It’s midsummer in Brixton, and the sun is beating down mercilessly. The pungent odour of butchers’ shops and fishmongers adds to an oppressive miasma as Hammer trails breathlessly behind four figures clad in black. Wearing leather jackets, denim jeans and boots, they’re dressed for winter rather than a blistering London heatwave. But they are Overthrust, Botswana’s death metal cowboys, and it’ll take more than this to stop them looking cool as fuck.
“It’s a bit warm,” vocalist Vulture Thrust – real name Tshomarelo Mosaka – concedes, when we sit down at music venue Club Cheek, following a photoshoot.
He admits it’s a point of pride that the band maintain their image, even when the sun is doing its level best to charbroil the planet. It’s part of Overthrust’s identity, and a key visual factor that has made Botswana’s ‘metal cowboys’ so fascinating. These Black men and women, whether in bands or fans, dress like they’re in a John Wayne movie – or at the very least, just out of shot on Motörhead’s Ace Of Spades sleeve.
Arresting photos of them with full leather, Stetsons and fringe flying amid arid landscapes have made the Botswanan scene famous. Overthrust don’t go to extremes with the Wild West look – lead guitarist Spencer Thrust (Shalton Monnawadikgang) actually favours a tricorn hat – and, mostly, they look exactly like what they are: four death metal-loving lads from Botswana who’ve come to play some brutal riffs.
Brixton’s Club Cheek is the second stop on their first UK tour, and features support from another global metal icon: former Sepultura drummer Iggor Cavalera. Last night, Overthrust made their UK debut in Brighton. Excitement was so high that they not only sold out the show, but almost all the t-shirts they’d brought along for the tour. Frantic calls are being made to see if they can get more.
But as Vulture and bandmates Spencer, Beast Thrust (drummer Balatedi Folai) and newest recruit Zehst or ‘Baby Thrust’ (guitarist Godwill Gabatlwaelwe) sip on neat Jack Daniels and beers, they’re making themselves right at home.
“The UK is like another planet compared to Europe,” Vulture admits. “But we’ve also noticed a lot of similarities to home. I don’t know why that is – maybe because Botswana used to be a British colony.”
There are definitely some differences. Vulture regales us with a story about how, once, on a bike ride home, he crashed into a cow. “It came out of nowhere!” he protests.
Left with fractured bones, he had to call friends to pick him up. But what happened to the cow? “It didn’t survive,” he says solemnly. A mischievous glint appears in his eye. “I think my friends barbecued it.”
Jokes aside – and we’re pretty sure he’s joking – this tour represents the next big step in a journey almost two decades in the making.
“This has been a dream come true,” Spencer says. “It’s not been easy, but we’re proud of ourselves for doing this and making an impression on so many people. We never imagined that our first show here would sell out. It tells us that what we’re doing really means something.”
Overthrust will be the first to tell you they aren’t the first Botswanan death metal band. In fact, when pressed about how the country’s metal scene developed, they passionately and proudly talk about Nosey Road, a rock band formed in 1969 by brothers Ivo and Renato Sbrana, the sons of Botswana’s first psychiatric doctor.
By the mid-2000s, more bands had emerged with a darker, meaner edge: Metal Orizon, Wrust, Vitrified (for whom Beast drummed). Vulture formed Overthrust in 2008 with Beast and Spencer. By that point, there were plenty of metal fans in the country, but the wider scene was still minuscule.
Nonetheless, inspired by tapes of Deicide, Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel, Vulture honed his death growl (he credits a combination of karate kiais, playfully barking at his dogs and “pretending to be a lion to scare my little sister”), and the band began building its own scene. First they played in their hometown of Ghanzi, before travelling to other cities and towns to connect with metalheads around the country.
“The first time we’d play, it’d be, ‘I bet these guys are terrible,’” Vulture says with a laugh. “By the third time, we’d formed a real bond with them, and even non-metalheads would be like, ‘I know these guys, I’ll come see them.’”
