 I've done a few so we've got like 30 minutes that we're saying yeah yeah I have one more right after that all right so here we are alive on the metal voice with the one the only Gary Holt what's up of course Exodus and yeah sure a smidge of Slayer from time to time right little smidge yeah so Gary exciting news new album you know persona non grata coming out 19th of November via nuclear blast the follow-up to blood and blood out in 20 has it been 2014 yeah seven years it's crazy right I can't even believe it's seven years anyways so first off you know just tell everybody about the difference in recording from this album than the last album like I think you did the same thing right more or less but just tell us about that first of all you know yeah we tend to build a studio when we're going to record and the location may change but the process kind of stays the same and you know the blood in blood out we recorded at a goat ranch like and nothing more metal than being surrounded by goats right and this time you know just in the time since Tom hunting bought his house up in Lake Almanor which had this huge massive garage with all these like you know purpose built rooms and it was made to record there and um and this time though like you know we're able to do drums as well we typically do the drums in a real studio and then we build and track everything else you know be it a rental home on the Russian river or a goat ranch you know or an old warehouse space and uh this time though we had all the gear set up at all times Tom could work on drums long after the initial drum tracks are done you know if he lived with something and thought it could be improved he'd jump out and get it you know and it's awesome we'll never change you know I don't I don't like going to the studio you know you get in the car and fight traffic and you sit there and order some takeout and then you go home you know it's like summer camp for us you know jam camp we call it yeah yeah yeah you know hold on a second here I just okay everything cut a screw for a second how is Tom by the way he's doing great you know he's on his road to recovery he um you know he's starting to get behind the drums a little bit he's got to build the stamina back and all that but you know he's he's got the time and he has the support of the whole band and uh you know he'll he'll be back so what about the lyrics I mean was it you who wrote the lyrics was it uh Steve who wrote the lyrics Zetro I wrote I write most of the lyrics Steve wrote two songs and Tom hunting wrote a song he wrote uh the lyrics to the to years of death and dying Zetro wrote uh slipping into madness and um elitist and I wrote all the rest all right so let's just jump jump right into the lyrics here because like there's a lot of anger here I'm hearing a lot of anger hostility you know tension uh and actually just give everybody in a sentence what does this album musically sound like I'll give you my sentence after but you go it sounds like it the album to me sounds like 2020 it's a musical equivalent of the fucking the the shit show that last year was all right the soundtrack to the shit show that's what you're telling me yeah you know like I mean some of the stuff I was writing as I'm looking at a tv and watching the world burn you know it's like and of course you know that you know have uh have an effect on what what I'm putting onto paper you know and like and all of it like the years of death and dying Tom wrote as like an an ode to all the people we've lost including a lot of close friends you know just fuck you know we lost so many people on top of our way of life and you know fucking jobs and homes were lost lives were lost you know and not just all pandemic related you know it was a bad year and we hope this album is some positive that comes out of it you know from musical perspective I'll give you my sort of take on it it's brutal sure it's thrash the production's great Andy Sneep does a great job and I think it's somewhere between tempo the last album and more there's a lot of death metal growls I find like he's throwing a little just a little a lot more than usual how's that yeah yeah he learned a couple of new tricks that's right but you know some of the songs demanded it you know like you know I give me a little listen you know he in the past he didn't think you know it was in his wheelhouse but he learned he could do it quite well you know I don't expect them to to like uh be George Fisher but you know it just adds another element you know because the guy already has his own totally unique voice and he's already can sing you know it's already added something else to it too snarling and angry that that's all I hear the whole album I I don't think this the lyrics fits so well the melodies and his voice I find and this album that that's my take on yeah it's brutal and thrash and technical technical yeah insane drums insane drums guitars the whole thing all right persona and you know the album's got like fucking some of the catchiest choruses we've ever come up with you know and like you know when you can do that when you can make something that's super heavy but you can sing along to it yeah I think you've kind of accomplished something to your point the years of death and dying that is like the big catchy chorus that I haven't really heard much of that from Exodus over the years yeah it's been a while it's been a while all right so go ahead sorry and you know it's a natural thing you know nothing's forced you know sometimes these things are completely improvised and when we're writing it you know like you know and uh and uh when it came to that that chorus I told uh Mike Amad from March Enemy that I should probably own royalties you know because the the Swedish influence is so heavy on that part you know but you know it's just uh it's a big circular world of influence we live in we all influence each other anyway so the fire the fires of division all right so all right now I'm listening to the song I go this is the soundtrack of COVID and post COVID so tell me about the lyrics on that one it's just about the the sad state of affairs in the world today you know the device of nature of everything now you know it's I'm maybe it's just me showing my age I'm old enough to remember when uh people could uh have political differences and still get along I guess I'm just old right well I'm sorry I remember those days my own band is like compromise of like varying different political ideologies and we're best friends you know like the world is forgotten on how to do that we're so divided and the powers that being want us divided and that's on both sides that's not just a hard right or hard left thing you know like they just you know they're doing everything they can to pit everybody against each other and uh I think it's the media or the leader so there's corporations there's media and