Exodus
Bonded By Blood

What is thrash metal? Well, if someone were to ask me a similar question, I wouldn't hesitate in answering: Reign In Blood by Slayer and Bonded By Blood by Exodus. Now, anyone who knows even a little about metal knows that the most powerful wave of metal in US history started in the early '80s from California (may it always be blessed!) and gave rise to the most devastating bands the human ear had ever heard: Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, Possessed (although here we're much more on the death metal side), Dark Angel, Death Angel, Vio-Lence, Forbidden. Among these Bay Area bands, there was also a group that was glaringly underrated, quite wrongly, as their early works can easily be compared to those of Metallica and Megadeth; obviously, I'm talking about Exodus, Kirk Hammett's first band.

After the 1982 demo recorded when founding member and composer Hammett was still in the lineup, 1985 saw the release of Exodus's debut album, and what a debut album that was! We are not faced with the half-hour musical devastation that Slayer would propose just a year later, but we are still facing a true juggernaut, folks. The lineup is simply crushing: on vocals, the late Paul Baloff, the quintessential thrash metal voice, with his pissed-off and psychopathic tone. We're not dealing with Jeff Becerra's or Tom Araya's demonic voice, but the result is just as destructive, let me say. A dirty and raw voice, just the way it should be to sing a good bit of healthy thrash metal. On guitars, we find Gary Holt (a true riff-machine) and Rick Hunolt, Hammett's replacement. Their contribution is simply monstrous: bone-crushing riffs, intense rhythms, searing solos (we're on a different level compared to the already great Hanneman and King of Slayer); a style that is still very raw, if you will, but already reveals the nature of the two axe men. Thus began the era of the so-called H-Team, personally my favorite guitarist duo, which would end only twenty years later, marking the end of Exodus, but that's another story... The symbiosis between the two guitarists is total, a mutual completion that brings tears when seeing the results. Truly amazing. On drums is another founding member, Tom Hunting. Now, I can't say he's such a technical drummer, also because his characteristic isn't meant to be that; we're far from a Dave Lombardo or a Gene Hoglan, that's for sure... it's just that... just that I like the drumming. In a freaking way. Dynamic, devastating on the skins, Hunting is able to unleash a terrifying power and delivers a performance that literally grabs (that little Lars Ulrich, he folds him up and puts him in his pocket). The rhythm section is finally completed by Rob McKillop, the "historic" bassist of the San Francisco lineup.

The CD is pure dynamite. The opening song is the equally legendary title track, Bonded By Blood. After about twenty seconds, the riffs of the devastating H-Team kick in and then... Paul Baloff's raw voice! If you're metal lovers, it's impossible not to be carried away by the fantastic chorus in which Paul declares: Murder in the Front Row/ Crowd begins to bang/And there’s blood upon the stage/Bange you head against the stage/And metal takes it’s price/ BONDED BY BLOOOOD! We are in front of a thrash metal anthem, folks, a song that should be known and hummed by all metalheads, just like Master Of Puppets or Raining Blood... it's a shame it doesn't have all that resonance, truly. Another song worth mentioning is And There Were None, personally my favorite track of the entire work and probably also the slowest and most "atypical" of the album. The thrashy rhythm gives way to a more catchy and apt chorus, only to conclude in the last devastating 2 minutes of musical destruction, with scorching and piercing guitar solos. Second gem of the disk, absolutely, a song that like the title track is unfortunately too little known. The very next track is A Lesson In Violence, probably the fastest and most brutal song on the whole record, a sort of Metal Militia of the situation, yeah. The riffs flow relentlessly under the tireless work of Tom Hunting on drums and the raw screams of the legendary Baloff. Due to its high symbolic value, this song turns out to be the absolute signature song of the San Francisco combo, rightfully so, I'd simply dare to say. Metal Command, then, is probably the greatest speed thrash metal song ever written... no, I really can't pick a favorite song more than the others like I said before, it's just not possible... Let's conclude, finally, with Deliver us to the Devil, the longest and most epic song of the album (more than 7 minutes), which allows us once again to listen to the great guitar work of Holt and Hunolt (note the incredible similarity between the last names... could it just be a coincidence?), inventing riffs and solos that give you goosebumps. Probably the album reaches its peak of compositional and qualitative excellence with this song, heights that Exodus would hardly reach again (indeed, never again, frankly speaking). A worthy conclusion to this mammoth CD is Strike Of The Beast, in which the incredible speed levels of A Lesson in Violence are reached once again. In the chorus, Paul's voice becomes malevolent, in the style of Tom Araya (I think there are many more similarities between the two than one might think at first listen), after Tom Hunting has destroyed our eardrums with his destructive beat and the H-Team has delivered probably the most intricate and beautiful riff of the entire album.

What can be said about this album in conclusion... if you like metal in general, this is an album you MUST have, and if you're a fan of thrash metal and don't have this CD... well, you're second-rate thrash metalheads, brothers! A monstrous work, perhaps not highly inspired from a compositional point of view (from this aspect I find The Ultra-Violence by the 4 young Death Angel guys a bit better), but with simply monstrous rhythmic parts. It's a shame that Exodus wouldn't fully confirm themselves in the following years because, hearing this work, they could have even become the greatest thrash metal band of all time, but these are just my suppositions. If you're looking for a record to destroy your neck from headbanging... well, Bonded By Blood is definitely the record for you! Enjoy and be careful not to hurt yourself too much!

Ah, I almost forgot. A final note: a reissue of the album has recently been released, titled Let There Be Blood, featuring only Holt and Hunting as the original members and that pig Rob Dukes on vocals... well, the work isn't that bad, I don't even mind Dukes that much, but I feel that the super-aggressive production in metalcore style of recent years (which this work is certainly not exempt from) has lost that warm and rich sound of the origins. The only song that somewhat stands out is the title track; all the others are damn mediocre. Dukes is not Baloff, but that was known... the point is to understand why Holt remade an album he already composed 20 years before. Obviously, it's for economic reasons, but perhaps even poor Gary sold a bit of that dignity and talent that seemed still present in him after the excellent Tempo Of The Damned from 2004.