Band:	Exodus
Album:	Exhibit B: The Human Condition
Style:	Bay Area thrash metal
Release date:	May 07, 2010
A review by:	BitterCOld

01. The Ballad Of Leonard And Charles
02. Beyond The Pale
03. Hammer And Life
04. Class Dismissed (A Hate Primer)
05. Downfall
06. March Of The Sycophants
07. Nanking
08. Burn, Hollywood, Burn
09. Democide
10. The Sun Is My Destroyer
11. A Perpetual State Of Indifference
12. Good Riddance
13. Devil's Teeth [bonus]

So Exodus is back, again, with Exhibit B: The Human Condition after a relatively short (for them) layoff. The Bay Area Bashers have returned doing what they do best, wreaking havoc and crushing skulls.

The H&H Guitar tandem (this time, Holt and Heathen's Lee Altus) have concocted some monstrously crushing riffs and shredding leads. Jack Gibson provides some great support on bass, Tom Hunting treats his kit like I treat my monkey (he often misbehaves and I must spank him frequently) and the band's third front man, Rob Dukes froths and spits at the mic with fantastic venom, bile, and power... cementing his place as an equal to the monstrous combat boots of his predecessors.

In short, every conceivable component you could hope for in an Exodus (or any Thrash) album is present in droves. Plenty of droves. In fact, too much droves. And that is one of this album's two biggest drawbacks.

The first is "droves". It's seven hours long. Okay, maybe not seven hours, but it feels like it. It's one thing for a doom band kicking out the jams at 5bpm to record a 70+ minute album. It's another for a band with the madcap adrenaline of an Exodus to put one out. It's a test of mental and physical endurance to get through this album on one pass. While they deserve a lot of credit for giving listeners the max (literal) bang for the buck, sometimes, as that horns-tossing metal dude Shakespeare once quoth, "Brevity is the soul of Thrash"... there is a reason the genre's best (Reign In Blood, Bonded By Blood, Peace Sells Blood, Master Of Blood, Eternal Bloodmare, and Darkness Descends... In Blood) all clock in in the 30-40 minute range. It's that everyone needs to visit the little girl's room to take a powder and catch their breath after flailing around the club/dance floor/their room like a crackhead after a fix.

And the shorter the album, the easier it is to be impressed to the point of saying "WHOA! That was awesome! Let's play that again!"

Less Filler. All Killer.

The other is inconsistency. Some tracks are killer, such as "Beyond The Pale" and "Class Dismissed". Others feel a bit like filler, as in "Hammer and Life" and "Democide". With so much material to work with, it seems to yours truly that cutting 70 minutes of bruising material (and even the "B" material of B is bruising) into 40 would have created a legendary thrash album.

That all stated, when Exodus are on, they are ON... full throttle, full bottle. No fucking mercy. This album should be shipped immediately to Team Metallica and the Slayer Squad (and Megadave and whoever the fuck makes up Anthrax this week, just to be safe) as this is how a modern thrash album should sound. The production is fantastic and combined with the execution of the band members, (their playing, not their beheading!) the end result is this album kicks the listeners ass like World Painted Magnetic could only dream of.

"Beyond The Pale", "Class Dismissed" and the fantastic closer, perfect for the spot, "Good Riddance" treat the listener like Mel Gibson treats his ex-mistresses.

And, finally, my favorite track. I just want to say, I fucking hate Los Angeles. I loathe it. A metro area greater in size/populations than some countries chock full of pLAstic people with pLAstic ambitions. "It's not who you are, it's who you know." "What you drive determines who you drive home." Virtually every negative stereotype of Americans can be directed at the vacuous wastes of flesh that live in 902XX... I honestly believe the Earth would be a better place when "The Big One" (that's an earthquake for those unfamiliar with the tectonic habits of the region) finally hits and dumps that shit hole of botox and plastic to the bottom of the ocean. The average Barbie doll contains more humanity than the average Los Angelino. Fuck 'em. Fuck the lot of 'em.

That said and done, "Burn, Hollywood, Burn" is not only my favorite track on the album, but comes dangerously close to catching such stalwarts as "Toxic Waltz" and "Bonded By Blood" as my fave Exodus song of all time. It's my new anthem.

Seriously. If the "buy this reviewer a beer" function worked... and you bastards actually clicked it from time to time, I would bump all proceeds to help score the band some hookers and blow just for this track. Fuck Hollywood, Hail Exodus.

So there you have it, my review of Exodus' latest. If yer a fan, you probably already got it, and if not, I have to question why you clicked the link in the first place, and must urge you go out and hit up the local record store for whatever Exodus they have.