Exodus - Blood In, Blood Out review
| Band: | Exodus |
| Album: | Blood In, Blood Out |
| Style: | Bay Area thrash metal |
| Release date: | October 14, 2014 |
| A review by: | tea[m]ster |
Disc I
01. Black 13 [feat. Dan the Automator]
02. Blood In, Blood Out
03. Collateral Damage
04. Salt The Wound [feat. Kirk Hammett]
05. Body Harvest
06. BTK [feat. Chuck Billy]
07. Wrapped In The Arms Of Rage
08. My Last Nerve
09. Numb
10. Honor Killings
11. Food For The Worms
12. Angel Of Death [Angel Witch cover] [Limited Edition bonus]
13. Protect Not Dissect [feat. Anthony "Rat" Martin] [The Varukers cover] [Japanese bonus]
Disc II [Special Edition DVD]
+ "Blood Upon The Goat" making-of footage
+ Behind-the-scenes tour footage
+ Footage from Kirk Hammett's Fear FestEVIL After Party at San Diego Comic-Con
Who exactly are the "Big 4" of thrash metal is a highly debated topic among metal music veterans for what seems now all of eternity. Everyone can agree with Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer but the fourth band gets a bit tricky depending on who you ask. My personal choice is Anthrax but if I could trademark a title called the "Big 5 Of Thrash"® my fifth band would be Exodus. Exodus are having a remarkable career, and are back in the limelight once again with the release of their first album since 2010. Vocalist Steve Souza is back after 10 years, making his second return and what perfect timing because Exodus sound fantastic and by bringing along their unparalleled brand of speed metal, have cemented their status as one of the kings of Bay Area thrash metal. I admit, I haven't listened to an Exodus album since 1987's underrated Pleasures OF The Flesh but I have kept a staunch ear open for the early thrash metal bands still around today. Death Angel, Testament and Prong have all made good albums in the "twilight" of their careers and now Exodus can join that bunch.
Interestingly, Blood In, Blood Out starts off with what seems to be a heads-up for the "nu" metal listeners today. The first two minutes of "Black 13" consist of electronic, techno and dub step attributes (JK Broadrick would be proud); I thought I was playing the wrong album. It's unique, but this a thrash album for god's sake. After that little mandatory plug, the rest of Blood In, Blood Out is filled with what thrash fans have come to expect: speed, technicality and raw emotion. Speed in the form of Gary Holt ruling the universe with his plutonium-plated guitar riffs, technical virtue from Tom Hunting going crazy on the drums like an 18 year old all over again and raw emotion from Steve Souza screaming until his lungs explode. The songs have some decent time lengths so their is plenty of onslaught to go around and most of them are catchy and have some moments you will remember. "Body Harvest" has the catchiest riff of all the songs while "Btk" is the most melodic, a striking chorus in the middle and a surprise at the end with some death metal "growls" courtesy of Chuck Billy side by side with Steve's shrieks.
Guitar solos are prevalent and not an irritation - yeay!, but the crutch that all the songs lean on are the dual-layered rhythm guitar patterns. These temperate sound textures and the rest of the aura on album benefit from having impressible production. The bass work is actually audible (in most cases of thrash metal, it's not) and the professional craftsmanship from the musicians is properly simulated, the guest work from Kirk Hammett inclusive. Blood In, Blood Out is not ground breaking and never fully deviates from its original formula of energetic, intense, fist-pumping thrash metal. Despite that, I enjoyed the album because it's aggressive and fun to listen to. Now, after a couple more play throughs, I think I'm going back to check out the rest of Exodus's discography that I regretfully missed.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 6 |
| Production: | 9 |
 | Written on 27.09.2014 by Be gentle, I never said I was any good at this! |
Comments
Comments: 29
Visited by: 424 users
| Lit. Account deleted |
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| tea[m]ster Au Pays Natal Contributor Posts: 5266  |
Written by [user id=101272] on 27.09.2014 at 03:58 It's a good album Lit. Nothing original - just solid. And "The Big 4" topic is huge in the metal arena - I love the debate, it's fun.
---- rekt
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| bloodface Posts: 48  |
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| bloodface Posts: 48 |
"Death Angel, Testament and Prong have all made good albums in the "twilight" of their careers and now Exodus can join that bunch." - Tempo of the Damned with Souza on vocals in 2004 (well into their "twilight") is widely recognized as a very good album.....2nd best by Exodus based on Metal Storm ratings.....and my ratings as well.
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| TheMAGAmvm Soycrusher Posts: 1086  |
Someone fucked up the tracklisting it seems. The whole '#1' shit fails badly. Glad to see they are back in shape, though even the last ones were not bad either.
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| tea[m]ster Au Pays Natal Contributor Posts: 5266 |
Written by bloodface on 27.09.2014 at 06:08 Indeed, thanks for heads-up. Edited/fixed.
---- rekt
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| tea[m]ster Au Pays Natal Contributor Posts: 5266 |
Written by bloodface on 27.09.2014 at 06:26 I think now is "well into their twilight". 2004? Just the beginning. Heck, they were all still in their late 30's/early 40's in 2004 
---- rekt
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| tea[m]ster Au Pays Natal Contributor Posts: 5266 |
Written by TheMAGAmvm on 27.09.2014 at 13:38 Fixed the track numbers. Also, can u recommend an album from them? I last listened to Exodus when I was a teenager I read that their were better vocalists than Steve. True?
