Band:
Rob Dukes – Vocals
Gary Holt – Guitars
Lee Altus – Guitars
Jack Gibson – Bass
Tom Hunting – Drums
Discography:
Bonded by Blood (1985)
Pleasures of the Flesh (1987)
Fabulous Disaster (1988, 1989 in the United States)
Impact is Imminent (1990)
Force of Habit (1992)
Tempo of the Damned (2004)
Shovel Headed Kill Machine (2005)
The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A (2007)
Guests:
Brendon Small - "Devil's Teeth" Solo
Peter Tägtgren - Backing Vocals on The Sun Is My Destroyer
Info
Andy Sneap (producer)
Released 7/5-2010
Reviewed 1/7-2010
Links:
exodusattack.com
myspace
nuclearblast
They are back with Exhibit B which probably carries on where the A-part ended, I reviewed the A-part a few years back and did not really care much for it, so lets now see if this will fare any better to my scrutinising, it will be difficult to be less liked than the first one though. The remake of the Vitruvian Man, the DaVinci sketch, in Exodus style make for a nice cover at least, the lyrical themes are not groundbreaking or that exiting really but it is not really that which is the objective of this review however.
This Exhibit B follows the style of the Bay Area style thrash metal, kind of similar to Megadeth, old Metallica or Death Angel, they are true to their genre it can be said. This means that their music is heavy with powerful aggressive vocals, fast paced riffing, powerful music and lots of attitude, that is about what it is. The Exodus of today is actually very similar to Exodus of the past, the main difference is the production which of course is much better today. Their fans probably say they are true to their music, these ultra conservative people hate all change so, well they will probably complain about change in singers, but hey you cannot really please everyone anyway. Exodus does what they have always done musically, they play heavy, fast and powerful thrash metal.
I can definitely state that this record is much better than the one it follows, there are some good songs here which it was not one the predecessor. Still it is hard not to be better than that boring record so it does not really say much and this record has a major flaw and that is really a major issue which is hard to look away from. The record is 74 minutes long, 74, for a thrash metal album with hardly no variation, 74 minutes! No matter how you look at it, it is too long, one have to throw away a lot of songs in order to make a good and focused album, this one is too hard to run all the way through, it turns dull and you just wish for it to end sooner rather than later and the songs blend together into a brownish smelly liquid of sound.
Still there are some good parts, the track Nanking is quite great really with a distinct and powerful chorus which grabs you every time, then there is Burn Hollywood Burn which is a decent track but besides those it is mostly brown music really. And even so, no matter how you look at it, 74 minutes is a pain, I wonder if UN isn’t already voting to deem this kind of thing torture and outlaw the play of it without a long break in the middle. Less is more is a good term which cannot really be said enough, I just wish that some bands would listen, if half of the tracks on this record was thrown away it would easily have been a full point better, if not more, there is after all good stuff here and who knows, if it was shorter then the other tracks might actually grow much more easy on you, now it is just too much.
I say that if half the tracks would vanish then this would be a good album but now it is there, 74 minutes and therefore I will give it seven minus four points.
HHHHHHH
