Local thrash-metal heroes Exodus headline show at Berkeley's UC Theatre
Bay Area metal greats Exodus will headline this concert at the UC Theatre in Berkeley Friday, sharing the stage with Denver thrash disciples Havok, industrial-metal band Candy and SoCal crossover band Dead Heat.
One of the pioneering thrash-metal outfits to emerge in the Bay Area, Exodus has been delivering its signature neck-snapping riffs for over four decades. The group was formed in 1979 in Richmond by guitarist Kirk Hammett and drummer Tom Hunting, several years before Los Angeles transplants Metallica poached Hammett to replace troubled guitar player Dave Mustaine in 1983.
The band went through a number of line-up changes before the quintet -- now led by guitarist and principal songwriter Gary Holt -- recorded its seminal debut Bonded By Blood with original vocalist Paul Baloff in 1984. Powered by such brutal mosh-pit anthems as "And Then There Were None," "Strike of the Beast" and the pulverizing title track, the recording would have been one of the first salvos of the growing Bay Area thrash-metal movement if the album's release hadn't been delayed by business issues until the spring of 1985.
Still, thanks to underground success of the raw recording and the band's growing reputation for ferocious live shows, Exodus was soon being courted by major labels trying to tap into the emerging popularity of thrash. The band would part ways with Baloff after the Bonded By Blood tour, replacing him with Steve "Zetro" Souza, the singer who had made his name fronting Legacy (the band that would soon rename itself Testament).
Signed to Sony/Combat Records, Exodus hit its commercial peak with 1987's Pleasures of the Flesh and Fabulous Disaster two years later, continuing to set the bar for sonic brutality high while earning a broader audience thanks to MTV airplay of the hit "The Toxic Waltz" from the latter album.
The group would hit a rough patch after moving to Capitol Records for 1989's Impact is Imminent following the departure of Hunting. Holt would put Exodus on hiatus in the early '90s after issuing the slower, more experimental Force of Habit in 1992, but the band reunited with Baloff and new bassist Jack Gibson later in the decade for a live album and periodic touring. It wasn't until after Baloff passed away in 2002 from a stroke that Souza would return to the fold, recording 2004's Tempo of the Damned before a sudden and acrimonious split from Exodus that same year.
The band spent much of the next decade producing new albums featuring more intricate thrash epics with new singer Rob Dukes and former Heathen guitarist Lee Altus, who performed on several acclaimed albums including a re-recording of Bonded By Blood entitled Let There Be Blood in 2008. While the busy Holt has split his time since early 2011 filling in onstage for ailing Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman (who sadly two years later), Exodus has remained his main passion.
In 2014, the band made surprise announcement that it had parted ways with Dukes after a decade and Souza would be returning to Exodus once again. Though some fans expressed skepticism over the change, their Nuclear Blast Records release Blood In, Blood Out in 2014 was widely hailed as a punishing return to form. Exodus maintained a busy touring schedule since that album was released, despite the fact that Holt was busy for a solid stretch of 2018 and 2019 with Slayer's global farewell tour. Still, the band managed to write enough new songs to enter the studio to record their latest effort (and first album in seven years) Persona Non Grata during late summer of 2020 at Hunting's home studio near Lake Almanor.
While the band had planned to release the album sooner, another health issue besides the pandemic would force them to change plans. Last spring, Hunting announced that he had been diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the stomach. In addition to a regimen of chemotherapy to treat the cancer, this summer he was forced to undergo a full gastrectomy and spent several months recovering from that operation and adjusting to living life without a stomach.
Hunting was happily able to return to the stage for Exodus' appearance at Aftershock in Sacramento in the fall of 2021 as well as the Oakland stop of "The Bay Strikes Back Tour" on the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Persona Non Grata finally saw release around that time to reviews that have hailed the band for delivering such a brutal feast of riffs more than 40 years after it was founded. Last year, Exodus announced it was parting ways with Nuclear Blast after 20 years on the label to sign with Napalm Records.
While the band's next studio album is already in the works, last May they released a new archival live recording from 35 years earlier. British Disaster: The Battle of '89 (Live at the Astoria) finds Exodus delivering a blistering set during its Fabulous Disaster tour that captured the early Souza-fronted line-up at the height of its powers.
The band has also since released a cover of the AC/DC song "Beatin' Around the Bush" that was recorded during the Persona Non Grata sessions. Another recent development was the announcement that Holt would be publishing his memoir entitled A Fabulous Disaster: From the Garage to Madison Square Garden, the Hard Way on Hatchette Books chronicling his career playing with Exodus and Slayer and his struggles with addiction. For this rare hometown show at the UC Theatre Friday that will be the penultimate date of the band's month-long "The Battle of '24 Tour" across the U.S. that marked their first headlining jaunt in a number of years, Exodus will be joined by three support bands. Denver thrash disciples Havok bash out a style of metal faithful to the genre's early '80s origins. Industrial-metal band Candy and SoCal crossover band Dead Heat also appear.
Exodus with Havok, Candy and Dead Heat
Friday, Dec. 6, 7 p.m. $29.50
UC Theatre