Christian Olde Wolbers (ex-Fear Factory) is set to fill in once more for Overkill bassist D.D. Verni on the New Jersey thrash vets’ upcoming U.S. tour, where Overkill supports Testament. The trek launches in March, and German thrash metal band Destruction is also on the bill. It’s being promoted as the “Thrash Of The Titans” run.
On Sunday, January 18, Olde Wolbers posted tour promo art and added a simple note to fans: “See you guys and gals out there on the ‘Thrash Of The Titans’ Tour!”
This is a familiar setup. Olde Wolbers already covered for Verni in fall 2024 when Overkill hit the road in North America supporting King Diamond, with Verni dealing with an ongoing “shoulder issue”.
For a stretch of European dates in September 2024, Overkill brought in another temporary replacement: ex-Kreator bassist Christian “Speesy” Giesler.
The band has been open about what’s going on physically. In a 2024 interview with Portugal’s Caminhos Metálicos, Overkill frontman Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth explained how long the issue has lingered and how it affects touring: “D.D.‘s got a shoulder issue that’s been going on for this entire time, even back to [2019’s] The Wings Of War [album], it was beginning back then. So I think that the number of shows that we did was actually a light amount. We would normally do more shows if he was healthy enough to do them. And he’s gotta rehab that shoulder, so he can only do so much, put so much stress on it.”
The situation already forced Verni off the road earlier in 2024. He sat out Overkill’s April 2024 Latin American tour while recovering from shoulder surgery, with former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson stepping in for those dates.
Later that same year, Verni addressed the issue directly in a July 2024 interview with That Metal Interview, describing why the repetitive nature of touring is the real problem: “It’s not so much playing, ’cause I can play; it’s really just tours where I have to play night after night after night, ’cause that’s what kind of did the damage in the first place. So, we’ll see, I’ll keep working as hard as I can, but if I have to keep doing little bits and pieces till I can get up to full strength, that’s what I’ll do.”
