In a new interview with Chicago’s Rebel Radio 92.5 FM, EXODUS singer Rob Dukes spoke about the progress of the recording sessions for the follow-up to the band’s 2021 album “Persona Non Grata”. The LP will be EXODUS‘s first since the departure of singer Steve “Zetro” Souza and the decision to bring Dukes back. Rob said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’m actually in the studio right now. I’m recording right now. I’m about to walk in now and start screaming.”
According to Dukes, the bulk of the recording process has been completed. “We did most of the record already, so it’s mostly all done,” he said. “A lot of times Gary [Holt, EXODUS guitarist and main songwriter] writes the lyrics too. I wrote the lyrics for three or four of the songs on the record, which was a huge honor. So I’m working on the ones that I wrote [the lyrics for]… Sometimes Gary will say, ‘Well, here’s the lyrics. Go ahead and see what you could do with it.’ And then if it doesn’t match his melody that he came up with, then we’ll just make the changes on the fly and do it. Sometimes Gary will actually do a vocal scratch, so I can see how he wants it placed in the verse or the chorus or whatever. And then we just listen to it and then sometimes we’ll make little changes. That’s what I’m doing here. I’m in Nashville right now. I just got home from Europe for a little over a month. And now I’m in Nashville with [producer] Mark Lewis. And I am doing two songs that need to be finished, and then I’m doing like little fixes of the whole record. Like I’ll punch in and go, ‘Oh, I think I can sing that part better. Let me do that again.’ And there’s a few of those. Actually, it’s a lot less than I thought. We listened to it last night and we were, like, ‘Nah, I think that one works, man.’ I said, ‘I can try to do it better, but I think that works the best.’ Sometimes I’ll use a different voice. I have three or four different vocal ranges, and I’ll try one, and if it doesn’t work, I’ll try another and see which one works. And usually it’s a feel thing.”
Rob added: “Luckily, we got to go to Europe [this spring]. We [recorded most of] the album and then we left for tour. We did a U.S. tour and a Europe tour. So I’ve been listening to the songs for a couple months, so I’ve been just kind of digesting them and making just subtle changes where now that I’ve been singing on the regular for the last two months, I’m, like, ‘I think I can do that better now.’ ‘Cause even though I did the GENERATION KILL record, I didn’t play live as much as I am now. We did that one U.S. tour, U.S. and Canada tour with GENERATION KILL last year, which was fun, but it’s not the same. They’re two really different bands.”
Dukes went on to praise the material on EXODUS‘s upcoming effort, saying: “It’s killer. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done with EXODUS. I thought [2010’s] ‘Exhibit B: [The Human Condition]’ was probably some of my best work, and I think this tops it. It’s so different than what we’ve done. We’ve added so many little different things that it’s still EXODUS, but we’ve definitely stepped outside the box a little bit and tried a few different things and it worked well… It’s fast. it’s dark, it’s awesome, man. It’s gonna be a lot of fun to go play these songs live.”
Souza joined EXODUS in 1986 after previously fronting the band LEGACY (which later became TESTAMENT). He remained in the band until their hiatus in 1993, but rejoined them for two years from 2002 to 2004. Dukes had joined EXODUS in 2005 (following Souza‘s departure) and remained until 2014, when Souza rejoined.
Dukes previously joined EXODUS in January 2005 and appeared on four of the band’s studio albums — “Shovel Headed Kill Machine” (2005),“The Atrocity Exhibition… Exhibit A” (2007),“Let There Be Blood” (2008, a re-recording of EXODUS‘s classic 1985 LP, “Bonded By Blood”) and “Exhibit B: The Human Condition” (2010).
EXODUS played its first concert with Dukes in nearly 11 years on April 5 at the Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest: Philly at the Fillmore in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Last month, Holt told longtime Serbian hard rock/heavy metal journalist Jadranka Janković Nešić that he and his EXODUS bandmates recorded 18 songs for their next studio album. He said: “It’s [going to be released as] two totally separate records, but we kept writing and kept writing and we had so much material that we just [thought], let’s work extra hard and so when it’s time to start thinking about a [second] new album [after the first new one], we could relax a little bit. I wish we had 20 songs done [instead of 18], ’cause then we would have the next album done, and then I could go on vacation or something. I’ve never had one.”
