Crocto
04-13-2004, 09:36 PM
Exodus – Tempo of the ****ed (Nuclear Blast)
Release Date: 3/23/04
Rating: 4.5/5
Let’s hope into the back-in-the-day machine and the set date for 1986. Now in the 80s there were two types of metal that had made it big. One was thrash metal, bands like Metallica, Megadeth, and to a lesser extent Exodus and Anthrax. Thrash metal was a mix between Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath like riffs and solos fused with punk rock. The other big metal was, and I’m sorry for writing this, hair metal, bands like Poison, Motley Crue, and Bon Jovi. Anyway the point is one of those great early thrash metal bands is back for the second time and ready to rock. Tempo of the ****ed kicks off hard and heavy with “Scar Spangled Banner� and never lets go. Each on the CD is a headbangers dream, the guitar duo of Gary Holt and Rick Hunolt provide fist-pumping riffs and fleet fingered shred solos.
Exodus has changed their sound quite a bit from their early days. The guitars have been down-tuned and the volume in general has been pumped up on all the instruments. Ramping the volume, especially on the guitars, really helps further display the guitarmanship of Holt and Hunolt. In previous Exodus albums the guitars had the typical thrash sound, use of the twangier bridge pickup instead of the chunkier neck pickup. The vocals of Steve Souza have also improved, most notably in the middle range. On prior Exodus tapes (I do mean tapes because most of their stuff was released in the early to mid 1980s) Souza kept to the typical shouted and glass-gargling vocals. “Culling the Herd� provides a good example of Souza’s new range with some good mid range and plenty of his usual shouts. The back vocals, of with there are a few, are mostly of the gang variety with the rest of the band shouting a refrain or two while Souza wails the chorus. Mostly though the singing is left up to Souza who does an admirable job cutting through the wall of guitars and drums.
The songs on the album are top notch; none seem to long or too short. The production values on each cut are also excellent with the exception of “Forward March� that manages to slip in 5-10 seconds of silence before moving onto the next track. “War is My Shepard� is probably the best cut on the album but with songs like “Blacklist�, “Forward March�, and “Shroud of Urine� it’s hard to choose. “War is My Shepard� has one of the best breakdown riffs every put on plastic, almost as good as the one on “Damage Inc.�. Sadly, I cannot reprint any of the lyrics, due to copyrights and to the fact it may freak out some readers, but they are mostly about topics common to thrash metal: war and kicking ***. Two songs were also re-recorded for the album, “Sealed with a Fist� and “Impaler�. “Impaler�, Kirk Hammet of Metallica has writing credits on it so you know it rocks, is a nice early Exodus sounding cut. Basically, all of these songs rock and rock hard so it will definitely make any headbanger happy.
Summing up, Exodus has released an awesome thrash metal CD in 2004. So if you like metal you should probably run out and get this right now especially because it seems fresh after all that nu-metal junk. If I were an editor, which I am not, I would definitely give this editors’ choice, which we do not have, but it is certainly deserving of one. This is kind of music that makes parents say “Turn that garbage down!� Good. Finally, thrash metal is back with “Tempo of the ****ed�.
Release Date: 3/23/04
Rating: 4.5/5
Let’s hope into the back-in-the-day machine and the set date for 1986. Now in the 80s there were two types of metal that had made it big. One was thrash metal, bands like Metallica, Megadeth, and to a lesser extent Exodus and Anthrax. Thrash metal was a mix between Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath like riffs and solos fused with punk rock. The other big metal was, and I’m sorry for writing this, hair metal, bands like Poison, Motley Crue, and Bon Jovi. Anyway the point is one of those great early thrash metal bands is back for the second time and ready to rock. Tempo of the ****ed kicks off hard and heavy with “Scar Spangled Banner� and never lets go. Each on the CD is a headbangers dream, the guitar duo of Gary Holt and Rick Hunolt provide fist-pumping riffs and fleet fingered shred solos.
Exodus has changed their sound quite a bit from their early days. The guitars have been down-tuned and the volume in general has been pumped up on all the instruments. Ramping the volume, especially on the guitars, really helps further display the guitarmanship of Holt and Hunolt. In previous Exodus albums the guitars had the typical thrash sound, use of the twangier bridge pickup instead of the chunkier neck pickup. The vocals of Steve Souza have also improved, most notably in the middle range. On prior Exodus tapes (I do mean tapes because most of their stuff was released in the early to mid 1980s) Souza kept to the typical shouted and glass-gargling vocals. “Culling the Herd� provides a good example of Souza’s new range with some good mid range and plenty of his usual shouts. The back vocals, of with there are a few, are mostly of the gang variety with the rest of the band shouting a refrain or two while Souza wails the chorus. Mostly though the singing is left up to Souza who does an admirable job cutting through the wall of guitars and drums.
The songs on the album are top notch; none seem to long or too short. The production values on each cut are also excellent with the exception of “Forward March� that manages to slip in 5-10 seconds of silence before moving onto the next track. “War is My Shepard� is probably the best cut on the album but with songs like “Blacklist�, “Forward March�, and “Shroud of Urine� it’s hard to choose. “War is My Shepard� has one of the best breakdown riffs every put on plastic, almost as good as the one on “Damage Inc.�. Sadly, I cannot reprint any of the lyrics, due to copyrights and to the fact it may freak out some readers, but they are mostly about topics common to thrash metal: war and kicking ***. Two songs were also re-recorded for the album, “Sealed with a Fist� and “Impaler�. “Impaler�, Kirk Hammet of Metallica has writing credits on it so you know it rocks, is a nice early Exodus sounding cut. Basically, all of these songs rock and rock hard so it will definitely make any headbanger happy.
Summing up, Exodus has released an awesome thrash metal CD in 2004. So if you like metal you should probably run out and get this right now especially because it seems fresh after all that nu-metal junk. If I were an editor, which I am not, I would definitely give this editors’ choice, which we do not have, but it is certainly deserving of one. This is kind of music that makes parents say “Turn that garbage down!� Good. Finally, thrash metal is back with “Tempo of the ****ed�.