In a brand new interview with Germany’s Steel.de, EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt confirmed that the band’s traditional debut album, 1985’s “Bonded By Blood” remains to be his favourite EXODUS LP. Requested if meaning he thinks EXODUS “by no means topped” “Bonded By Blood” with one thing else, Gary stated (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “No. By no means topped it. That is blasphemous to even say. ‘Bonded By Blood’ is the album that began all of it. So, it is my youth, it is my highschool yearbook. It is the rationale I am nonetheless right here. So it is at all times gonna be primary. And [late EXODUS frontman] Paul Baloff, regardless of solely singing on one album, is at all times the voice of EXODUS. That is no insult to [later EXODUS singers] Zetro [Steve Souza] or Rob [Dukes]. It is simply Paul began it.”
Requested if he and his EXODUS bandmates have considered a potential retirement or if they’re simply too “filled with vitality” proper now to name it quits, Holt responded: “No, I am not filled with vitality. I am fucking drained. However we’re gonna do that as laborious as we are able to, as heavy as we are able to till we will not. And that is why we recorded a lot music [for the next EXODUS album]. We figured, do it now whereas we’re nonetheless capable of. Who is aware of? I’ve had elbow issues, hand issues, shoulder issues now. Perhaps in 5 years age will catch up and the arthritis will get unhealthy and I am unable to do it. I do not know.”
Relating to what he may do all day if he needed to cease touring and recording with EXODUS, Gary stated: “I do not know. I do not know. Flip to a lifetime of crime, possibly. I do not know. I have never discovered a approach to earn a living being charming, so I do not know what I am gonna do.”
When the interviewer famous that Gary has discovered a approach to make some more money by promoting merchandise by way of his Holt Awaits on-line retailer, the guitarist concurred. “Yeah, it helps,” he stated. “Folks assume, ‘Oh, you are a wealthy rock star.’ No. I promote shirts, and I promote them outta my fucking closet. All proper. Pack this one up, label it, ship it off. However no, that simply helps. It does not pay the payments. It helps to maintain pay the payments. It helped actually quite a bit within the pandemic. However I do not know. If I truthfully retired, I might in all probability do extra producing. I might keep in music. However typically I daydream about not leaving the home. ‘Trigger I hate leaving — I hate getting on the airplane to go away — however as quickly as I arrive, I’ve enjoyable.”
Holt was additionally requested about EXODUS bassist Jack Gibson‘s current remark that he and his bandmates are “touring t-shirt salesmen”. Gary stated: “[Selling shirts is] the place we make our cash. We’re fortunate… Should you’re in a band the place the cash you are paid to play covers your bills and the t-shirt cash is yours, you are doing rather well. As a result of every thing, particularly because the pandemic — tour buses value method more cash. The whole lot prices extra. Airfare prices extra. It is fucking laborious. We do okay, we do fairly good. However then while you come house and you do not work for 2 months, that cash you made has to cowl, stretch out over all of it. So it is not what individuals assume.”
In a July 2024 interview with Danielle Bloom, Gibson was requested what recommendation he would give to musicians who’re simply beginning out, in addition to to these musicians who possibly are a bit of jaded at this level of their profession. He responded: “I do not know what to inform younger musicians in the present day as a result of I am jaded. And it is not that I am simply jaded, it is that there is no music enterprise anymore.
“After I was younger, there was a path, there have been steps to take,” he defined. “You bought your band collectively, you set your music collectively, you began on the lookout for reveals, and in case you might draw individuals to your reveals, then the following step was that label individuals would have an interest. Then you definitely needed to get your promotional pack collectively to offer to the labels that have been . And you then tried to get signed and you then tried to make data and promote data And people steps do not exist in any respect anymore. Now the step is make a band — or not even make a band. Let’s simply go viral. I do not know to do this. Do not ask me easy methods to fucking do this. I am in my fifties. I do not know the way to do this shit. It’s very a thriller to me. I do not know the way issues get fashionable now, different than simply complete luck. So I do not know.
“Right here in Nashville [where I live now], younger musicians, they ask me that on a regular basis,” he continued. “And I sort of really feel like a dick once I’m answering, as a result of I am, like, ‘Guys, I do not know.’ I do not know what makes issues tick. The bands which are actual fashionable, I do not know why these bands are fashionable. And I am not saying that they don’t seem to be good; I simply do not know why these ones are those that stand out from the opposite ones proper now. All of it sort of sounds the identical to me. I suppose it is in all probability as a result of I am simply outdated. However I do not know what path to offer anyone.”
When Bloom famous out that “we live in numerous instances” proper now, Gibson concurred. “There is no enterprise,” he stated. “As soon as they began giving the music away, there is no enterprise. We do not promote shit for data. If we do not exit and promote t-shirts, we do not earn a living. I am a t-shirt salesman. I am not a musician. I am actually a touring tchotchke vendor. That is what we do. We play music to attempt to get individuals to the shop and promote them our fuckin’ stuff with stuff printed on it. That is the enterprise. If you cannot refill a room, 50,000 items moved on the Web, then they do not wanna discuss to you. And any day now, we’re all gonna lose our jobs to those fuckin’ robots. As soon as the A.I. figures out easy methods to really make music that folks get pleasure from, they don’t seem to be gonna pay us to do shit.”
After Bloom expressed her perception that folks will at all times be fascinated with seeing stay music being carried out by people, Jack stated: “Nicely, that is true. However at this cut-off date, a lot of the music enterprise is not that; most of it’s licensing and business jingles and music enhancing and music recording. All that is gonna simply disappear. There’s gonna be 50 individuals on the market who make music that individuals are fascinated with that may’t be reproduced. After which the remainder of it… Like, who’s gonna pay any individual to put in writing music for a film? Or pay an orchestra, pay 60 individuals to return in and carry out it when one man can simply go [punch a few commands into a computer] and it comes out. And we’re not gonna know the fucking distinction. Issues are altering so quick that I do not actually know what to say.”
Souza joined EXODUS in 1986 after beforehand fronting the band LEGACY (which later grew to become TESTAMENT). He remained within the band till their hiatus in 1993, however rejoined them for 2 years from 2002 to 2004. Dukes had joined EXODUS in 2005 (following Souza‘s departure) and remained till 2014, when Souza rejoined.
Dukes beforehand joined EXODUS in January 2005 and appeared on 4 of the band’s studio albums — “Shovel Headed Kill Machine” (2005),“The Atrocity Exhibition… Exhibit A” (2007),“Let There Be Blood” (2008, a re-recording of EXODUS‘s traditional 1985 LP, “Bonded By Blood”) and “Exhibit B: The Human Situation” (2010).
EXODUS‘s third stint with Souza resulted in January, with Dukes being welcomed again on the similar time.
EXODUS performed its first live performance with Dukes in almost 11 years on April 5 on the Decibel Journal Steel & Beer Fest: Philly on the Fillmore in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Though EXODUS hardly ever will get talked about alongside the so-called “Large 4” of Eighties thrash metallic — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — the aforementioned “Bonded By Blood” LP impressed the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and lots of others to launch their careers and is taken into account one of the vital influential thrash metallic albums of all time.