At this year’s Aftershock Festival in Sacramento, California, EXODUS frontman Rob Dukes didn’t hold back when asked about the band’s upcoming album. Speaking with PipemanRadio, Dukes described the follow-up to 2021’s Persona Non Grata—tentatively slated for release in March 2026 via Napalm Records—as a career-defining moment.
“We worked our a** off on this record,” Dukes said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “It’s the best thing I’ve done to date. I know every musician’s, ‘Oh, my new album’s the best,’ but it is the best thing I’ve ever done… Even if it wasn’t, I would still say it, even if I thought it was s**t, I’d be, like, ‘Oh, this is the best album ever.’ But truly, man, this is f**king killer. It’s f**king epic because it’s so different and there’s so many different f**king directions that it went in, and they let me just do my thing, man. It was f**king killer.”
Asked what he brought to the table this time around, Dukes emphasized vocal range and creative freedom.
“I’ve got, like, four or five different voices I can sing in, you know what I mean? I got to use a clean, I got to use a f**king monster f**king growl, I got to use my mid range, my high range, and I was just all over the place,” he explained. “I’ve never thought I was a one-trick pony — I always thought that I could do more stuff — but thrash metal’s kind of limiting, and it’s easy to go over the cliff and go into a realm that’s, like, ‘Uh-oh.’ But we didn’t do any of that, man; we didn’t do that. It’s heavy and dark and fast and it’s just great, man. There’s some MOTÖRHEAD-y rock and roll s**t. It’s f**king good, man. So that’s where this new one is, man, and it’s f**king killer.”
The album marks DUKES’ return to EXODUS after the band parted ways with longtime vocalist Steve “Zetro” Souza. Dukes originally joined the Bay Area thrash legends in 2005 and contributed to four studio releases, including Shovel Headed Kill Machine and Exhibit B: The Human Condition. His re-entry into the fold signals a new chapter—one that’s already sounding explosive.
EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt recently revealed to 107.7 The Bone’s Baby Huey and Chasta that the band’s new album is finally finished.
“New album will be done today,” Holt said. “I mean, it’s technically been done for a month, but since we have the time, we keep messing with it a little bit… Mark Lewis has been mixing it, and we did some additional overdubs in other spots.”
The album also marks a departure from the band’s long-standing collaboration with Andy Sneap, who has mixed EXODUS records for nearly 30 years. This time, the mixing duties were handled by Mark Lewis, known for his work with MEGADETH, WHITECHAPEL, DEVILDRIVER, and BAD WOLVES.
Holt also revealed that EXODUS has almost finished enough material for a second album. “We have 80 percent of the next follow-up done,” he said. “We started recording March 2nd, and I’ve been home four weeks till today. We stopped recording and we were on tour the next day. We went to Europe, and we were home for two weeks. Then we went on [tour] in the States. I was home two weeks, [went] to Europe, and then I went and joined SLAYER for [the summer 2025 shows]. And then I came home for two more weeks. So I’m exhausted.”
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