Performing: Lintver / Eruption / Exodus
Date: Tuesday, 24 June 2025
Venue: Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiška / Slovenia
Exodus are widely regarded as one of the most important bands to emerge from the San Francisco Bay Area at the turn of the eighties. They were on the verge of breaking through, but bad luck always seemed to cut them off at the knees. Then Metallica snatched Hammett. The band pushed back. They kept going. Even from an underground position, they kept putting out killer studio records. Over the past two decades, though, two names have been trading off on vocals — Steve “Zetro” Souza and Rob Dukes. Zetro lasted more than a decade after his third return to the fold, but this year Rob Dukes has reclaimed the mic. Gary Holt, freed from his Slayer obligations, is once again physically at the helm of his own band! Alongside him is his loyal sidekick and fellow shredder Lee Altus, whom we’ve also caught live multiple times with Heathen. On bass, the always-dependable Jack Gibson holds it down, and then there’s the hero of heroes, drummer Tom Hunting, who not long ago won his battle with stomach cancer! They’re back. In Slovenia. Less than a year after their last visit — they played the Tolminator festival last summer. But this time around it’s a very different show: a different vocalist, a different setlist. As for Ljubljana specifically, we hadn’t seen Exodus here since December 2011, when they came through on a package with Sepultura and Destruction, also at Kino Šiška.
To cut to the chase: the band packed out Kino Šiška beautifully. On top of that, two excellent Slovenian thrash metal acts brought their best to what turned out to be a genuinely special evening. Lintver from the Goriška Brda region and Ljubljana’s own Eruption. Both bands can be counted among the survivors: when Slovenia caught the thrash and death metal revival bug in the early 2000s and a whole wave of promising bands bubbled up alongside the likes of Panikk, these two stuck around. Pretty much everything else fell apart along the way. By the standards of today’s Slovenian metal scene, they are the true survivors.
Lintver delivered a hell of a set in just over half an hour. With the crowd roaring them on — it honestly felt like the entire Goriška Brda region had moved into Šiška for the night — the band radiated brilliant, upbeat energy. “The Worst Is Yet To Come”, their latest studio record, is now three years old, but the songs hit with venomous, furious force on stage. Solid sound. Tight as a drum. Every minute put to good use. Shrapnel straight between the eyes!
Where Lintver draw more from Slayer and the roots of the Teutonic thrash school, Eruption — who followed them onto the stage — pull their inspiration straight from the Bay Area thrash legacy. Eruption also delivered exactly what was expected of them. Actually, the very best that could be expected of them. The band put out their third album, “Tellurian Rapture”, just under three years ago — another excellent achievement that confirms the artistic growth of this outstanding outfit. They hit with full force. Buco commanding from every angle, as always an excellent frontman, including when it comes to working the crowd. And of course you can’t picture the onstage madness this band generates without Tegel behind the kit, who once again performed at the highest level — in fact, almost too high a level. At one point his double bass pedal blew apart mid-song, but the guy fixed it fast. Riffs that kill, burning deep, solos sowing terror. The tightness is undeniable. It’s a shame that both Eruption and Lintver play so rarely around Slovenia these days, because when you’re face to face with these two bands, their infectious stage magnetism and convincing “madness” just nails you to the spot.
Exodus killed it, as expected. There’s really no other way to put it. You could feel the change in the vocal slot, though — which isn’t exactly surprising, right? Dukes is a completely different singer from Souza! That’s hardly a groundbreaking observation, and this “difference phenomenon” has divided parts of the fanbase more than once. And yet. I didn’t catch Exodus at Tolminator last year, but in Ljubljana they were radiating serious freshness. Like they’d been reborn. You could feel it immediately — a full-on typhoon was driving them the moment they exploded onto the stage. The sound was excellent throughout. Both guitarists’ solos rang out across the full width of the venue, clear and distinct. The bass dug in without mercy, a fired-up Dukes ignited in his signature style — all screaming aggression, and compared to Souza, a touch less melody in the verse lines. No wasted words between songs. And Hunting is simply the king behind his drum fortress. The guys kept clustering around their drummer like a hockey team protecting their goalie.
The band thrilled with an old-school setlist anchored around “Bonded By Blood” — the title track alone shook Kino Šiška to its foundations right from the opening moments. Also back in the set were fan favourites from the two Dukes-era albums “The Atrocity Exhibition… Exhibit A” and “Shovel Headed Kill Machine”. Exodus just kept rolling, song after song. People were losing it. You’d expect a crowd mostly in the 45–60 bracket, but there were plenty of much, much younger fans of furious distortion in the room — which once again hammers home that well-known truth: metal is here to stay. Forever.
I honestly didn’t notice when more than half the show had flown by. And when, after two “Persona Non Grata” wrecking balls, Exodus steamrolled into the Tempo of the Damned classic War Is My Sheppherd, it was clear we were closing in on a devastating finale. The classics that followed claimed scalps across the entire room: A Lesson In Violence, The Toxic Waltz, and then — without any formal exit and encore return — one more “Bonded By Blood” classic, Strike of the Beast, which sent the band off the stage!
A breathtaking performance. These guys are not letting up! In the shape they’re in, it’s hard to see anyone touching them. Exodus are a classic act today, living legends of metal. What they delivered at Šiška leaves you with sky-high hopes for what’s coming next. A new album, a new tour. The story continues…
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Author: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Lintver – setlist:
1. The Count
2. K. K. N. D.
3. Old Disputes…. New Recruits
4. Winds Of Decimation
5. Erroneous Society
6. Dune
7. Snakebite
Exodus – setlist:
1. We Will Rock You (orig. Queen) – taped intro
2. Bonded by Blood
3. Iconoclasm
4. And Then There Were None
5. Children of a Worthless God
6. Fabulous Disaster
7. Brain Dead
8. Deathamphetamine
9. Blacklist
10. Prescribing Horror
11. The Beatings Will Continue (Until Morale Improves)
12. War Is My Shepherd
13. A Lesson in Violence
14. The Toxic Waltz
15. Strike of the Beast
