This is definitely a first – we have absolutely never featured a band from Botswana before. It’s a huge pleasure to point you in the direction of that nation’s premiere death metal act, Overthrust!
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Overthrust is a 4 piece old school death metal band from Ghanzi, Botswana. Though the band was originally started in Ghanzi where the members has stayed there for 10 years, with two of the band members working there as Police Officers, the members are from different villages:
Tshomarelo “Vulture Thrust” Mosaka – Rakops, Shalton “Spencer Thrust” Monnawadikgang – Motopi, Balatedi “Beast Thrust” Folai – Maun, and Tshepho “Dawg Thrust” Kaisara is from Serowe.
How did you meet?
In November 2008 I went for a karate tournament in Gaborone and my Sensei by then, Mr.Kgosiemang saw me with an acoustic guitar and he told me there was one metalhead staying near his place and he wanted to introduce him to me as he too was a guitarist and we went there only to notice after a year that the guitarist was actually my cousin, so we talked with Spencer and I told him I was actually in plans to start a death metal band and he already had an alternative solo project, so we agreed to start a metal band as Suicide Torment(MHSRIP) and his uncle Beast Thrust were already available in Ghanzi as our drummers and it all started there, so in 2009 basic instruments were bought and the rehearsal with the drummer were on, so in 2010 Spencer finally relocated to Ghanzi and the band was complete and that’s how we started.
How long have you been playing as a band?
12 years now.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
I am the one who actually came with the name, we had a list of names to choose from and most of the names, when we checked in the internet there belonged to other bands. So I then thought of the word “Thrust” and its aggression and I said “Thrust” is a sudden aggressive push towards a specified direction and “Over” is more than enough, abnormal, abusive and “Overthrust” is an abnormal, abusive, lunatic sudden aggressive and dangerous push or force towards something and that is exactly what our music is like, dirty raw and dangerous sound.
If you like what we do, consider joining us on Patreon for as little as £1 per month!
What are your influences?
Deicide, Morbid Angel, Possessed, Vader, Immolation, Obituary, Cannibal Corpse, Mortician.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We keep our music strictly original, old school and without so many modern sophisticated and complicated effects. We have an extremely ugly, dirty, raw and dangerous sound.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Yes, our theme of songs are death, purgatory/torture, false preachers and morbid subjects.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Our live shows are “mad-max-like” scene. We play heavily aggressive riffs on stage for aggressive looking-like audience heavily dressed in leather outfits, cowboy boots, hats and spikes and chains mixed with every kind of metalhead from all over nations all over the world. Our shows though not so big compared to South Africa, Europe or USA, our shows are very real, very unique and interesting. We have played over 100 since 2010 including about 25 International shows.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
One of our old guitarist (our now standby guitarist/bassist) Godfather was a cop just like me, so we had a show in Ghanzi and he was on duty, he asked for permission to be released from duty so he can attend the show and his supervisors rejected his request, so we continued with the show, Godfather abandoned the duty, he escaped from work and while in the middle of the set on stage we saw Godfather entering the venue door with his amp and guitar and he looked very drunk and he went back stage, after some few moments the police sergeant arrived looking for him and there took him, he sneaked from the police again and this time he was over drunk in the middle of our set he got on stage and dived, stage dived and he fell over the beer bottle, it broke and cut him so bad in the head and hands and he bleed a lot, we stopped for another band to take over and we rushed him to the hospital and we came back, so after the doctor attended him the doctor asked him to remain in the hospital for observation, he escaped from the hospital and while the other band was on stage we saw him head banging with bandages on his head and drinking Gordon’s dry gin.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
We use simple guitars and drum set, at the moment we can’t afford great quality brands as there are very expensive to buy but we have been using Jackson, Ibanez, Harley Benton, Chord and as for the amps we are using vox, ashdown, marshal.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We are promoting our single album Demon Grave, EP Suicide Torment, our merchandise and our new upcoming music.
Don’t fancy Patreon? Buy us a one-off beverage!
What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
We are planning on recording our second full studio album Infected by Myth that was actual supposed to be recorded in July but was postponed due to the pandemic, we will be recording the album with our record label Indian River Music Company from Florida with Jason Banning who recorded our EP Suicide Torment We are also planning on playing 2 major self-organised shows locally and if things go according to plan when boarders open we are likely to play a show in Tanzania and Zambia.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
We would like to support and share stage with Morbid Angel and we would like “Dor Fantasma” thrash metal band from Angola to open a show for us.
Overthrust: facebook | twitter | bandcamp | spotify | youtube
