Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Release date: November 19, 2021
Production: Andy Sneap
Album length: 60.23 min
Genre: Thrash Metal
Rating: 8.5/10
Exodus! Bay Area thrash metal legends. The new album, their eleventh studio record overall, is finally here. “Unwanted Person” – »Persona Non Grata«. Just what you’d expect from a cult band that holds on to the rage and mockery that built one of the cornerstones of worldwide thrash metal. After Slayer called it a day, Exodus boss and guitarist Gary Holt stepped up even more and poured into the new material a few ideas that smell (as expected) like classic Exodus. His stint with Slayer also left him thoroughly infected with nastiness, wickedness, slyness and depravity, and those new ideas pour plenty of oil on the fire of the band’s already proverbial, crushing aggression and the demolition-derby expanses of their one-of-a-kind sonic terror. An embrace of evil and hopelessness, all in one place, is theatrically exalted in the boundlessly doom-laden, heavyweight dystopian march Prescribing Horror. On the new album, Exodus remain the same quintet that, without a shred of sugarcoating and with no holds barred, spews out all its anger at humanity’s delusions. Socially critical engagement is still the great wellspring of the band’s creative inspiration, even in their mature years. Just think about it: Exodus were founded back in 1979. That biting acidity isn’t fading. Even after a solid 40 years, Exodus dish out the same unrelenting, fiery fury and breakneck, grinding slaps that make their listeners’ ears bleed willingly.
The returning Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza, so sorely and so long missed, proves on the second album since his comeback that his vocals remain a reliable and utterly devastating meat grinder, which he uses to confidently match the aggressive terror of the new album’s seriously stamped-in-your-brain hooks. ‘Zetro’ is everything you could want from a vocalist when it comes to the character and work of Exodus. From head to toe.
On the flip side, »Persona Non Grata« is once again too long. It clocks in a little over an hour, and that’s honestly its only flaw. The same remark was thrown at its predecessor »Blood In Blood Out«, which came out, whoa, a whole seven years ago. Unlike »Blood In Blood Out«, though, »Persona Non Grata« hits much more compact and better defined, and even though some tracks run dangerously close to eight minutes (Lunatic-Liar-Lord, the title track), it never feels like it’s stealing the listener’s time. Across the entire runtime you can really feel the quintet’s exceptional commitment, with a wonderful execution of all the expressive brilliance of the band’s members! And that’s always the tipping point that brings the win. »Persona Non Grata« was finished more than half a year before its official release. Yet another delay caused by the state our planet has been living through for the last two years!
Elitist, Clickbait, The Beatings Will Continue (Until Morale Improves) and Slipping Into Madness can be declared classic Exodus songs on the spot. Especially a shorter wrecking ball like Clickbait is a full-on throwback to the classic days of »Pleasures of the Flesh« (1987). Lee Altus and Gary Holt keep up the pedigree of one of the most brilliant guitar tandems in metal. When it comes to classic thrash metal on the world stage, hardly anyone can stand next to them, with the exception (and you guessed it) of the Testament duo Skolnick/Peterson. The work of both guitarists on the new Exodus album is once again an unrivaled treat. Their solos are inventive, sparkling, and subtly placed in the very core of the songs (mid-eight passages are often the very highlights of the compositions for that reason). There’s a pile of extra embellished escapades and dizzying atmospheric twists in the modulations, constantly backing up the inexhaustible imagination of the guitar scenery of the two axe masters. Musical moments that embody third harmonies are not missing either. Blessed! And The Years Of Death And Dying is a song that definitely ‘escaped’ from the »Tempo of the Damned« (2004) album.
Yes. With »Persona Non Grata, bands like Havok and Warbringer, who are a bit younger than Exodus, will perk up their ears even in 2021 and instantly admit that, in their revivalism, they still have plenty to learn from the Bay Area thrash metal legends. So Exodus are far from saying their last word, even with the new album. Let’s just hope that everything turns out fine with Tom Hunting, who has been battling stomach cancer for the past year, that things get sorted out, and that the music of the new Exodus album, along with all the classics from their iron repertoire, comes alive again on the stages of the old European continent as soon as possible. After the excellent achievements of Testament, Heathen and others, and now the new Exodus album, may the renaissance of the classic thrash metal days of the eighties go on!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Persona Non Grata
2. R.E.M.F.
3. Slipping Into Madness
4. Elitist
5. Prescribing Horror
6. The Beatings Will Continue (Until Morale Improves)
7. The Years Of Death And Dying
8. Clickbait
9. Cosa Del Pantano
10. Lunatic-Liar-Lord
11. The Fires Of Division
12. Antiseed
Lineup:
Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza – vocals
Gary Holt – guitar
Lee Altus – guitar
Jack Gibson – bass
Tom Hunting – drums