there's politicals right political I think they all I think they all have a hand in it media all of them politicians as well you know um because the game they're all playing now is like uh they don't they don't think they have to earn voters to get elected just keep the ones you got you know and uh and be as vile and bad as you want and that's you know and just you know the right will portray the left as a bunch of like snowflake liberals and left will portray the right as a bunch of like inbred fucking dummies but we're all americans here you know and um the sooner we remember that the sooner we can start to heal but right now you know I wrote that song while staring down the fucking capital riots and shit you know like god damn it but you know what it's not happening it's I don't I'm in Canada so it's not only happening in the US but it's happening everywhere there's this political divide ideologies like people are hating each other they're not it's what I'm look I'm old enough I'm low I'm your age and I remember a time where we could sit at a dinner table have different ideologies and we're not going to throw for again you know mashed potatoes at each other you know yeah or disown each other and there's disowning just right off half of your family you know I mean I look at it like this it's the same thing with religion you know I everybody pretty much knows I'm an atheist and I'm not a believer but if I fucking wrote off all those that were I wouldn't have a family most of my families believe in Jesus fucking Christ you know and I'm not gonna like fucking part ways with them because we share a different religious ideology and I won't over political either you know some of my best friends are completely different than me yeah and uh that's okay it's not a bad thing you know I don't look at them as like fucking lesser people because we don't agree on something and you know a lot of time with you if you take the time to like discuss shit like fucking humans you'll find that you actually can find middle ground on a lot of things yeah I find the media has been really fueling the fire because tragedy cells and anger cells and right yeah happiness doesn't the media the media had as much to do with anything you know um Trump's right to complain about the media and so are the people on the left you know like you know and uh they're trying to they're trying to get uh views they want people to watch their shows they want people to read their articles and the best way to do that is to stir up shit nobody wants to read an article about you know a couple politicians or republican and democrat go into a bar you know sounds like a joke you know hey you know republican and democrat go into bar you know we both ordered drink today they got drunk they got a lot prescribing horror okay tell me about that one that one's about the felitimide babies of the late 50s early 60s you know which are the result of um a morning sickness drug that was actually created by Nazi doctors and uh and uh the end result was a whole lot of limbless blind totally fucked up children all in the for the sake of money you know which ties in with a lot of the anti-vaxxers you know they're worried I mean again I'm not I don't want to get into this vaccine debate or anything like that but that they're they're saying look look at this drug that was prescribed it wasn't tested enough and now you want us to stick our you know and I don't want to get into this debate of what's right or wrong I'm just saying that sort of you know that's that's what brings the fear you know the past brings the fear of the present and maybe sure you know I mean that that's what I'm trying to say yeah I don't want to go and I never really thought of it as tying into that in that way but not as you mentioned it absolutely does um you know the whole album kind of ties in a lot of that stuff and I think it's just because of what was in front of me when we were creating this album you know you can't help me be influenced by it you know persona non grata who are you talking about or you don't you're not telling me but I'll never tell because it's not one person it's just it's a general theory laid out and laid bare and um that's a song that I tell everybody that song means whatever it means to you who is your who is persona non grata to you you know and then there's your example all right all right you know to me it was more about just a release of anger about you know a lot of things all boiled down do as if it was one person but it's not yeah do you think and you know again there's a lot not a lot of time here I just want to throw in a quick question do you believe that the exodus of the 80s could not exist in today's world you know the blood the thrashing the the stage diving the blood that that would not be politically correct today well I mean I think we've survived just fine I don't think we could write a song on our like a debut with the line kick in your face rape and murder your wife you know no would I you know but I have I make no apologies you know we were fucking young kids and we sang about violence and rhymed great with knife you know what about the base strikes back to her with testament okay now this is an death angel all right this is starting I mean is everything still on the go here everything's good um you know we'll wait and see you know we're hoping right now you know the COVID rules and I'm not an anti-vaxxer I was vaccinated the first second I could but at the same time I've no desire to play a tour where I'm I have the tour in a bubble and I can't even hang out with my fellow tour mates but we're willing to do it so you know the tour is booked and it's it's a go and I'm hoping everything turns out fine you know you see all the tours going on now two guys are dropping you know they're not dropping because they're ill they're mandatory testing and one guy gets sick and there goes a bunch of shows and for a band like us you know goes a bunch of shows there goes a whole tour and there goes a bunch of fucking money somebody's asking not make the money then owe the money so but but if all goes well you're starting in October the 6th and you're going all the way to November 27th all across the North America or USA actually yeah if all goes well and that's the base strikes back with Testament and Death Angel which is a pretty amazing tour hopefully it'll come to Canada yeah it was the last tour I did was when we were in Europe right at the height of the start of the pandemic you know and we had so much fun it was my first tour back after Slayer's end and you know these are some of my closest friends on these two bands and I can't wait to do it again I'm fucking stoked it's been a long time I'm going a little stir crazy tell me tell me about other parts of the album that you're kind of like you know this is something new that we tried that we didn't do last time