---- rekt
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| TheMAGAmvm Soycrusher Posts: 1086 |
Written by tea[m]ster on 27.09.2014 at 17:26 Bonded By Blood, Fabulous Disaster and Tempo Of The Damned are my favorite ones. Well, they had three vocalists main vocalists that contributed on their full lengths, first is Paul Baloff, now deceased, second is Steve and third is the guy that left earlier, Rob Dukes (there were two others but they did not stay for long). Baloff was a good vocalist, but his name is well regarded because of the quality of the debut. This does not mean that he is bad either, just that I do not think he tops Steve. Maybe an equal, but not better than him. As for Rob Dukes, the guy was good, but to core~ish for my tastes.
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989  |
Enjoyed Tempo Of The Damned, so I'll definitely be looking into this one. As far as the "Big 4" goes, I think it's a pretty useless term to have, because it implies that it's objective fact that there are indeed 4 bands at the top of the thrash game, and that's purely subjective opinion that varies greatly depending on who you ask. "Big 4" to me sounds more like a marketing ploy than anything else, just look at that concert a few years back where all four bands were on the lineup, it was advertised as if it was the Second Coming or something.
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| tea[m]ster Au Pays Natal Contributor Posts: 5266 |
Written by Auntie Sahar on 27.09.2014 at 18:10 There was a method to my madness for this review  . Attract viewership right?
---- rekt
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
Written by tea[m]ster on 27.09.2014 at 18:32 Touche 
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| !J.O.O.E.! Account deleted |
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
Written by [user id=4365] on 27.09.2014 at 19:02 Still, that's a pretty shitty standard to go by for judging quality of music
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| tea[m]ster Au Pays Natal Contributor Posts: 5266 |
Written by [user id=4365] on 27.09.2014 at 19:02 Just beating the grass to startle the snakes . And of course it's objective.
---- rekt
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| Mattybu Posts: 2589  |
Jay, you know I love you man, but all I'm gonna say about this review is I'm glad the last two paragraphs deviated into something proper and informative after the opener, which induced my PTSD of 10,000,000,00,000,00's of youtube comments from people saying "LOl metalliSHIT and AnthraGAY are just selleout the REAL bug 4 has EXODUS!! OVERKILL11" I understand that you were just getting at the fact that your picks are your favourites though.  Anyways, good stuff 
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| Zap Posts: 3577  |
Written by tea[m]ster on 27.09.2014 at 04:04 Where's the debate? The Big Four are the Big Four, there's no arguing it. They're just the 4 biggest bands to come out of the thrash metal scene. Sorry to be off-topic, but it just annoys me when people keep going on about who they want to be the Big Four and your opening paragraph being about that annoyed me. Other than that a solid and fairly objective review, it makes it very clear who this album's for.
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| Opethian Posts: 1757  |
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| Cynic Metalhead Ambrish Saxena Posts: 7557  |
People, people we should be talking about new Exodus record not a BIG FOUR. Head back to the topic.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by [user id=4365] on 27.09.2014 at 19:14 Exactly. The number of times that has been stated on this forum has been countless. So, I didn't want to go there once again. Thanks for claryfying it Joe, instead of me. But back to Blood IN, Blood Out, totally not convinced by it, although it is a step up compared to their albums after Tempo Of The Damned. Vocally it is a step down but musically it is way better.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by [user id=104220] on 29.09.2014 at 15:14 Anthrax was bigger... they sold MORE.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Auntie Sahar Drone Empress Posts: 5989 |
Written by deadone on 29.09.2014 at 07:49 Or they can just afford better marketing? Again, not a fitting thing by which to judge quality of music, plenty of awesome bands that are "doing something well enough" have low sales simply due to the fact that they don't have much popular promotion (and probably don't want it, for that matter).
---- I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go. ~ II. VII
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| Mattybu Posts: 2589 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 29.09.2014 at 15:49 There should seriously be a disclaimer you have to read when you open a new account here that you can't close for at least 5 minutes that says "THE MEMBERS OF THE BIG 4 OF THRASH METAL ARE DETERMINED BY THE HIGHEST RECORD SALES OF THRASH BANDS AT THE TIME". Although people would continue to misunderstand what the term means regardless.
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| Rulatore Posts: 1108  |
Well, I do not have high hopes for this one, I hope I'm wrong about it
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| tea[m]ster Au Pays Natal Contributor Posts: 5266 |
Written by Rulatore on 29.09.2014 at 23:25 Well, I am an old school thrash fan and this fits the bill. Compared to other Exodus albums? I have no idea but for me it's enjoyable.
---- rekt
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| Rulatore Posts: 1108 |
Written by tea[m]ster on 29.09.2014 at 23:32 I am too, let's hope it's indeed good. It sounded more like tempo of the damned than fabulous disaster till now, still, I'll give it a chance.
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| BitterCOld The Ancient One Admin Posts: 15287  |
Oh ffs more on the Big Four. sorry the concept is too advanced for some 'round these parts. can't fix stupid. eager to hear the album.
---- get the fuck off my lawn. Beer Bug Virus Spotify Playlist crafted by Nikarg and I. Feel free to tune in and add some pertinent metal tunes!
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