, Loved Wobblers new album and also Big Big Train - Grand Tour, is there any other Big Big Train albums you would recommend, Also I have discovered The Windmill and also Southern Empire , are you familiar with them as I couldn’t find any reviews on the website of them - not that’s a problem as I have bought them anyway!! All the best, Neil

Just tracked down a copy of the HistoriKill box set, as well as that Feel The Fire/F*ck You And Then Some comp, and pre-ordered the 1986-1994 boxset that's coming out soon. I'm about to go from none Overkill to everything from '85 to '07, and plan on tracking down the latest albums, too. I've gone 32 years of life as a supposed metalhead without owning any Overkill. I've got some serious catching up to do, I can't wait.

Nice shirt, Pete!

...Uuuhhh........hhheeeyyy!!! Thanks for your ranking, Pete! It was really fun to see. Both agreed 'Taking Over' is the best Over Kill album.)))

Crunchy riffs, double base drums, and loud bass,that's just a pube faster than the drums!! And plus blitz's enthusiasm makes years of decay one of the best thrash records ever!! Skull crusher is so fukn cool, it proves you don't have to be fast to be heavy!! Never changed their attitudes throughout the years! In my opinion best thrash bands ever

Thanks guys! I personally love the lead bass work Overkill tends to have in many tunes: 1. Horrorscope 2. Feel the Fire 3. Ironbound 4. The Electric Age 5. The Wings of War 6. The Years of Decay 7. Taking Over 8. The Grinding Wheel 9. White Devil Armory 10. Killbox 13 From the '90s groove period, I also like The Killing Kind from '96

Wow long video Pete! Love it though dude. Keep it up man big fan of your channel.

Never realized it, but I need a Number of the Beast mug.

I love Immortalis. Number 2 on my OverList. Number 1 is Taking Over of course

The years of decay and horrorscope both were produced by Terry Date who produced for pantera and soundgarden

They are the acdc of thrash metal. They dont change for anyone.

Marsha Zazula RIP

Overkill - one of the best band of New Jersey! Horoscope and Taking Over are my favorite albums

1. The Years Of Decay 2. Horrorscope 3. Feel The Fire 4. From The Underground And Below 5. Under The Influence 6. Ironbound 7. Killing Kind 8. W.F.O. 9. The Electric Age 10. The Wings Of War

.., one of the undisputed Thrash Metal music outfits, outside of the Big 4 (hailing from the Garden State of New Jersey) and one of the finest from a genre, having it's emergence in other parts of the world .. .., OVER KILL (the elements comprising of strong compositional musicianship, a unique stylistic vocal approach and witty to intelligent lyrics) has a ballsy attitude and energy that's unsurpassed in which is derivative from the Black Sabbath'sh and most notably; core-early or innovative Punk influences, that's a bit obvious throughout all of their releases . .., beginning their career as a four-piece and evolving into a five-piece with preferably a twin-guitar attack (i've enjoyed all of the musicians, since the departure of Skates - drums and Gustafson - guitar) continuing the development and direction, on the burner of an undefeated formula .. .., releasing material (EP's, Cover songs and Albums from 1985 and still to this day, playing local circuits and internationally) their initial years: 1987 - 1994 are those that i'm very fond of... Though, i'd lost some interest in the movement between 1996 - 2012 (there wasn't much lacklustre on the wealth of stuff; they had as offerings) during that timeframe . .. my re-kindled interest began in 2014 into 2019 (as the band had in the previous years passing, self-produced most of their efforts) and working previously with Alex Perialas in the company of the Zazula family (Megaforce Records), Terry Date and Andy Sneap ..... .. there are albums that carry great sounding hidden bonuses (with one having a memorable listed tribute): a beautifully arranged instrumental piece, prepared for guitarist: Chris Oliva ("r.i.p") of the band: Savatage and those delivering the OVER KILL concept themes, my utmost fave being the second of the lot: "The Nightmare Continues" . .., amongst my favourite mascots (Iron Maiden: Eddie and Megadeth: Vic') OVER KILL: Chaly is also at the top of my list . .., my favorite albums are in this specific order as follows .. 1. "The Years of Decay" (1989) 2. "Taking Over" (1987) 3. "W.F.O" (1994) 4. "From the Underground and Below" (1997) 5. "Under the Influence" (1988) 6. "Feel the Fire" (1985) 7. "Horrorscope" (1991) 8. "I Hear Black" (1993) 9. "White Devil Armory" (2014) 10. "The Grinding Wheel" (2017) "Scorched" amounts to possess a slightly appealing touch than that of "The Wings of War" and picks up as to where "The Grinding Wheel" left-off with drummer: Jason Bittner [ex-Shadows Fall] seemingly fitting into more of a groove, there are songs (such as "Goin Home" and "Won't be Comin Back") that takes it's residence in your head (similar to 'Keeper' from "ReliXIV") more than those of two released promo singles: 'The Surgeon' and 'Wicked Place' .. "Scorched" earns it's place in the number 11 spot of my own all-time favorite listings!

Totally love this band, and I believe these guys would be in the big 5 category if there was such a thing or at least the second big 4. It’s interesting to know that they have a lot of albums but my top 5 are these... 5. W.F.O. 4. The Wings of War 3. Under the Influence 2. Taking Over 1. Feel the Fire

Consistency, brutality , class. Overkill never faltered. The big 4 , PAH !! 🤟

that riff before he says money hungry etc evil never dies is killer