Exodus
Webster Theatre
Hartford, Connecticut
February 7, 2008
Tony Pijar
As 1985 was ushered in, the burgeoning thrash scene in San Francisco was about ready to explode. Of course, Metallica cleared a denim and leathered bound path for the likes of Slayer, Megadeth, Forbidden, Heathen, Violence, Death Angel, and Exodus. While Megadeth and Slayer moved to the upper-echelon of the thrash ranks, Exodus didn’t quite get there; a travesty to say the least, but those are the unfortunate breaks in the music world. To these ears, “Bonded by Blood”, was every bit as good as the above band’s releases. After a series of above average releases, the band went on hiatus from 1992 through 2004 when they re-established themselves with “Temple of the Damned, “Shovel Headed Kill Machine”, and their 2007 release “The Atrocity Exhibition – Exhibit A”. Gary Holt and Tom Hunting remain from the original line up, and the recent additions certainly do the band’s legacy proud, specifically vocalist Rob Dukes who looks like the wrestler Kane, but more demented.
On this most cold of evenings, the band wasn’t firing on all sixes primarily due to everybody being under the weather. Nonetheless, it was great to hear the likes of “Piranha”, “And then there were none”, “Chemi-Kill”, “Toxic Waltz” and newies “Children of a Worthless God” and “A Call to Arms.” Holt is still god-like on the guitar and Dukes fronts the band admirably. I wish there were more metal fans at the Webster to witness this still great band, but this being their first time in Connecticut in a long, long while, the crowd and band performance was commendable.
