EXODUS

EXODUS
by Jason Walsh

It was 1980 when the trash metal scene was first emerging from the Bay Area and lightning fast riffs, thundering drums, and shredded vocals were becoming the standard in the California community. A group of likeminded guys bonded together to create EXODUS, featuring Tom Hunting, Gary Holt, Paul Baloff, and Kirk Hammett, who would go on to great fame and fortune with METALLICA. EXODUS had a good run throughout the next decade and half, but were overshadowed by their peers in critical acclaim and lucrative contracts. In 1993, they disbanded for several years, reuniting for a brief time in 1997, and attempted a second reunion in 2001, which was shattered by the unfortunate and untimely death of frontman Paul Baloff. The band persevered following the tragedy with some lineup changes, releasing a few more studio records, and continuing to hit the road.

Last year, the band reworked their legendary “Bonded By Blood” album from 1985, which in considered by many to be one of the most important thrash records in metal history. The nod to the classic, “Let There Be Blood,” took songs from a quarter decade ago and gave them a technological and modern upgrade.

The band has currently been on tour with European thrash metal gods, KREATOR, and on a stop in the Lone Star state, I had a chance to talk to guitarist Gary Holt about being on the road after nearly three decades, the new album they will be starting this Fall, and yes…even crawfish, Texas style.

JW: So what’s going on, Gary? How you doing today?

GARY HOLT: We’re doing good, man. Been out here on the road for what seems like an eternity with KREATOR, BELPHEGOR, WARBRINGER, and EPICUREAN and we’re having a good time. Right now we’re in Houston and we’re in the middle of Crawfish Feast.

JW: Well, that’s a good thing. I won’t keep you too long from that. That sounds like a good time.

GARY HOLT: Uh, yeah, I just woke up to it (laughs). Got a little crawfish and watch a little lizard run across. Other than that, it’s a pretty good day, man. It’s beautiful. It’s humid as hell though but really nice.

JW: Where you at right now?

GARY HOLT: Houston.

JW: Oh, so you’re down in Texas. No wonder it’s humid.

GARY HOLT: Yeah, it’s hot and humid but it beats the cold from the early part of the tour. Last few days it’s all been about BBQ and everyone’s just gathering together and have some drinks. I think we got nine more shows with KREATOR and everybody else and then we’re just going to headline our way back home from West Virgini, you know.

JW: So how long have you been on the road with KREATOR now?

GARY HOLT: We’ve been out with KREATOR since April 7 but we started, the tour started in Baltimore, Maryland, and we’re from California, so we worked our way back East. We started like March 26 I think and we finish…May 26 is our last show, so two months…yeah.

JW: You’ve been on the road for a while then.

GARY HOLT: Yeah, yeah. There was a point when I think everybody was hitting the little wall, you know, but the last couple days I think everybody’s been getting a second wind. We had a big BBQ in Dallas and everybody was just drinking beer and just pigging out and it was a really good times. Everybody seemed to get a jolt out of it. Tonight should be really good and we actually have a day off tomorrow.

JW: So, c’mon…29 years later. Is this still fun?

GARY HOLT: Yeah, I wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t fun. You know I’ve always said that when this becomes like a “day job,” I won’t do it anymore and that’s exactly what I did in 1993. It had become like a “day job,” wasn’t having any fun whatsoever, and so I quit for a while. Right now, I don’t take anything for granted. We’re all having a good time and we’re all working very hard. It’s a good time. Here in North America, things have gotten a lot better for thrash metal and in Europe it’s always gone strong, but you know, it’s good times playing the kind of stuff we do right now.

JW: Tell me about this record you’re working on. It’s a follow-up to “The Atrocity Exhibition…Exhibit A” in 2007. Is it kind of like part two of that?

GARY HOLT: Well, it’s called part two (The Atrocity Exhibition…Exhibit B). Thematically, there will be some musical intros that tie the albums together and stuff like that, but lyrically it’s going to concentrate on some different things. Yeah, but it’s what we’ve been calling EXHIBIT B and we hope to be in the studio probably about November 1 to start recording.

JW: Have you written anything yet or are you still kind of working it out?

GARY HOLT: No, we’ve got a lot of stuff. We’re just finalizing a lot of riffs, we keep on writing, we have four songs that aren’t even finished from the last session so we have a head start already on it. We’re real excited about getting this one underway.

JW: When do you think that might look to be released? Any idea on that?

GARY HOLT: We’re shooting for Spring next year. We’re tired of touring in the Winter. It always seems to be a Winter release and then we’re out in Europe in the ice and snow. We’re just going to put this one out probably around March of 2010.

JW: Very cool. So tell me about the “Let There Be Blood” album you guys did last year. You redid “Bonded by Blood” which is like a classic. I mean that’s pretty much the staple that everybody remembers Exodus by.

GARY HOLT: Yeah. We just wanted to give those songs a sonic upgrade, you know, with the benefit of modern production and put those songs on display kind of like the way we like to play them now. A number of reasons, to pay homage to the original, pay homage to the guys who did it, and put the fact that we still love playing these songs. The album came out killer, you know. A lot of people don’t think you should mess with a classic. A lot of people didn’t think we should and then loved it when they heard it. We didn’t chickenshit around with it, you know, we went all out on it, made it heavy, and played it with a lot of energy and I’m really happy with how it came out.

JW: And those songs. They stand the test of time and still are relevant today. Why do you think that is?

GARY HOLT: Exactly. Well, the songs are just killer and great songs stand the test of time, and especially when you hear them with the modern recording and modern production. They don’t sound like songs written in the early 80s and released in 1985. They sound current and that’s one of our whole goals, to show how relevant these songs still were…and are.

JW: My last question…after this tour what are you guys going to do before you hit the studio. You got any big plans for the summer?

GARY HOLT: No. All our plans are very minimal for once. We have a weekend “fly-in” show in Puerto Rico, which is basically just a three-day vacation in Puerto Rico, you know. A lot of Pina Coladas and one gig (laughs). Then we fly in the weekend following to play Graspop (Metal Meeting in Belgium) and the Bang Your Head Festival (Balingen, Germany) in Europe and those are our only two European shows of the year. Then, we just end up working on the next record.