metal bands performing today. Although their debut album was not released until 1985, Overkill's formation predates the formation of all of the "Big Four" of thrash metal bands (Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer) by at least one year. After the band's inception, as time passed and Overkill began creating more music alongside its quickly-growing competitors, it became known for its fast and heavy style. The band's music lacked enough variety to rival the names of the "Big Four", but Overkill maintained its unique sound unwaveringly throughout its career instead of trying to gain popularity with a more commercial style. Overkill has been viewed as one of the most important thrash bands from the East Coast, and they are considered to be one of the most active bands of the genre; unlike many of their thrash peers, Overkill has never disbanded or gone on hiatus, nor released a new studio album in more than three years. Along with Exodus and Testament, Overkill has been the subject of which thrash metal band should be included in an expanded "Big Four". Asked in September 2014 about the idea of either Overkill, Exodus or Testament being included in the "Big Five" of thrash metal, frontman Bobby Ellsworth replied, "Aw man, that's gonna put me in a corner! We measure our success in days, not dollars! But maybe you can find the answer in what I'm going to say. When [playing thrash metal] became harder in the '90s with grunge music, we never had a question about if we would stop doing it and go work for our moms and dads or something. We just needed to make it happen. We weren't going to let grunge stop us. And if it did, we'd just go back to the underground. I liked it there anyway!" Commenting on the fact that Overkill never became part of the "Big Four", Ellsworth stated, "When it comes to being selected and not selected, that's a simple accounting issue. When you talk numbers, numbers make the world go around, numbers put food on your table, and numbers put the 'Big Four' in arenas. And they sell enough records to do that. For me, it's not a concern. To even be asked the question from you is quite a compliment with regard to, let's say, our longevity or tenacity doing what we like doing. But this is quite simply an accounting issue.