SLAYER

The Old Ice Hall

The 17th of March 2011

Helsinki Finland

REVIEW AND PICTURES BY ARTO LEHTINEN AND MARKO SYRJÄLÄ

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Guitarist Gary Holt

Interview by Luxi Lahtinen

Off/onstage pictures by Terhi Pihlaja

Transcription by Martin Heaps (Psychophobe)

Thanks to Silke from Tough Enough Promotion for setting up the interview

Finland is known for its several summer festivals – big or small, but every year some of them do surprise with some interesting band announcements that just cannot be shrugged off totally.

This year, one of the most interesting festivals appeared to be 3-day Myötätuulirock, which has annually been arranged in Vantaa, Finland for 14 years in a row – and is heavily based on some of the hottest Finnish rock/metal names of each ongoing year. The Bay Area veteran thrashers Exodus was announced to be the headliners of the first day of the festival, so that alone made the festival interesting enough to be checked out.

Exodus´ 9th full-length album, EXHIBIT B: THE HUMAN CONDITION was released through Nuclear Blast Records on May this year. There performance surprised many festival attenders by their immensely brutal and heavy load of thrash delivery as the last act on Friday evening. The band confidently churned out both new and old stuff from their well-oiled killing machine over the enthusiastic audience (“The Ballad of Leonard and Charles”, “Blacklist”, “Piranha”, “The Toxic Waltz”, etc.), and was also very well received by a fanatical crowd that seemed to go absolutely berserk in front of their masters, song after song.

Before Exodus went to punish their Finnish fans onstage at Myötätuulirock festival, Gary Holt had a moment to talk to Metal-Rules.com about his memories about the band´s 1st live appearance at Provinssirock festival in Finland in 2003, the ongoing tour, new album, but also reminiscing some blasts from the past.

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Guitarist Gary Holt

Interview by Jerry Hamm, “The Metal Master”

Exodus has been thrashing as long as there has been the term “Thrash”.  From there legendary underground 1982 demo, which is their only studio work that has Kirk Hammett on guitar, to their beyond classic debut BONDED BY BLOOD their only studio record with the late great Paul Baloff, and of course all the great years with Zetro behind the mic.  Now, Rob Dukes has handled the vocals for the last 3 CD’s, including their latest, a rerecording of Bonded, titled LET THERE BE BLOOD.  But the one constant in the band has always been guitarist and leader Gary Holt.  Gary has hung in there, from members coming and going, tragic death, metal being in, out, than in, and never once has the band ever “sold out” to get their message out.  All the bands in the “big 4” deserve to be there, but any true fan knows that Exodus has a place right along side Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax in the “big 5” of thrash.  The talk I had with Gary was just that, a talk.  He was totally cool, and had lots to say. 

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Gary Holt of EXODUS

Interview and live pics by Luxi Lahtinen 
Pic of Gary and Luxi by Humberto Sanchez

Lots of things have been going on in the Exodus camp since the band´s highly praised comeback album TEMPO OF THE DAMNED was released in 2004 via Nuclear Blast Records. The band lost their vocalist Steve “Zetro” Souza on the eve of the band´s South American tour due to his other commitments in his life outside of Exodus. When the two other original Exodus members, Tom Hunting and Rick Hunolt, left Exodus due to different reasons in the same year, the band started struggling – leaving Gary Holt as the only original member left from the classic Exodus line-up. People started wondering whether Exodus´ so-called  ´second coming (or third, it depends on whether the band´s live record ANOTHER LESSON IN VIOLENCE, released in 1997, can be considered as the band´s 2nd coming or not?)´ would be over before it even had started.

Gary, however, didn´t loose faith for his life’s work, Exodus, and decided to pull the strings even tighter together in his fists and found Rob Dukes to replace Zetro on vocals, Lee Altus from the Frisco thrashers Heathen to replace Rick Hunolt for the 2nd guitar and no less than Paul Bostaph (ex-Forbidden, ex-Slayer) to replace Tom Hunting on the skinbasher´s stool. The band started rolling on the right tracks again and Exodus´ next album SHOVEL HEADED KILL MACHINE was put out with this particular line-up. For some, it never reached the same standards musically as TEMPO did, but for many, it was even better and more rewarding as far as the album´s material as a whole was concerned.

I met Gary in Helsinki on the 24th of November 2005 on the band´s on-going European tour with Hypocrisy and Keep of Kalessin, and got a chance talk him briefly about the new album, touring, celebrities, the first satanic band of all time Witchcraft Coven – and what exactly happened between Gary with his previous band mates. 

 
(with Crisis, Watch Them Die, 3 Inches Of Blood)
Hawthorne Theater
November 1st, 2005
Portland Oregon USA

Pics and review by Swissman

Another business trip seemed to have worked out quite well. I was sent to Portland to work on some stuff. I called my friend Pest who immediately told me that Exodus was going to be in town that night and that we should go and see them. Of course I totally agreed..

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