Exodus
Exodus is one of the greatest
and most influential bay area thrash metal bands and I bet the true thrashers
must have anticipated their new album titled "Shovel Headed Kill Machine",
which has proven to be a real killing machine levelling everything in its
way! Gary Holt, the band's leader and fundamental band member, revealed
many interested things about the band. So, go on and read...
1. HELLO, FIRST OF ALL MY CONGRATULATIONS
CAUSE YOUR NEW ALBUM IS A KILLER. CAN YOU COMPARE IT WITH YOUR PREVIOUS
WORK AND TELL ME, WHICH ARE THE NEW ELEMENTS YOU HAVE ADDED?
Ah, "Tempo Of The Damned" was a great album,
but I think that flows... You know in Tempo we included 2 songs that were
formerly used from a band that Tom, Jack and I had and was called WARDANCE.
We also included the song "Impaler" there which was a 20 years old song.
On the other hand in "Shovel headed kill machine" there are 10 brand new
songs and so it is much more a complete album.
-WHICH ARE THE NEW ELEMENTS THAT YOU HAVE INCLUDED
IN YOUR NEW ALBUM?
Well, we simply took the aggression of TEMPO
and turn it into maximum!!! I attribute a lot for that to Paul Bostaph,
because he came in and turned the heat up in the songs.
-I THINK THAT THIS TIME YOU HAVE DONE A MORE MODERN
PRODUCTION, BUT YOU ALSO KEPT THE EXODUS ELEMENTS.
That was the idea. I produced the album and
Andy Sneap did the mixing of it. So we have a good combination of raw energy
and Andy's polished sound and I think that it works perfectly...
2. WHILE I WAS LISTENING TO YOUR NEW WORK I FELT
THAT THIS TIME EXODUS WERE MORE CONFIDENT AND THAT YOU KNEW EXACTLY WHAT
YOU WANTED TO DO. DO YOU AGREE?
Oh yeah, for sure. I wanted to get in and
cut peoples heads off :).
3. THIS TIME EXODUS HAS ON THE LINE-UP, 2 VERY
KNOWN METAL MUSICIANS. CAN YOU TELL US WHO THEY ARE AND HOW YOU MANAGED
TO COOPERATE WITH THEM?
You know when Tom went under recovering services,
like from his mental breakdown in 1989, the first person that came to mind
was Paul. I knew him for many years and he is here in the Bay Area and
he is one of the best drummers in the planet. So we called him up and thanks
to luck he was available. He came in and we have started jamming and the
chemistry was awesome, you know... Well, about Lee, when Rick decided to
quit, Lee was the only guy I considered for the job.
4. WILL PAUL BOSTAPH AND LEE ALTUS BE CONSTANT
MEMBERS OR JUST SESSION MUSICIANS FOR EXODUS? HAVE THEY CONTRIBUTED IN
ANYWAY TO THE NEW COMPOSITIONS?
No, no everybody is like a permanent member
of the band. Well, you know Lee joined the band while we actually were
recording. He played all the lead guitars parts and Paul contributed with
his power and energy that plays the drums.
-WILL YOU LET THEM CONTRIBUTE IN THE NEXT ALBUM?
Oh, yeah, it's like... anybody that wants
to help with the band it's fine. You know Lee is a great riff writer. So
it will be great to contribute both Paul and Lee.
5. YOU NAMED YOUR ALBUM “SHOVEL HEADED KILL MACHINE”,
WHICH IS A QUITE STRANGE TITLE, CAN YOU TELL ME WHO DID YOU COME UP WITH
THIS IDEA? IS THERE A SECOND MEANING BEHIND THE TITLE?
Well, the title was a phrase used by my manager
to describe our drums tech dog. He had this big vicious dog and he said
that his dog is a shovel headed kill machine and keep it in my head and
I said that someday I will use that... No there is not a second meaning
behind the title, but I think that it describes the music of the whole
album...
6. LET’S TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE LYRICS. WHO
IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEM AND WHAT KIND OF THINGS GIVE YOU INSPIRATION TO
WRITE? CAN YOU TELL US IN A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE THEME OF EACH SONG?
I wrote the most of them, Rob actually wrote
the lyrics of "Karmas Messenger" and he co-wrote the song "Raze" with me.
You know the songs cover everything, for example the song "Raze" talks
about Pyromania, "Deathamphetamine" is the most personal thing I ever wrote,
because it describes my past experience as drug addict you know...
-MY FAVORITE ONE IS "KARMAS MESSENGER" SONG, CAN
YOU TELL ME FEW THINGS ABOUT IT?
Well, it's about revenge, retribution...
7. TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH, BY LISTENING TO YOUR
ALBUM I FOUND SOME INFLUENCES FROM THE GERMAN THRASH METAL AND ESPECIALLY
THE VOCALS REMINDED ME OF DESTRUCTION. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT?
