In a recent interview with Metal Pilgrim, OVERKILL drummer Jason Bittner confirmed that the band has already started working on the follow-up to last year’s The Wings of War, which is expected to be out next year.
Bittner confirmed that OVERKILL have already received a five-song demo from bassist D.D. Verni, and they were supposed to have started working on their new album by now but that was not to be, due to the ongoing situation with the coronavirus pandemic.
As roughly transcribed by Metal Addicts, this is what Jason said:
We just got the first five-song demo from D.D. for the next record. So our plan was to start working on some new material, but considering the fact that we have to stay in our spaces right now. We’re just kinda doing things electronically and it’s just giving D.D. some more time to write because we are, kind of, on a little bit of a timeline…well, alright, I’d say we had a plan, but everybody had a plan before, like, last month.
Jason added:
Our plan was to be on the road with a full European tour in March of 2021 with a new album. We have no idea if that’s gonna even be a possibility right now because that would have, you know, timelines that we had for the record label and whatnot are no longer those anymore because the record labels shut down and nobody’s doing business right this very second. So, I don’t know in a grand scheme where that’s gonna happen, but I do think that it’s kinda good that this is happening right now because I know we were starting, with like five or six songs, but I know he’s up to like nine right now. So, it’s giving us the freedom to be able to take some more time to write, which I think is important. I think, in an odd sort of way, this is a good thing for us right now being home and being forced to work in this environment.
The follow-up to The Wings of War will be the 20th studio album in OVERKILL‘s career, and second one in a row with Bittner on drums.