Exodus-laulaja Steve ”Zetro” Souza yhtyeensä tulevasta albumista: ”Jotain erityistä ja äärimmäisen raskasta”
Uutisoimme aiemmin, että yhdysvaltalainen thrash metal -yhtye Exodus on siirtymässä studioon äänittämään uutta albumiaan. Yhtyeen edellisestä, ”Blood In, Blood Out” -albumista on vierähtänyt tovi, sillä se julkaistiin vuonna 2014. Yhtyeen laulaja Steve ”Zetro” Souza vieraili taannoin Rock Immortalin ”Rock Talk” -lähetyksessä kertomassa yhtyeen tilanteesta uuden albumin suhteen. Musiikillisesta suuntauksesta Souza ei osaa sanoa mitään, koska ei omien sanojensa mukaan ole kuullut uuden albumin materiaalia. Kitaristi Gary Holt ja rumpali Tom Hunting ovat kuitenkin vakuuttaneet miehelle, että luvassa on jotain erityistä ja todella raskasta, josta kuulijat tulevat pitämään:
”I know what you guys know, and I’ve heard nothing. But I have had conversations with Gary Holt and Tom Hunting, and they assure me it’s really special, it’s really crushingly heavy. People are definitely gonna be blown.”
Yhtye linnoittautuu Tom Huntingin taloon syyskuun alussa ja keskittyy albumin työstöön:
”We’re gonna do it up at Lake Almanor. Tom bought a house up in the mountains, and we are actually gonna have all the gear sent up there, I think, the last week of August. And I would say all of the month of September into October, the five of us will be in the mountains putting together — like little doctors, like scientists — making the new EXODUS.
Talking to Tom yesterday, the songs are really, really heavy. And there’s a lot of room for a lot of things to happen on those songs, from what I understand. I think it’s gonna be a very special album, it looks like. I can’t wait to hear it. I did hear some stuff when we were on The Bay Strikes Back tour. When we were starting soundcheck, Gary and Tom always seemed to get up first and were jamming on stuff. If that was some of the stuff… Ted from DEATH ANGEL would be coming up to me, like, ’Zet, is that new EXODUS?’ And I’m all, ’I’m hearing it like you guys are. So I would say, yes, it probably is.’ But up till now, I haven’t had anything sent to me. That usually is the process: Gary will send me stuff, and he’ll also send me, like, ’Okay, I wrote the lyrics to this. It goes like this.’ That has yet to come.”
Tuleva albumi tehdään pitkästä aikaa siten, että koko yhtye on paikalla. Tätä ei ole Souzan mukaan tapahtunut sitten vuonna 2004 julkaistun ”Tempo Of The Damned” -albumin jälkeen:
”We are all gonna be up there at the same time, which we have not done in a long time. I think ’Tempo Of The Damned’ was the last album, at least with me, that I remember we were all in close proximity of the recording. ’Cause when I did ’Blood In, Blood Out’, Gary was on tour with SLAYER, and Jack was tracking the record. So it was basically him, myself and Lee, or him, myself and Tom doing the vocals. This way, we’re working with another guy, and everybody’s gonna be there. The way Gary explained it was, I’ve done vocals, Lee will go in the rest of the day, so we’re gonna just kind of keep working. ’Cause I guess we’ll all be up there at the same time; it’s gonna be fun.
I’m very excited to do it like that. I think that, honestly, when the whole band is there, that’s when the best stuff comes out. And the three records where the whole band was there, that I can remember, I would say ’Pleasures’, ’Fabulous’ and ’Tempo’. And those three records were the records that I was a part of when the band… ’Impact’ and ’Force’ were kind of done, this guy flew in, this guy flew out, that kind of thing — they were done like that — but ’Pleasures’ and ’Fabulous’ and ’Tempo’, we were all there. And a lot of people think that those are some of the best records with some of the best songs on them, and I agree with that. So hopefully that same magic is gonna happen again.”