Urge Overkill/Exit the Dragon

Urge Overkill appeared to be riding high after the critical triumph of its 1993 album, Saturation, and the prominent appearance of its Neil Diamond cover, “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon,” in Pulp Fiction in 1994. But by the time the alt-rock trio reunited with producers the Butcher Bros. to record the follow-up album, expectations and circumstances had changed. As singer-songwriter-guitarists Nash Kato and Eddie “King” Roeser recall here in stark detail, the two of them were in different places personally and musically, drummer Blackie Onassis was fighting his own demons, and an unhealthy environment developed around the Butcher Bros.’ new studio outside Philadelphia. Exit the Dragon, the resultant album that recently marked its 30th anniversary, is a dark, slithery, ragged work that has achieved a lasting power amid its tattered nerve endings. What happened here, and why did Exit the Dragon turn out to be the final Urge Overkill album featuring Kato, Roeser and the late Onassis? (Photo: Jerod Herzog)