Overkill and Nile
February 25, 2017
The Grove- Anaheim, CA
Two Powerhouse metal bands Overkill and Nile teamed up for a North American tour that would surely bring two different types of metal communities together. Overkill is a thrash metal band that was started in the 1980’s so plenty of old school metalheads were in attendance. Nile is a technical death metal band so both bands’ fanbases and styles of metal are different. Both bands also have new albums out so they were actively touring and had plenty of material to offer. The Grove of Anaheim was the choice of venue for this monstrous venue which was somewhat packed by the time Nile started the show.
Nile is a technical death metal band from South Carolina, USA. In 2015, they released their eighth studio album, What Should Not Be Unearthed. On February 2017, Nile’s fanbase was shocked to hear that the band’s vocalist and guitarist of 20 years Dallas Toler-Wade had exited to band to pursue his own music project. As a replacement, Nile hired their new guitarist, Brian Kingsland. This would be his first tour with the band and all of Nile’s fans in attendance were curious to see how the new singer would handle the songs.
The lights went out as Nile came out while the intro track Dusk Falls Upon the Temple of the Serpent on the Mount of Sunrise played. The first track that Nile played to blow the audience away was Sacrifice Unto Sebek from their fourth studio album, Annihilation of the Wicked. As you can probably tell from their track names, the band’s music and lyrics are inspired by 
Ancient Egyptian/Near Eastern mysticism, history, religion, and ancient art, as well as the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Upon first hearing the heaviness of the music, you’ll feel it hit you like a huge fist just punched you in the chest. Soon, the fast pace of the music will have you air-guitaring and banging your head. Both guitarists and bassist handle vocals taking turns on their perspective parts. Founding member and guitarist Karl Sanders handles the deep guttural vocals while primary singer and new guitarist Kingsland along with bassist Brad Parris handle regular death metal growlers. The band would be backed up by the Greek drumming god George Kollias that would kick so fast on his double bass drums that the drum heads at times would appear as a blur and you could feel each kick hit you with impact.
The next song performed was Defiling the Gates of Ishtar. More death metal and growling vocals kept moshers and crowd surfers busy. Being an opening band, Nile played a short set so the other few songs played included Kafir!, Hittite Dung Incantation, and In the Name of Amun. To end their set, Nile performed their most famous song, Black Seeds of Vengeance. As a special guest on vocals, Nile brought out UFC and MMA legend Josh Barnett who just happens to be a fan of Nile. The show came to an end and the band was met with a positive response from the audience as they made a great band to help warm up the show as it was just getting started.
Overkill is one of the most respected bands in the metal genre. With a long history of solid albums and killer live performances, it’s hard to doubt their success. Even with the lineup changes they’ve had, only frontman Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth and bassist D.D. Verni remain the original members. On February 10, 2017, Overkill released their eighteenth studio album, 
The Grinding Wheel. Plenty of Overkill fans could be seen in the audience and they were more than ready to go crazy for one of thrash metal’s finest bands. The lights went out and the crowd once again went wild as the thrash metal band from New Jersey made their way to the stage and started the show with the first track from the new album, Mean, Green, Killing Machine. Overkill had a great stage set-up as it was covered with green lights depicting the band’s favorite color from throughout their albums. With the classic thrash metal sound echoing throughout the venue, fans continued to mosh and crowd surfers kept security on their guard.
Now that they had gotten a new song out of the way, Overkill went back to their debut album Feel the Fire and played one of their best songs, Rotten to the Core. Fans love this song so it’s no surprise to see them go absolutely crazy on the floor. Overkill did a good job of mixing up the setlist which was a blend of old material as well as new material. For the third song, Electric Rattlesnake was played which is one of their newer songs that fans were fond of. It seems no matter what songs they played, Overkill stayed true to their thrash metal roots as lots of shredding guitar was involved and Ellsworth’s vocals sounded spot on and was perfect for the band’s sound. Hello From the Gutter is another classic Overkill tune and fans could be singing along to the chorus. Overkill was in for a long night of playing metal, but you could tell they were enjoying themselves are they played tracks like Feel the Fire, Hammerhead, and Armorist.
Overkill played a cover of Thin Lizzy‘s Emerald and decided to call it a night. Or so the fans thought. After a brief break, the band came back out for a few encores. The first encore was Ironbound, one of their more popular songs from one of their recent albums. The next encore played was Elimination and is another one of the band’s best and fastest songs. Being a fan-favorite, multiple mosh pits formed on the floor and only seemed to get faster as the song went on to create the craziest mosh pits of the night. For the show’s finale, Overkill played their usual show-closer called Fuck You, a cover of the punk band, The Subhumans. Ellsworth would raise both of his middle fingers in the air and chant, “We don’t care what you say…” and the audience would finish by yelling out, “Fuck You!!”. This song would give the audience one last chance to let loose any remaining energy they had and they surely let out that remaining energy. Overkill wrapped up their show and left the audience with nothing but smiles and sore bodies.
Review by: Misael Ruiz
Overkill
Nile
