In a recent conversation on All Access Live! With Kevin Rankin, Shadows Fall drummer Jason Bittner revisited his decision to part ways with New Jersey thrash veterans Overkill more than a year ago. Bittner, now 55, had joined Overkill in 2017 and contributed to two of the band’s albums, The Wings Of War in 2019 and Scorched in 2023.
Reflecting on the split, Bittner was candid but avoided bitterness (via Blabbermouth): "I'm not gonna talk anything negative about my old situations or anything like that. People leave bands for their own reasons. Let's just say I was stagnant in my old situation. I was not happy with where I was in a business sense with Overkill. I was basically giving more of myself than I was getting in return. And after almost eight years, I had pretty much had enough of that. And when I knew that there wasn't even any negotiation aspect to anything, I'm, like, 'Okay, well, it's time to start thinking about myself.'"
He went further, comparing his experience to everyday work: "When you go to a job, when you start a job, do you ever go to a job — I don't care what job it is; it could be McDonald's — do you ever go to a job and never get a raise after eight years? This is not a hypothetical situation. This is a true story."
This isn’t the first time Bittner has addressed the subject. Last November, he explained in some detail about the dynamics and why he decided to leave: "I hadn't been happy in [Overkill] for, like, two fucking years. It wasn't a surprise that I quit. I'd been dissatisfied for a long time, but I'm a team player. I don't like to leave things. I love the guys personally. So I just kind of just hung in there, but I was not happy where I was career-wise, let's say, within the confines of that band. I wasn't a band member. And that's the main thing for me to keep doing this at this point in my lifetime. That's why for Shadows Fall to be back together, I'm 20 percent owner-member. I'm involved in the decisions. I just don't get told what's happening. I hate that. I'm a Capricorn. I can't deal with that shit."
The drummer emphasized that his frustration largely stemmed from not having a true stake in the group: "For my whole career, for the most part, even like back to the early days, all the bands either I formed or I was instrumental in getting the guys together, or it was always just a one-for-all, all-for-one thing. Overkill was the only band I've ever played in where I was a hired gun. The only exception was Anthrax, but I was only a touring member with Anthrax, and with Prong — only touring. That's a totally different animal than being, quote-unquote, in the band. Even when I was in Flotsam And Jetsam, I was a 20 percent member-owner. I was involved in the decisions. So seven and a half years of that was a long time for me."
Bittner admitted he expected some of his words to be taken out of context, but clarified: "My point is: I love the guys, I was a team player, I wasn't leaving, but I was dissatisfied and I was looking for something else. My whole career, I had my ears always to the grindstone and I'm always just in the mix to know what's going on, like, 'Oh, hey, someone's looking for something.' Not that I want to be a ship jumper or anything, but I've had a lot of downtime on my hands in the last number of years. So anything I can play on, play with, be a part of, I'm gung-ho to do. But for a while with Overkill, I wasn't like that anymore," Jason admitted. "I'm, like, 'All right, this is cool. I'm not looking for anything else.' But after a while, I was, like, 'All right, I need another outlet.'"
