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Interview: Gary Holt of Exodus

Most bands slow down with age. They re-hash old formulas, stop caring about their live show and basically become novelties. For Bay Area thrash stalwarts Exodus, that is the farthest scenario from the truth. In fact, Exodus have only gotten faster, meaner, tighter, more intense and far more brutal than they even were during the heralded Bonded By Blood-era. In fact, they have so much energy that their latest release The Atrocity Exhibition: Exhibit A may be their most vicious to date. Songs stretch over the eight-minute mark, but the speed and aggression remain in tact. The album's cuts showcase Exodus at their most vitriolic and epic. Guitarist Gary Holt's buzzsaw riffs cut with a fury that few of his contemporaries can match. Exodus have evolved into an unstoppable metallic beast. Gary sat down with ARTISTdirect to discuss the future and his legacy.

"Iconoclasm" and "Children of a Worthless God" sound utterly epic, as does the whole record. Did you have one concept in mind throughout the album?

It was a natural progression. I never set out to write a nearly 11-minute long title track [laughs]. It was just one of those things. As the songs progressed and the riffs kept building, they just ended up these big, epic monstrosities. I never view a song as "finished" until the song says it's finished. This album it took awhile for them to say it. If we edited them down though, they wouldn't be the songs they are. Now, [guitarist] Lee Altus has been in the band for over two years. Whereas on Shovel Headed Kill Machine, he joined the band just, as we were beginning the recording process. His involvement with that was to come in and do his solos, while at the same time he was preparing for a tour in Europe with Heathen, and he had to teach another guitar player all of the Heathen songs. So his workload was pretty insane at that point. I don't know how he did it. He's been here, Rob's been here, and Tom's back. There's a really positive vibe for sure.

Would you say there's more camaraderie than ever?

Yeah, but we've never had a camaraderie problem at all, even during Shovel Headed with all of the lineup changes. Jack's been the constant. He's been in the band for 11 or so years. Rob has been a brother of mine for a long time. There was a real positive feeling going into this one. That sounds strange considering it's an album that could be viewed as negative [laughs]. We all felt really good about this negativity [laughs].

Everything pummels in such a focused way. It seems you're all completely on the same page.

Yeah totally! We're certainly on the same page. We work so well together with Andy Sneap in the studio, and we captured exactly what we wanted. We recorded this entire album as well as four songs for the next record in 19 days. It's a pretty unheard-of time frame to record one and a half albums of epic material. We had a good time. So the long, insane hours didn't seem quite as grueling as they should have.

You're still having fun.

Oh yeah, we wouldn't be doing this, if we weren't having fun. Despite making albums that are quite often some of the songs are hate-filled diatribes, I still have fun! Maybe I'm able to smile and enjoy myself live, because this band can be like a therapy for me. I wouldn't do this, if it weren't fun. The first time band broke up in '93; I walked away from it, because it wasn't fun. It was like a business and a bad one at that. Right now, everyone's just having the time of his life, and we just can't wait to start this tour.

You manage to make the thrash sound fresh. Why do you think that works with Exodus and not other bands?

When you get some old school purists, the funny thing is these old school purists I speak of are usually like 15-years-old [laughs]. They weren't even a glimmer in their fathers' eyes when this shit was being created. Some of those people think, "Oh Exodus is just a modern band." I don't write a song any differently now than I did then. It starts with a riff. I think if anything makes it more modern, it's just the level of brutality. I'm not interested in being my own best tribute band. I don't want to be an in Exodus cover band by trying to copy what I've done. I'll leave that to other people.

You manage to evolve with the times.

Exactly, we're the ones that have to live the music so we have to do what we want to do. That's true about a band that's worth anything: you remain true to yourself and you write the music you want to write. If you try to write for an audience, you're no different than Britney Spears with songs tailor-made to please certain segments of the market. I've got to look myself in the mirror and know what I did was right and honest.

There was never that record that deviated from that punishing sound.

I think there were mistakes the band made. We never sold out, but there are things I look back on, and I think about. Force of Habit had some really strong songs on it, but there was too many cover songs on it, which was two. We never started spiking our hair up, wearing eyeliner or rapping. We remain true to ourselves, without feeling artistically limited.

Did you have two albums in mind while writing this one?

We went in knowing that we had more material than would physically fit on one disc. It was written like one album. As epic as this album is, you can imagine sticking another 20 minutes of material on it. It's insane. There are just limitations on the storage capacity of the CD. We thought of putting out a double album, but this just made more sense. Those tracks we have for the next record were by no means throwaway tracks. It was a long hard decision to figure out which songs to save. We have a leg up on the next album. We're pretty much halfway done already. While we're touring for Atrocity Exhibition, we're going to find time to go into the studio and continue.

This and Shovel Headed Kill Machine both have a real cinematic nature to the songs. Would you ever want to score a film or video game?

Yeah, sure! I think I could do it. I watch a lot of movies. I've seen the way it's done. I'd love to do it some day and create a heavy metal score. I think I can manage to do a pummeling soundtrack while creating tension and atmosphere at this same time.

The cover art rules too.

Yeah I think so, especially for a band that's been known for making some legendary records with some legendary bad covers.

Do you feel like Rob's become integral to the Exodus sound now? His vocals on "Funeral Hymn" rip. Plus the clean singing is a nice dynamic change.

This is a guy that came into this band with all of the untapped raw talent in the world, but he had 0 experience. He came into this album with over 200 shows under his belt and a couple years experience of just having an idea on how to do it. Now, he's bringing his own things to the table. It's just a wonderful thing.

What was it like getting Tom back in the fold?

Man, it was just awesome. You're talking about a guy whose arguably been my best friend since I was 17-years-old. It means a lot. Nothing against Paul, Paul is a wonderful person. He'll always be a close friend, and I'll always be indebted to him for his time in the band. With Tom, it's just like having family come back. Until Tom left the band in '89, he was the only drummer I ever played with in my whole life. Even on a fun goof-around level, he was the only guy I had ever played with. When I write a riff, it's his drumming that I hear in my head.

Do you still enjoy touring?

Oh fuck yeah! It can be rough, because we tour and do more consecutive shows than we ever did when we were young. Like many bands, we live on the bus, but I'm still totally enjoying myself and having a good time.

How has the Bay Area scene changed since you started?

The Bay Area, the scene kind of died for a long time, and I think that came with the death of most of the legendary Bay Area clubs. When we were starting out, we had the benefit of seven truly professional venues to play it. Now there's like 1. The scene did kind of die, but everyone from us to Machine Head is still successful. Hollywood's really surprised me. Now there's this insane contingent of all these young thrash fanatics. I can't wait to play there again.

—Rick Florino
03.06.08