Holt went on to say that none of the songs EXODUS has recorded so far for the two upcoming albums are “fillers”, or tracks that were included simply to add time. “They’re all great,” he claimed. “They’re all amazing. There are 18 songs, and they’re all totally awesome. It’s hard to pick which ones [will end up on the first new album]. But we did it so we could work less later.”
He continued: “We’re getting older. I’m 61 years old. By the time we think about releasing the next album, that’s gonna be three years [from now], so I’m gonna be that much older. And then I can go on vacation in between albums. Like I said, I’ve never gone on vacation. I’ve had vacations where I played guitar to be, but I’ve never gone on a vacation where I didn’t have to play to be there.
“After the whole [second new] album [is done] and all, yeah, I’m gonna go [on vacation] somewhere,” Holt added. “I don’t know how not to work though. I’m a workaholic. My wife will have to tell me to shut the phone off. At home I relax, though. But at home where I live in the country, it’s a lot of work living there in the woods. So, I’m working, but it’s working on my house, and I like that. I live in the country, yeah. No city life for me anymore.”
Regarding the musical direction of the new EXODUS material, Gary said: “It’s 100 percent EXODUS and at times 100 percent different. There’s some surprises on it. It’s super heavy. There’s some moments that are so fast. There’s moments that are super slow. Just satanic, evil as fuck.”
After Jadranka noted that EXODUS is a band that continues to release full-length albums and isn’t putting out standalone singles like more artists are choosing to do nowadays, Holt said: “We write albums. We’ve never concerned ourselves with singles. That’s why in the past some of our songs were 11 minutes long, ’cause we didn’t care. A song’s done when it’s done. If it’s three minutes, cool. If it’s 11 minutes, that’s cool too.”
Holt also once again opened up about Souza‘s departure and Dukes‘s return. Regarding what happened to cause Zetro‘s exit from EXODUS, Gary said: “Well, I don’t wanna go into any details ’cause there’s no bad blood. It’s just we’re all getting older and we want to be happy. And he was not happy. He was very unhappy. He was awesome on stage and awesome in the studio and awesome to the fans and there’s no problem with that. And I loved his performance and his voice is as great as ever. But it’s the time when you’re not on stage when it became to where it’s bringing everybody’s spirits down. And this is a hard job to do when you’re our age. Every single time I go to the airport to go on tour, I’m sad, ’cause I’m leaving my grandchildren and my kids and my wife and my house, and it’s hard. But once I get out here [on tour], I’m with my brothers and I have fun. And if that part isn’t fun anymore, then none of it’s fun. Maybe on stage — maybe. But we’re happy now. Rob‘s here and all five of us hang out and spend a lot of time together and we have a good time.”
When Jadranka said that Rob was “the logical choice” to step in as EXODUS‘s singer for the band’s next phase, Holt concurred. “I’m set in my ways,” he explained. “I don’t like change. So changing singers was never in my future plans. I don’t like change at all. I’m stuck in my ways. And the idea of finding a new person who you don’t know and you don’t know if your personalities work, that was never an option for me. I mean, I could find someone half my age who’s got tons of energy and [is] awesome and has got visible abs muscles and jumps off the top of the drum riser, but I might not have anything in common with him… [Hiring] some kid that’s the same age as my youngest daughter, it would be weird. I’d feel like a father telling him to clean up his room all the time. [Laughs]”
EXODUS‘s next studio album — the band’s first for Napalm Records — is tentatively due around March 2026.
Although EXODUS rarely gets mentioned alongside the so-called “Big Four” of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — the aforementioned “Bonded By Blood” LP inspired the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and many others to launch their careers and is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time.