By 2015, Beast had relinquished his drum stool to his nephew, Suicide Torment (Gakeitse Bothalentwa). That year, the band released their full-length debut, Desecrated Deeds To Decease. In 2016, they went on their debut European tour, which included a stop at Germany’s Wacken festival.
“It was the biggest crowd we’d ever seen,” Vulture marvels. “The lighting and production made us feel like we belonged to the world for the first time. What more could we want, after that?”
The answer, of course, was ‘more’. Overthrust began connecting with fans around the world, expanding their global metal network.
“We’d got people getting in touch with us from Russia, asking about our album,” Spencer recalls. “We even got some recognition in the USA, where the label Indian River Music Company offered to help distribute the record.”
Although another European tour followed in 2017, tragedy halted their momentum. In 2018, Suicide Torment was killed by a drunk driver. In the aftermath, Beast returned to the fold, and the following year the band released an EP named after, and in tribute to, their fallen drummer.
By this point, Botswana’s metal scene had gone viral. It was partly thanks to an iconic photography series by Frank Marshall, started in 2009 but shown in galleries and on websites for years after. But there was also the book Heavy Metal Africa, in which writer Edward Banchs shed light on the disparate bands spread across the continent, and the 2018 documentary Freedom In The Dark – named after Overthrust’s debut single.
Everyone from Metal Hammer to Vice and The Guardian helped shine a light on Botswana’s metal cowboys. Then Covid hit. “The scene has been slowly coming back since,” Spencer explains.
Still, Overthrust have been busy. Continuing to put on gigs, they’ve put the ‘community’ into the notion of a global metal community, even continuing to work with Wacken as judges for Sub-Saharan Africa, to help usher in the next generation of talent.
“We’ve had bands from all over Africa, but also even from as far away as Brazil, sending us music for a second opinion,” reveals Vulture. “But we’re also honest with upcoming bands – if you’re just playing for money, you’re probably going to get pretty frustrated and break up. Most of the old bands did not survive. We’ve been flexible and just made music to fulfil our desires, and escape from trouble and stress.”
It’s a wisdom that’s been hard earned. Before he was Overthrust’s growler-in-chief, Vulture was a member of Botswana’s police force, and explains the institution actively encouraged its members to pursue music and sport as a way to connect with the community.
When Hammer points out the irony of him extolling the virtues of policing in Brixton, of all places – a locale that has had four major riots in the past 45 years relating to alleged police violence – he admits he can only speak from his own experiences.
“I don’t know how it works in other countries, but in Botswana the police are a big part of the community and have a positive impact,” he says resolutely. “Even within the military and police, there are actually bands that form and put shows on for charity.”
Although he left the police force in 2018 to become a miner, Vulture says the community spirit still holds strong in Overthrust. Since 2010, they’ve been hosting their own Winter Metal Mania Festival, raising money for disadvantaged children in Botswana.
“We use Winter Mania to bring in bands from all over Africa for charity,” Spencer explains. “There’s lots of street kids, so we wanted to do something for them.”
In turn, that has turned Overthrust into one of the leading lights of Botswana’s burgeoning metal scene. While Vulture says he’s honoured that younger metalheads look up to him, he admits there’s pressure, too.
“If we gave up now, it would destroy our scene,” he says. “We’ve become a band others follow.”
“We have to work even harder not just to represent Botswana, but Africa,” Spencer agrees.
In 2024, the band finally managed to record Infected By Myth, a follow-up to their 2015 debut album. Tighter and with better production, it’s the product of a decade of growth and building bridges.
In keeping with their community spirit, the band reached out to their fans to help fund their 2025 European and UK tour. Although they were able to secure visas with the help of the National Arts Council Of Botswana – “They’re happy that we’re representing the country,” says Vulture – they used Kickstarter to raise £1,220 towards costs.
“Every time we get a positive response from the metal community, we know we’re doing the right thing,” says Vulture. “It is a community too, there are people helping us without whom we wouldn’t be here at all. It gives us courage. We’ve been building bonds that aren’t just about friendship – it’s a family now."
Infected By Myth is out now via Indian River Music Company
