Exodus
Blood In, Blood Out
Nuclear Blast
2014
Right, studio album ten for Exodus and some ten years after “Tempo of the Damned” it’s a reunion with Zetro. Actually a bizarre one, as their previous vocalist Rob Dukes, which I can’t say I liked much, and I wasn’t the biggest fan of the albums he sung on (well except half of “Shovel” maybe and a few songs from one of the two exhibits, but only a few – but overall he was way too death metal flavored) was given an unceremonious boot from the band in order to make “space” for “Zetro” who in the past had shot down reunion suggestions repeatedly. Well... this wasn’t cool, but there unfortunately nothing romantic, about the music “business”. On the album it’s more or less business as usual for Exodus, who, do sound energized, but given a decade since “Tempo” sound a little more “tired” and lacking the spark they had on that album. Don’t get me wrong, “Blood In Blood Out” is quite impressive and probably “what had to be done” to please the fans and possibly get sales back on track and fans going back to club shows by the band (even if with Gary Holt semi permanently in Slayer these days, god knows how this is gonna play out, if he’s going to be touring with both...)
“Black 13” (feat. Dan the Automator) is the kick off, featuring a short industrial sampled intro by the hip hop artist, that Hold had made a casual acquaintance with through the years. It’s quite hot and hard hitting and ideal to open the album.
“Blood In, Blood Out” continues to leave the gauntlet on the floor, but feels like a sped up “waltz” through hell… it’s a bit weird and a bit of a throwback? Intentional? Who knows... there’s a bigass solo in there, but it’s not exactly something to write home about... unfortunately, without being bad, per ce.
“Collateral Damage” is politically charged-thrash, in the only speed that so far seems to be the order of the day and that “fast”. The leads here are a bit more, quirky, but sound a little more interesting at least.
“Salt the Wound” (feat. Kirk Hammet) is not bad, but it would not have been the subject of much discussion if it wasn’t a reunion with original Exodus and oh well Metallica’s guitarist Kirk Hammett. It’s built around a nice little riff that gets repeated all the bloody time driving you nuts! And here we get another mad-fingery solo, but at least this time – it’s “the shit”. I wonder if it’s actually Hammet lol!
“Body Harvest” is a number that Zetro had his hand in co-writting, and it’s more brutal and crazy than the rest, for the most part only slowing down a bit for the chorus part. Quite cool actually. A minor highlight.
“BTK” (feat. Chuck Billy) starts off promisingly, and even has a nice solo, but both the lazy “guest” of CB and the fact that the song itself seems to sort of run out of steam and ideas midway don’t help its cause greatly. The “death metal” sort of ending also a sign that maybe they weren’t even sure how to wrap this “shit up..”
“Wrapped in the Arms of Rage” is seriously more rhythmical, with some great guitar playing trough out, infused with lots of melody. It’s too sad that the song itself is not exactly up on par with its instrumental parts which are simply awesome.
“My Last Nerve” is very much groove based and apart from its solos, it’s boring to my ears.
“Numb” is also too simple and feels like a hastily assembled song where 2-3 ideas where put one after the other to form a song, hardly arranged. Filler not killer.
“Honor Killings” tackles the whole issue of killings by fanatic Muslims in a bit of a predictable way. It’s funny how a lot of people that wanted to tackle the issue haven’t done so, in fear of possibly being targeted and “Exodus” possibly Souza, just go for it… gee... obviously while no-one condones random people losing their heads, no one should condone, random unarmed people losing their lives as collateral – right ? The unfortunate thing is human lives getting lost all the damn time. Musically it’s not a bad song but it’s so politically charged that, you probably check that out more.
“Food for the Worms” is a total thrashmageddon, going from 45 rpm to 78 rpm at least for the first half of the song, when there’s a small “interlude” before it picks up speed again. Such a lovely little prose about being nothing more than “worm-food”. Yum Yum! Well can’t say that I don’t agree with the atheist rhetoric in there.
