Categories
Live Reviews

Exodus

Exodus
The More I See
The Underworld, London
14.11.05

The More I See
The Underworld, London
14.11.05

The More I See feature ex-Prodigy guitarist Gizz Butt on guitar and are the result of Gizz’s misspent youth spent listening to equal parts metal and punk, cutting his teeth in metal inspired punk bands like The Desecrators and English Dogs, he found brief fame as the punk guitarist in the Prodigy during their controversial hit single period, before returning to relative obscurity with melodic punks Janus Stark then seeing a return to a more metal approach with The More I See. And in many ways they are the ideal support band for Exodus tonight as they have their roots firmly set in the eighties thrash metal explosion that tonight’s headliners hail from. It’s a shame that a muted response from a crowd only really interested in the headliners and a seemingly endless succession of technical problems stop the band from really getting into their stride, but for the most part, they play a solid competent set of old school metal thrills.

Exodus were originally formed back in 1982 by guitarist Gary Holt and future Metallica man Kirk Hammet and were one of the most exciting and powerful metal bands of the era, creating one of the genre’s true classics in their debut release ‘Bonded By Blood’ – a record that is twice as vicious and fast as Metallica’s debut and only really bettered by Slayer in the aggression stakes. However, Exodus have had more then their fair share of bad luck over the years and have been plagued by line-up problems and the tragic and sudden death of original singer Paul Baloff in 2002. But this is not a band that will be stopped easily. ‘Certain members decided they’d rather stay home than do this,’ spits an obviously pissed off Gary Holt. ‘But I will never let Exodus die!‘ And from the moment they hit the stage, they play like a band that has never been more alive! Charging straight into their first album’s title track ‘Bonded By Blood‘, the whole venue explodes in waves of energy as the new revigorated and revamped band bark and snap at the front of the stage like rabid pitbulls.

New vocalist Rob Dukes is a real find. A stocky, barking bulldog of a man with a long beard, he wears an expression upon his face that is permanently pissed off and adds even higher levels of visual and aural aggression to Exodus. Combine this with quite breath-taking drumming from ex-Slayer/Forbidden drummer Paul Bastoph and you’ve got a band that lives up to it’s past and hopefully has a healthy future. The proof is in the fact that new songs suck as ‘44 Magnum Opus‘ and ‘Shudder To Think‘ mix effortlessly with older classics like ‘A Lesson In Violence‘ and ‘Toxic Waltz‘ and this is because Exodus have never lost sight of what made them great in the first place and they play and look like they’re enjoying this more than ever. Long may they continue!

JAMES SHERRY

Associated link: www.exodusattack.com