San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal pioneers EXODUS played their first concert with singer Rob Dukes in nearly 11 years last night (Saturday, April 5) at the Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest: Philly at the Fillmore in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.The band’s setlist was as follows, according to Setlist.fm:01. Bonded By Blood02. Exodus03. And Then There Were None04. A Lesson In Violence05. Metal Command06. Deathamphetamine07. Blacklist08. Piranha09. No Love10. Deliver Us To Evil11. The Toxic Waltz12. Strike Of The BeastFan-filmed video of the concert can be seen below.In January it was announced that EXODUS had parted ways with longtime singer Steve “Zetro” Souza and was being rejoined by Dukes.Souza joined EXODUS in 1986 after previously fronting the band LEGACY (which later became TESTAMENT). He remained in the band until their hiatus in 1993, but rejoined them for two years from 2002 to 2004. Dukes had joined EXODUS in 2005 (following Souza’s departure) and remained until 2014, when Souza rejoined.Regarding how he ended up back in the EXODUS fold, Rob told Mark Strigl in February: “How it happened was Lee [Altus, EXODUS guitarist] and Gary [Holt, EXODUS guitarist] called me, and Tom [Hunting, EXODUS drummer] called me, and they all spoke to me individually to kind of see where I was at. And then they asked me, and I said, ‘Sure.'”I’m not gonna talk about why they did what they did [as far as parting ways with Zetro] — that’s on them to talk about, ’cause I have no idea,” he continued. “I mean, I kind of do, but it’s not my place. So, I’ll let them handle that end.”I was as surprised as you, man,” Dukes admitted. “I mean, when I got the call… Me and Gary didn’t speak as much, but me and Tom talk all the time. Me and Lee constantly talk about hockey and give each other shit — I’m a Rangers fan; he’s a Flyers fan — so we’re always in contact, especially during hockey season. And then, like I said, man, it came out of nowhere for myself too. And I took a day and decided, ‘Yeah, okay, I can make it work.’ ‘Cause I have to put my life on hold, the life I’ve been building for 10 years as a car builder and a welder. But I sat down with the people I work for and the people I work with and I explained the situation and they were all, like, ‘Yeah, go do it, man. You only live once.’ And I was, like, ‘Yeah, cool. That’s exactly how I was thinking about it.’ So, it all worked out, man. And everybody’s stoked and happy.”As for the timeline for a new EXODUS studio album — his first with the band in a decade and a half — Dukes said: “I’m going up [to the San Francisco Bay Area] in a couple of weeks and start doing vocals on the new record. They have a bunch of songs written. Basically, right now they’re working out the composition and the drums and stuff. Once again, I’m the fucking new guy, so I’m not really in the loop on things. I just know that I’m gonna be there in the first week of March and then I’ll probably be there for a while.”When Strigl noted that Gary said in a recent interview that EXODUS’s next album likely won’t arrive before 2026, Rob said: “I don’t know. I don’t have that information. Like I said, I’m the fucking new guy again. They just asked me, ‘Hey, can you do this, this and that?’ And I go, ‘Yeah, I can make that happen.'”For me, it was a lot of scrambling trying to get the projects that I’m involved with, the cars I’m working on, trying to get them to either a finish point or at least a decent stopping point and dealing with other people’s expectations and putting their expectations on hold a little bit,” Rob explained. “So it was kind of like a dance, and I was pretty stressed until about a week and a half ago when things just kind of, like, ‘Okay. This is the timeline. This is cool. And everybody’s happy and everybody’s cool. And I get to go do this thing that…'”I love doing it, man,” Dukes said about playing with EXODUS again. “I love hanging out with these guys. It’s just fun. It was fun to do, and it’s fun to be a part of this situation. And I’m glad they asked me to come back, man.”On the topic of the musical direction of the new EXODUS material, Rob said: “I’ve heard a few tracks, and they’re just really fast. It’s fucking thrash metal, and it’s EXODUS, for sure. I’ve heard bits and pieces. Actually, I went up to San Francisco two or three weeks ago and I sat in on a writing session with Gary and Tom. And it was awesome, man. I was, like, ‘Goddamn. All right, cool. This is