In a recent interview with Germany’s Rock Hard magazine, EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt discussed the band’s decision to bring Rob Dukes back as their singer after Steve “Zetro” Souza‘s departure.
When asked why Souza “had to leave,” Holt responded (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “Without going into details, I tell people like this: being in a band is like being married. And you might see that husband and wife out in public and they’re really nice and charming, but you don’t know what’s happening in their house. Like, maybe she’s throwing f**king dishes and knives at his head. Maybe he’s smacking her around. You don’t know what’s happening. And there was a lot of unhappiness in the band, and I wish him no ill will. We had a good time until just kind of the four of us were trying to enjoy this as much as we can. I’m 61 years old. I want to end my career smiling all the time.”
When asked if Rob was “the only option” for a singer, or if he’d considered others before reuniting with Dukes, Gary stated: “No, we talked to nobody else. Rob‘s still one of our best friends. And I don’t like change. That’s the thing — people think, ‘Oh, well, they did this.’ I had some guy on Instagram say, ‘You just did this for money.’ And when has it ever been financially beneficial to part ways with your singer? It’s usually the opposite. But, once again, we’re all in our sixties now. We wanna have fun with friends. We wanna enjoy ourselves doing this. And I could have brought in some young guy who’s 30 years old, who still has abs, isn’t fat like the rest of us, and can jump off the top of drum risers and stuff. But no — we’ll stick with guys our own age.”
When asked about a potential release date for the new EXODUS album, Gary said: “Yeah, early next year. I think February. [As for when the second new album will arrive], we’ll figure that out. But I have a lot less work to do when it’s time. All of us, we can go on vacation. I’ve never had a vacation.”
Holt mentioned that Lee Altus, his fellow EXODUS guitarist of two decades, “really stepped up” by contributing six new songs. He noted that Lee typically only writes a couple of tracks, and this time, he even penned the longest song, a role Holt usually fills with his five-minute compositions.
“But the album’s spectacular,” he added. “We couldn’t be more proud. It’s beautiful. It’s crushing. It’s catchy — hits, punishing hits. It’s spectacular. There’s some stuff that is so different for us, but it’s 100 percent EXODUS. You’ll go, ‘Holy shit.'”
Dukes first joined EXODUS in January 2005 and contributed to four of the band’s studio albums: Shovel Headed Kill Machine (2005), The Atrocity Exhibition… Exhibit A (2007), Let There Be Blood (2008—a re-recording of their classic 1985 album Bonded By Blood), and Exhibit B: The Human Condition (2010).
In June 2014, the thrash metal icons announced Dukes‘ departure and the return of his predecessor, Steve “Zetro” Souza, who had previously served as EXODUS‘s frontman from 1986 to 1993 and again from 2002 to 2004.
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