Exodus - Persona Non Grata Review

Exodus Persona Non Grata Believe me. Writing reviews for the big guns is the easiest thing in this sad and lonely and pathetic little planet. They generally come already written. My work is only to work with the details and we all know the devil is the details.

“Persona Non Grata” is one of the most awaited albums of the year of one of the most reverenced, and I guess, most unfortunate bands of the Metal music world; Exodus. Just remember how many Metal icons milited in their ranks. For your eyes only, “Persona Non Grata” is only the twelfth album in their career that began in 1982. It’s no overreaction to say that the band is Thrash Metal itself. The name Exodus undoubtedly is a synonim of Thrash Metal. Nor tell you, my dear child of the night, the relevance and importance of the band to Metal music world. I guess we all know what the name Exodus means. And what it causes. I remember the first time I heard “Bounded by Blood” whose cover is one of the most iconic covers of Metal music world. Just to look at it gave me nightmares for some time.

The album is opened with a blast that comes from tittle track “Persona Non Grata” which is only the lesson of how to make Thrash Metal. Nothing else. The song is heavy, fast, malevolent and mesmerizing. Just the way all Thrash Metal songs should be. Besides all that, “Persona Non Grata” is an album with a political agenda. Just take a look at the lyrics. Make no mistake, if a Thrash Metal band is right winged, it’s not a Thrash Metal band. Now a cut from the first track to the last “Antiseed” which is certainly the most frentic song of the album with non-stop headbanging and jaw dropping. The rapid fire the guitars deliver is something really out of this sad and lonely and pathetic little world. They are not only fast, they are acid, corrosive, and precise. By the way, the album is full of those kind of guitar riffing. Steve “Zetro” Souza vocals are just fabulous here. I can’t believe what the man’s lungs can do. Each scream, each yell sound as the last one he would give in all his life.

Exodus aren’t just a band, “Persona Non Grata” isn’t just an album. They are icons. They are staplers of Metal music. I guess each Metal band in this sad and lonely and pathetic little world should receie a copy of it with some explicit and mandatory instructions. Listen to it at least three times a day. No less.

P.S. – “Persona Non Grata” is just a cool name. It’s for you and me and all the people in this sad and lonely and pathetic little world who don’t fit, that don’t know the right place. We are the unwanted, the undesired, the rejected. We are Exodus. we are “Persona Non Grata.”

Exodus “Persona Non Grata” will be released on November 19th via Nuclear Blast Records.

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