kind of right where I left off.'”Dukes also touched upon EXODUS’s touring plans, which will include two very special “Bonded By Blood” 40th-anniversary shows (April 25 at UC Theatre in Berkeley, California and April 26 at House of Blues in Anaheim, California). “So we’re doing that,” he confirmed. “I don’t know exactly how many shows. I know our first show is April 5th. It’s in Philly at the Decibel [Magazine Metal &] Beer festival. And then a tour starts at the end of April and runs through the middle of May or end of May or something like that. And that’s all I’m aware of at this point. I know there are some festivals in Europe. I don’t have any of those dates. Like I said, I’m the fucking new guy. So, I’m just rolling with it. I mean, I’ll probably know more once I get to the Bay Area and start hanging around those guys. And like I said, man, I’ve been trying to try to tie up all the ends of my life here in Arizona before I have to bail and leave. So that’s what I’ve been concentrating on. And I know that all that stuff will just work out the way it’s supposed to.”Dukes previously joined EXODUS in January 2005 and appeared on four 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 classic 1985 LP, “Bonded By Blood”) and “Exhibit B: The Human Condition” (2010).During an appearance on a recent episode of the “Rock And Roll Geek Show” podcast, which is hosted by former EXODUS bassist Michael Butler, Holt opened up about Souza’s recent departure, saying: “ People ask [why we fired Zetro] — everybody wants to know because we’ve chosen not to tell anybody. All I ever tell people is, marriages don’t often work. And just ’cause you saw a married couple out in public that seemed happy, you don’t know what’s going on at home. I don’t know if the wife’s throwing frying pans at his head or he’s fucking drunk out of his ass, fucking screaming at him and slapping the kids. You don’t know. Just ’cause they go out in public and they put on a happy face.”We’ve got nothing but respect for Zetro, and we’ve got love [for him] and I’m honored to have made some great music [with him]. But I’m also 60 years old, and the five of us need to be on the same page. And now we are.”After Butler suggested that musicians sometimes have different personalities and “people can get on your nerves sometimes”, Holt clarified: “It’s not even a matter of [anything] like that because we all get on each other’s nerves. It’s just as you get older, this job, either you still love it or it becomes incredibly difficult… For me, [it’s] fucking not [difficult] at all. And so, for whatever our reasons, four guys had a reason to do what we did.”Asked if he personally called Zetro to tell the singer he was fired, Gary responded: “I don’t really wanna go into all that. [Laughs] There’s no hate involved. It’s just the fucking marriage didn’t work. Sometimes you get along with your ex. Sometimes you don’t hate your ex; you just can’t be married to them anymore… Sometimes the wife still likes him and he’s a good father, but God, what a fucking crappy husband. Or what a bad life. But she was good with the kids and she’s a member of the PTA. Who fucking knows?”What’s funny is online people are coming up with their conspiracy theories [about why Zetro was fired],” he continued. “It’s like Pizzagate. It’s fucking crazy. Like that it had something to do with that he just got married. Like, ‘Rob Dukes got married right when he got fired, and Zetro got married [before he got fired]. Hmm. Pattern?’ Dude, I’ve got grandkids. Like I fucking have a problem with my singer being married. Fucking stupid. I had one guy, when it happened, he got on my Instagram and he broke down his timeline of how we treat singers. Well, the first thing he said was, ‘Gary Holt’s just all about the money.’ And if you fucking think parting ways with your singer is a fucking path to financial security, you’re fucking high. What the fuck’s wrong with you? And then he broke down his whole timeline. And I politely corrected his timeline for him. I don’t respond to fucking people — I ain’t got time for — but the guy goes, ‘Band hires Paul [Baloff]. Fires Paul.’ True. Paul was fired. Paul’s life was a mess. In hindsight, we later became just as big a mess as he ever was. And then he said, ‘Band hires singer, Steve Souza.’ And he goes, ‘Band fires Steve Souza.’ No, we broke up [after] ‘Force Of Habit’. He goes, ‘Band rehires Paul Baloff. Band fires Paul Baloff.’ I’m, like, ‘He fucking died. We didn’t fire him. He died.’ And then he said, ‘Band hires Steve Souza. Band fires Steve Souza.’ No, he quit… In his eyes, we fired the dead guy. And I was, like, ‘Just fuck off,’ you know?, I politely said, ‘Hey, buddy, let me correct your timeline for you.’ I didn’t go, ‘Fuck you, dude.’ I just said, ‘Let me fix your timeline.'”People are dumb,” Holt added. “And I don’t like to be mean to people. I’ve done stupid shit myself. But people fucking create whatever theories they can come up with in their little brains.”Regarding why he and his EXODUS bandmates decided to bring Dukes back to the group, Gary said: “I’m 60 years old. The idea of getting an unfamiliar person in the band would not be an option… I think we all reached out when we became apparent. And sure, I could have found some 30-year-old dude who could still jump off a drum riser and has washboard abs and is not all fat like the rest of us. But I need someone who’s close to my own age. I’m too old to have to like fucking educate some young kid on music that I like.”Holt also talked about the progress of the recording sessions for EXODUS’s follow-up to 2021’s “Persona Non Grata” album. He said: “Personally, I have two more songs of rhythm guitars to do. Lee [Altus, EXODUS guitarist] still has some. We’re literally racing, trying to record two albums at once. Even if we don’t finish it, we’ll have the second album close to ready. Maybe we’ll have to do some solos or vocals later, but we won’t have to do this whole process again. Now I’m thinking, like, all right, we’re gonna finish the album, get the guitars and drums done for album two. And then when it’s time to think about releasing the album, we don’t have to do this whole process again. Even before then, when we have a break, we can go and finish this stuff so that when we normally would start recording an album, maybe I can finally go on a vacation. I never had one.”When asked if all the songs are written for both albums, Holt said: “Yeah. Yeah. We’ve got a couple more to finish, but we write and record through the whole process. We don’t stop. [Drummer Tom Hunting and I are writing it, along with] Lee. Lee’s writing a whole lot of stuff for this record.”A lot of bands, they go in, the record’s done, they do the drums, and the drums go away. And now we’re on the guitar stuff. But we don’t do that anymore,” Gary explained. “We leave the drums up the whole time so we could write the whole time. Because sometimes our best stuff happens at the end. I just finished a new [song] yesterday. It’s just the most furious thing in the world. It’s fucking insane. This shit is fucking heavy. The one I wrote yesterday, Lee heard my little demo and he asked if I started icing my wrist down yet. It’s fucking heavy. But there’s some really great songs on it. It’s not just heavy. Right now I think we’re at 18 songs, with two more to finish. That’s two albums.”I look at it like this: I’m getting older,” Holt added. “And you start worrying about shit like mortality and if I fucking died. Between this album and the next one, there’s Gary Holt’s final fucking release and put some money and earn some royalties for my grandkids and my kids and my wife, because, of course, your albums sell better when you’re dead.”Souza joined EXODUS in 1986 after previously fronting the band LEGACY (which later became TESTAMENT). He remained in the band until their hiatus in 1993, but rejoined them for two years from 2002 to 2004. Dukes had joined EXODUS in 2005 (following Souza’s departure) and remained until 2014, when Souza rejoined.When EXODUS announced Souza’s latest departure on January 15, the band wrote in a statement: “We thank Steve for his years fronting the band and all the killer music we made during that time. We wish him only the best in the future and much success with anything he does.”And please help us welcome Rob Dukes back to EXODUS! We are beyond stoked to have Rob back ripping up the stage with us and he’s looking forward to crushing everything like only he can.”Next chapter begins, new record rolls along as planned and the beatings will continue.”Although EXODUS rarely gets mentioned alongside the so-called “Big Four” of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — the aforementioned “Bonded By Blood” LP inspired the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and many others to launch their careers and is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time.[embedded content][embedded content][embedded content][embedded content][embedded content][embedded content][embedded content][embedded content]