Last but not least there’s a nice cover of “Angel of Death”, no not the Slayer one, not the Thin Lizzy one (apparently I could go on writing of quite a long list of bands that have written a song with that title – coming home is a close second in common titles as well – please !). It’s the Angelwitch tune done with a duo of voices and done quite well.
All in all and if one pardons a few misfires along the album and the overall somewhat lesser enthusiasm displayed here, when one compares this to “Tempo”, which obviously came a whole decade earlier, “Blood”, ain’t too bad a record. It had to eventually come out and it keep Exodus in the game, so, yeah, worth adding to one’s collection for sure.
“Black 13” (feat. Dan the Automator) is the kick off, featuring a short industrial sampled intro by the hip hop artist, that Hold had made a casual acquaintance with through the years. It’s quite hot and hard hitting and ideal to open the album.
“Blood In, Blood Out” continues to leave the gauntlet on the floor, but feels like a sped up “waltz” through hell… it’s a bit weird and a bit of a throwback? Intentional? Who knows... there’s a bigass solo in there, but it’s not exactly something to write home about... unfortunately, without being bad, per ce.
“Collateral Damage” is politically charged-thrash, in the only speed that so far seems to be the order of the day and that “fast”. The leads here are a bit more, quirky, but sound a little more interesting at least.
“Salt the Wound” (feat. Kirk Hammet) is not bad, but it would not have been the subject of much discussion if it wasn’t a reunion with original Exodus and oh well Metallica’s guitarist Kirk Hammett. It’s built around a nice little riff that gets repeated all the bloody time driving you nuts! And here we get another mad-fingery solo, but at least this time – it’s “the shit”. I wonder if it’s actually Hammet lol!
“Body Harvest” is a number that Zetro had his hand in co-writting, and it’s more brutal and crazy than the rest, for the most part only slowing down a bit for the chorus part. Quite cool actually. A minor highlight.
“BTK” (feat. Chuck Billy) starts off promisingly, and even has a nice solo, but both the lazy “guest” of CB and the fact that the song itself seems to sort of run out of steam and ideas midway don’t help its cause greatly. The “death metal” sort of ending also a sign that maybe they weren’t even sure how to wrap this “shit up..”
“Wrapped in the Arms of Rage” is seriously more rhythmical, with some great guitar playing trough out, infused with lots of melody. It’s too sad that the song itself is not exactly up on par with its instrumental parts which are simply awesome.
“My Last Nerve” is very much groove based and apart from its solos, it’s boring to my ears.
“Numb” is also too simple and feels like a hastily assembled song where 2-3 ideas where put one after the other to form a song, hardly arranged. Filler not killer.
“Honor Killings” tackles the whole issue of killings by fanatic Muslims in a bit of a predictable way. It’s funny how a lot of people that wanted to tackle the issue haven’t done so, in fear of possibly being targeted and “Exodus” possibly Souza, just go for it… gee... obviously while no-one condones random people losing their heads, no one should condone, random unarmed people losing their lives as collateral – right ? The unfortunate thing is human lives getting lost all the damn time. Musically it’s not a bad song but it’s so politically charged that, you probably check that out more.
“Food for the Worms” is a total thrashmageddon, going from 45 rpm to 78 rpm at least for the first half of the song, when there’s a small “interlude” before it picks up speed again. Such a lovely little prose about being nothing more than “worm-food”. Yum Yum! Well can’t say that I don’t agree with the atheist rhetoric in there.
Last but not least there’s a nice cover of “Angel of Death”, no not the Slayer one, not the Thin Lizzy one (apparently I could go on writing of quite a long list of bands that have written a song with that title – coming home is a close second in common titles as well – please !). It’s the Angelwitch tune done with a duo of voices and done quite well.
All in all and if one pardons a few misfires along the album and the overall somewhat lesser enthusiasm displayed here, when one compares this to “Tempo”, which obviously came a whole decade earlier, “Blood”, ain’t too bad a record. It had to eventually come out and it keep Exodus in the game, so, yeah, worth adding to one’s collection for sure.