“Wait till you hear the new album. It’s insane. He does things vocally you’ve never heard him do or anybody in Exodus. It’s insane,” Exodus guitarist Gary Holt told Germany’s Hard Rock magazine about their upcoming work with the band’s new vocalist, Rob Dukes (transcribed via Blabbermouth).
Dukes sang in Exodus from 2004 after the departure of Steve “Zetro” Souza, all the way until 2014 when Dukes parted with Exodus and Souza rejoined. Now, it’s Souza‘s turn to depart and for Dukes to take the reigns again.
And so, with Souza‘s departure, Holt explained that the band didn’t talk to “nobody else. Rob‘s still one of our best friends. And I don’t like change,” about the role as lead vocalist.
Despite not liking change, Holt elaborated that the lineup switch-up had to happen: “Being in a band is like being married. And you might see that husband and wide out in public and they’re really nice and charming, but you don’t know what’s happening in their house. Like, maybe she’s throwing fucking dishes and knives at his head. Maybe he’s smacking her around. You don’t know what’s happening.
“And there was a lot of unhappiness in the band, and I wish him no ill will. We had a good time until just kind of the four of us were trying to enjoy this as much as we can. I’m 61 years old. I want to end my career smiling all the time.”
“We wanna have fun with friends,” Holt continued, “We wanna enjoy ourselves doing this. And I could have brought in some young guy who’s 30 years old, who still has abs, isn’t fat like the rest of us, and can jump off the top of drum risers and stuff. But no – we’ll stick to guys our own age.”
Alongside the news that Exodus is currently working on two records at once, Holt is delighted with the way everything has been sounding: “The album’s spectacular. We couldn’t be more proud. It’s beautiful. It’s crushing. It’s catchy – hits, punishing hits. It’s spectacular. There’s some stuff that is so different for us, but it’s 100 percent Exodus. You’ll go, ‘Holy shit.'”
As for when the new music will be out, there has been no date set for a release. Only time will tell.
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