I loved Exodus back in the day. I had the lyrics to “Verbal Razors” and “Open Season” etched into my physics binder at school. For some reason, though, it took me until 2010 to finally catch them live for the first time. They’ve never lacked quality, either, with their recent albums holding up well compared to that classic material.
The new live album, probably out by the time you read this, is very much old-skool. Recorded in 1989 on the Fabulous Disaster tour, it’s an hour or so of quality thrash metal, and given how old the recording must be (and the analogue formats it will have been recorded on), it sounds amazing as well.
Zetro’s vocals are as saw-toothed as Holt and Hunolt’s guitars, though his between-song chatter is a bit cheesy. Mind, anyone at the gig won’t have cared as it gave them respite from the absolute meltdown of a set full of the highest end silly thrash metal. Exodus always seemed somewhere between Slayer and Anthrax for me. The anti-establishmentarianism and violence of the former, but with the humorous attitude of the latter, and this was always most obvious in their earlier years.
The setlist includes the folder-defacing “Verbal Razors”, the title track of earlier live album “A Lesson in Violence”, the underrated “Parasite”, and “Toxic Waltz” which decades on is still a live staple.
With them dropping off the Bloodstock lineup last year, who knows when we’ll get another chance to enjoy their brand of pit-inducing lunacy. In the meantime, this is a great filler.
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British Disaster is out on May 31st
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