okay the death metal vocals is one of them right yeah I mean you know like what we try to do is just make the best album we can you know I don't never go into it saying I'm gonna make everything and like stick to a formula because that's what Exodus does but I also don't sit there and go I have to do something that I've never done before what I try to do is new things sonically and through the riff and through the power and the energy and creepiness like like a prescribing horror you know it's a song with no guitar solo has a melody section in the middle that's like fucking haunting and creepy and scary as anything and that's straight off my demo that I did on my laptop you know it came out so good and when we were listening to it I didn't see the need to re-record it you know just import it you know it was perfect then um we just wanted to put in the best performances the best songs the best hooks and the most power we could accomplish I think we did that I mean it was awesome the pandemic was good to us in that way because we were able to work just uninterrupted on an album for a long time we spent more time on this album and Andy Sneep uh you know we had him we mixed this album so many times it became madness you know because we had time to do it like you know we'd live with it for a month and like what about one more goal I think we could fix it and we did it and the final mix we improved it just that's little tiny bit that most people wouldn't have noticed but it opened it up even more sonically it was worth doing yeah no I you know I'm really impressed with this album it's worth the weight you know you guys have done a really good job lunatic liar lord tell me about that that's about the fucking it's about all jesus age christ and god and and the religious right and um you know and uh just my general feelings on religion all right the beatings will continue until morale improves that's the funniest that's the best line yeah that was that was written watching you know the riots you know and me just looking at it and thinking what is what are they trying to accomplish you know and um I'm not pro writer writer but watching people just clubbing peaceful protesters and like what is your end game here to beat them until they submit you know until that's when you know and it's an old statement I've read heard before you know the beatings will continue until morale improves and and that kind of just clicked in because it almost seemed like that was the goal was to like beat you until you know until you smile about it all right remf okay mf is I guess motherfucker but what's the rem rear echelon rear echelon motherfucker is that it a military term refers to the guys in the back making the call calling the shots sending the soldiers in to do the dirty work yeah I noticed a lot of time changes on that one like just it's just thrash brutal technical it's just the time changes it's going up it's going down it's speeding up it's slowing down it's just wow man you guys really put a lot of work into that yeah that's one of my favorites I mean they're all my children yeah and this album I'm super proud of all them all right going back into little since we have just a little bit of time left going back into the early days when you first saw Metallica did you say these guys are gonna be you know the biggest band in the world or yeah they're good but they'll get better I thought they were good I wasn't like totally blown away I mean I thought they were really good you know the you know the main thing is I we saw like a kindred spirit you know you know we were both playing thrash metal I didn't know another band did you know and it was kind of like looking into a mirror I thought they were great but I remember like um you know Dave you know broke a string and they didn't have a backup and they had to stop and change the string during the show and I was like these guys didn't bring two guitars what the fuck's wrong with them and I remember reading a old old old fanzine interview with Lars and he said basically the same thing he felt like he'd seen like you know a mirror image kindred spirit musically but Lars said but you know they're not as uh professional as uh as us and I remember when I read that I told someone those motherfuckers didn't even bring backup guitars professional my ass you wouldn't have to stand there and wait for me to change the string I would grab the other guitar but it was all good and all in fun but uh yeah they were there no one no one knew they'd be this big anybody who says they did is a liar they were crushing killer thrash made by guys like us pimply faced kids you know with a total lack of social skills and uh no one knew James would become the singer he did no one knew they'd write stuff like nothing else matters no one knew they'd write you know uh sanitarium you know they were raw and dirty and street and quite punk like us you know and um you know it wasn't till master puppets that I like this band is like gonna do something massive because I still call it the greatest metal album ever made it's master puppets you know a thrashers back in the day it was you know it was a it was a sort of a living and not a living but a a culture and it's not the same today now you just what do you play I pay flash but I think you were living the thrash and the punk elements and back in the day it's totally different from today there's a way of life you know the songs that we sang our behavior wasn't too far off yeah and maybe that that's the best way to put it your behavior wasn't too far off from the music and the lyrics right we were pretty ill behaved young boys back then what about you know what we looked like cherubs we got away with so much shit because we'd like who me and we look like we were 14 years old baby face little little puppies and you know we got away with a lot of shit bonded blight by blood how in your opinion why has it standard the test of time all these years people love that album this is like like kill them all you know for exodus right this is why do you think it stood the test of time all these years great songs you know what it all comes down to great songs it's it was a founding album and a movement and uh you know I'm biased but I think it's the best of the debuts okay all right and is there anything else you want to talk about uh how about Slayer anything any any surprises like any one-offs or maybe a song or two or a movie soundtrack or something I don't know no they're Slayer's done and enjoy the memories I know I do all right so that's pretty much it unless you want to plug something else I know you got another interview nice for sun and on grott in November 19th go check it out I'm fucking excited my friend I'm happy you're here on the show today thank you so much for joining us and thank you all your time Gary have yourself a wonderful day okay you too take care bye bye