OVERKILL & KREATOR to Play Stage 48 in NYC, 11/23

Overkill and Kreator will play Stage 48 on November 23 at 7pm.

Kreator is a thrash metal band from Essen, Germany, formed in 1982 with no name, but decided on Tormentor in 1984. They originally performed a speed metal style with Venom influences.Their style of music is similar to their compatriots Destruction and Sodom, the other two big German thrash metal bands. All three of these bands are often credited with helping pioneer death metal, by containing several elements of what was to become the genre. Kreator's work began in the vein of thrash metal but ventured into industrial and gothic from 1992 to 1999, before eventually returning to their classic thrash sound to date. To date, Kreator has released thirteen studio albums, two EPs, one live album and three compilation albums. The band released its debut album Endless Pain in 1985. Although many of their previous albums, including Pleasure to Kill (1986), were quite popular in the United States, Kreator did not experience major American commercial success until the 2009 release of their twelfth studio album, Hordes of Chaos, which peaked at number 165 on the Billboard 2003 and debuted at No. 16 on the Media Control Charts, the band's highest ever chart position in Germany. In June 2012, Kreator released their 13th studio album, Phantom Antichrist, which has been well received.

Overkill is an American thrash metal band, formed in 1980 in New Jersey. They have gone through many line-up changes, with singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth and bassist D.D. Verni remaining from the original lineup. Along with Anthrax's one-time lead guitarist, Dan Spitz, was also an early member of Overkill,the band is one of the most successful East Coast thrash metal bands. The band has a notable mascot named "Chaly", a skeletal bat with a skull-like face, horns, bony wings, and green eyes. Chaly has appeared on most of their album covers. To date, Overkill has released 16 studio albums, 2 EPs, 2 live albums and an album of cover songs. They were one of the early thrash metal bands to sign to a major label (Atlantic Records, in 1986), though Overkill would not achieve commercial success until they popularized "thrash" in the late 1980s with their contemporaries Anthrax, Exodus, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Testament. The band's most successful records are Under the Influence (1988), The Years of Decay (1989) and I Hear Black (1993), which debuted at No. 142, No. 155 and No. 122 respectively on the Billboard 200 charts. Their latest studio album, The Electric Age (2012), debuted at No. 77 on Billboard 200, making it Overkill's highest ever chart position in the United States. As of 2006, Overkill had sold over 625,000 copies in the U.S since the beginning of the SoundScan era and as of August 2012, they sold more than 16 million records worldwide, that making them one of the best selling thrash metal bands of all time.