Maybe, a little bit, but I don't think that
sounds like Schmier really... But you know some people they said that the
vocals reminded them of Chuck from DEATH... But I do think that Rob sounds
like an EXODUS singer!!! Definitely are the harsher vocals that you have
listened to EXODUS and in some parts are close to Death Metal...
8. THE COVER ARTWORK IS REALLY GREAT AND MAKES
YOU UNDERSTAND EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO LISTEN TO ON THIS CD. WHO
IS THE PAINTER? DID YOU GIVE HIM SOME SAMPLES OF YOUR MUSIC IN ORDER TO
CREATE THIS COVER ARTWORK?
You know everybody keeps asking me that and
I should write down his name. Well I only know that the first name of this
guy is Anthony. He was given the title and a kind of a rough idea of what
we wanted and that is what he draw. And it is perfect from the first day.
Imagine he didn't listen to any of our music, but the cover fits to our
songs perfectly.
9. IN WHICH WAY, DO YOU THINK THAT THE EXODUS
OF THE 80S, DIFFER FROM THE PRESENT EXODUS? WHICH WERE THE TARGETS THAT
YOU WANTED TO ACHIEVE THEN AND WHICH ARE NOW?
Well, I think now I know probably more of
what I want and I know what to do to get it. I think that I also did that
in "Bonded By Blood". Not that we haven't released and other good albums,
but in the past there were times that I was listening more to what other
people where telling me. In "Bonded By Blood" I did what I wanted by myself...
I write what I want to write and If people like it, that's fine. My only
dream from the beginning till now is to do what I am doing all these years,
to write music. In the past I used to dream of fame and fortune also, but
that doesn't concern me anymore.
10. IT HASN’T PASSED A LONG TIME SINCE YOU PLAYED
LIVE HERE IN GREECE. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER OF THOSE NIGHTS? IS IT POSSIBLE
TO COME AGAIN FOR YOUR PROMOTION OF YOUR NEW ALBUM?
Oh, it's insane, I love playing in Greece.
Well, the crowd was great and I am surprised that someone hasn't died yet
:). It's really incredible and beautiful country and great people and I
can't wait to come back, you know... We will come in Greece again for sure,
but we don't know exactly when. In November we will do a tour, but I don't
think that we will come over there with this one. Anyway, we will definitely
visit Greece back!!!
11. WILL YOU SHOOT ANY VIDEO-CLIP FOR YOUR NEW
ALBUM? IF YES, WHICH SONG WOULD YOU CHOOSE? IMAGINE THAT YOUR LABEL GIVES
YOU A LOT OF MONEY TO CREATE A BIG BUDGET VIDEO-CLIP, HOW DO YOU IMAGINE
IT?
We have already shot a video for the song
"Now Thy Death Day Come", but it's being edited right now and I haven't
seen any of it. Our budget isn't huge, but you know nobody spends a lot
of money to do a video lately. At least not in metal. But we had enough
and put some of our own money to cover some costs.
12. SINCE YOU ARE FROM THE U.S., CAN YOU TELL
ME A FEW THINGS ABOUT THE TRAGEDY IN NEW ORLEANS? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE
GOVERNMENT WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENED?
It's kind of mess, you know, it's a giant
disaster. I think that things are slowly starting to improve, but it will
need a lot of time for this city to recover. Oh, Yes they were responsible,
they were slow to react the kind of sitting down and don't know what to
do, since no one has such an experience in disasters of such a level. But
I also believe that they would act a little bit faster if all the people
where wealthy and white...
13. I WOULD LIKE TO ASK YOU SOMETHING ABOUT
HEATHEN, IS IT TRUE THAT THEY WILL REUNITE? WILL THEY RELEASE AN ALBUM
WITH NEW COMPOSITIONS?
Well, you know, Lee still wants to finish
the HEATHEN album. He is completely welcome to do it, but he knows that
he has to do it around the EXODUS schedule and I know when he will find
sometime, he wants to finish the HEATHEN album. I will help him in anyway
possible. Yeah, he wants to play some guitars on it, I will do it on second.
14. LET’S SAY THAT TERMS LIKE HEAVY OR THRASH
METAL DON’T EXIST TO DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC. SO WHICH WORDS WOULD YOU USE
IN ORDER TO MAKE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND WHAT KIND OF MUSIC YOU PLAY?
Music as a deadly weapon...
15. THANK YOU FOR THE INTERVIEW! GOOD LUCK WITH
YOUR NEW ALBUM AND HOPE TO SEE YOU HERE IN GREECE. LEAVE A MESSAGE TO THE
READERS OF BEHIND THE VEIL WEBZINE…
Thank you. Thanks for your support and I can't
wait to come in Greece and see everybody personally!
Nick “William_Kidd”
Parastatidis
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