Fan-filmed video footage of EXODUS‘ July 12 performance at Antwerp Metal Fest in Antwerp, Belgium can be seen below.
Antwerp Metal Fest marked EXODUS‘ second show with singer Steve “Zetro” Souza since he rejoined the band a month ago; EXODUS played one day earlier at the Bang Your Head!!! festival in Balingen, Germany.
EXODUS has set “Blood In, Blood Out” as the title of its new album, tentatively due on late October via Nuclear Blast. The CD will be the band’s first since the departure of EXODUS‘ lead singer of the past nine years, Rob Dukes, and the return of his predecessor, Souza, who previously fronted EXODUS from 1986 to 1993 and from 2002 to 2004.
“I’m very excited to be back,” Souza told Chile’s Radio Futuro on Tuesday (July 8). “I’m really looking forward to this next adventure with my brothers in metal — these guys I spent 30 years with, on and off. So it’s very exciting.”
Speaking about how being in EXODUS is different today than it was when he first joined the band in the ’80s and even a decade ago, Souza said: “I think everybody’s matured quite some bit, and I think, as we all get older, we all realize things that we do wrong, especially myself, we realize our faults and our mistakes. And it’s great that everybody can come to a meeting of the minds and be able to work forward and be mature enough to work forward.”
He added: “The whole reception to me being back with the guys has been really, really great.”
EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt — who has been pulling double duty with SLAYER for the past four and a half years — shot down Internet speculation that the split with Dukes was motivated by financial reasons or that it was masterminded by EXODUS‘ new so-manager, TESTAMENT vocalist Chuck Billy, who co-founded the management company Breaking Bands LLC. “It isn’t for the money [and] Chuck did not orchestrate this,” Holt said. “There were issues behind the scenes and we came to a conclusion.” The guitarist, however, refused to go into the details of EXODUS‘ decision to part ways with Dukes, explaining: “All will remain internal. I see no need to air the laundry for anyone.”
Holt, who previously said that the decision to fire Rob and re-hire Zetro “was the most difficult decision of our lives, one the entire band made,” was once again full of praise for EXODUS‘ former frontman, saying: “I wish nothing but the best for Rob, [and I] have nothing but love for the man. He will be a force for a long time and I am proud of him and how he went from a dude with a pink mohawk to a vicious thrash vocalist. He is a killer singer and we have total respect for him and love the music we made together.”
Dukes joined EXODUS in January 2005 and appeared on 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 EXODUS‘ classic 1985 LP, “Bonded By Blood”) and “Exhibit B: The Human Condition” (2010).
Source: Blabbermouth
