The JAR has spent a lot of time with classic bands who decided to take the time awarded by 2020 and retool an approach and try to recapture some old magic. How does the new Exodus fair? The JAR did love the old Toxic Waltz…

Now Exodus is an interesting band. Technically pre-dating most of the thrash bands of the 80s, they never quite broke through. Where Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax are the Big Four, Exodus was always clumped into the next pile. No there is no such thing as a Big 8 or Big 5, as much as people love Overkill, Death Angel, Testament and Exodus, you can’t just make crap up.

Exodus has been through more lineup changes than Megadeth, so that definitely makes each album a coin flip; especially when they’ve had four different singers. This lineup sees Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza stick around since 2014 on his third stint with the band. So if you like Zetro’s vocal stylings, this might fit right into your playlists.

• Artist: Exodus
• Album: Persona Non Grata (2021)
• Label: Nuclear Blast
• Total Track Time: 60:17

Persona Non Grata the titular song kicks off with quick double bass drum kicks, a ripping guitar and sets a very ferocious pace right off the bat. The lower growled vocals behind Zetro’s lead give things and interesting Mercyful Fate feel. Then we get a small bridge slowing things down a little, but the crunch and heaviness of the guitars feels more like a brief respite before breaking back out into a sprint. Plus the lyrics are great with the meaning of Persona Non Grata. Just talking about basically eating shit and being generally unwelcomed/unappreciated and using the person as a beacon of spite. The early fury, calming a little as the rage builds back and ending aggressive is a great way to flavor this song. Then we go into a sludgy Doom style riff with the layered screams of pain and hatred. This is a crazy clever song that most people can probably relate to. R.E.M.F. well talk about an interesting reference. R.E.M.F. stands for Rear Echelon Mother Fuckers, which is effectively a military term for someone who just kissed a lot of ass to get to the top. So it paints the picture of people that are unqualified deciding who and where the wars get fought. If you have a boss who just sucked up to the right people and have no clue what you do or what they’re really supposed to do, well then, they’re a Rear Echelon Mother Fucker.

Slipping Into Madness has a slower open. We get deliberate marching drums, a crunchy rhythm guitar and light lead that eventually picks up when the lyrics kick in. Now I love this line, ”Slipping into madness, Fire up the high – Slipping into madness, Just slip away and die”. There’s also a line about ground control has killed Major Tom. It’s a fantastically colorful way of lashing out against addiction be it from the streets or big pharma. And the light wahh’d out strum on the lead makes more sense to give kinda that dizzy slipping feeling in the music. I wasn’t expecting an Iron Maiden style double guitar solo, but it’s wonderful. Elitist well purely from the title, this is perfect for a primarily wrestling website now ain’t it? As for the song, it’s a cool driving song, feels more in the early 90s/80s vein of thrash, but the lyrics basically prove the title gives it away. Just a simple song about contempt for the rich elitists who just use and use and expect more. Simple doesn’t mean bad, and if anything; it’s a nice little palate cleanser after the last couple more complex songs.

Prescribing Horror now this starts off slow like a horror movie. Gentle cymbal taps, into a slow guitar, crashes come in when the crunch on the guitars gets heavier and we’ve got church bells to accent things as well. I really like this opening. OKAY, now they’re teaching people things. This song is about the Thalidomide tragedy in the 50s in West Germany. It was a drug that was released as something that could cure coughs, colds and headaches, but apparently was toxic to pregnant women. After just a few years of being released it was taken off the market after being responsible for thousands of birth defects and deaths either miscarried or after birth. So the song has a slow and haunting rhythm, cause damn that’s a heavy topic. Remember kids, knowing is half the battle. The Beatings Will Continue (Until Morale Improves) and now I got flashbacks to my grandfather purely from the title. But it starts out a little hokey, a recorded countdown, a siren and fun fast instrumentation. This feels a lot like Toxic Waltz and that’s not a bad thing. Especially after such a goddamned dark song, I like a little uptempo most pit stupidity. The lyrics might be a not so veiled commentary on the how the police dealt with riots in the last few years, but I’m choosing to just focus on the music.

The Years of Death and Dying this song is basically covid’s perspective on the pandemic. It’s really cool, it’s heavy, the chorus is a little awkward going into a bit of a spiral riff; but generally this is cool. Another Bowie reference when he claims “I turned Ziggy into stardust”. I also like how one of the major themes is that this has become out legacy, so it will live forever. Clickbait see and this song is why we don’t do clickbait garbage news on The Chairshot. Sheep will swallow it all but the smarter fans (which you all are) would just get offended by those trash tactics. Cosa Del Pantano is little instrumental with the Italian name for Swamp thing. It definitely has that bluesy Deliverance kind of vibe, so it works for what it’s supposed to be about.

Lunatic-Liar-Lord continues that bluesy southern riff from Swamp Thing and then thrashes it up. So they connect the two well. Lyrically I can see many basically saying this about the Trump regime, as to not assume anyone’s political leanings, I will argue that lyrically this is very applicable to many things in history. I like how the song picks up the aggression when it needs to, but the verses are punctuated with a slower distortion so nothing is lost. I can really see this song picking up steam because of how people want to interpret the lyrics, but they are generalized enough to not push anyone away, they are stinging without being obvious and the music accompanies it all really well. The Fires of Division a song about MATH! No-obviously it’s not. This is another well written song lyrically, because it’s right. Both sides have stoked the fires of hatred between everyone and with all of the stories of people disowning family over who they voted for or an opinion, the division isn’t because of just one side. The song isn’t as thrashy as most of the album, it definitely slows things down a bit. The rhythm guitar tries to gallop through to drive some Thrash, but this definitely feels more Seek and Destroy where it’s heavy and it fits the album, but it’s not Thrash.

Antiseed lyrically is a great way to end things being about indiscriminate slaughter and murder being the seed where everything dies. The antiseed where death grows. There is a really interesting rhythm lick that sounds southern rockish and bluesy. Between the guitar crunch, double bass and furious drumming, that little rhythm piece caught my attention. It just weaves into the song in an interesting way to add a weird peacefulness to violence harvesting more death.

So damn, that was a hell of a ride. Heavy, attacking, a little educational and songs about the last two years that don’t really take sides. Musically they stayed in that vein that many of the old school Thrash bands have since the mid-00s where it’s more heavy and crunchy as opposed to some of the goofy and fun nonsense like Caught in a Mosh, Toxic Waltz and Bored.

While I feel the first half is definitely stronger, that is by no means an indictment on the album. I will say it was smart of them to put politically charged songs toward the end, so if anyone got angry at the lyrics because they assumed the sentiment was against their own, they might already be invested in the album. Well structured, lyrics and music were mostly complimentary, Zetro sounded great and even though I never mentioned it, yes there was bass…this isn’t …And Justice for All. Just none of the bass licks struck me as hard as everything else. Damn good album, might be my favorite Exodus album to date. I should probably go relisten to Exhibit B just to be sure though.

Final Judgment: 8.45/10