EXODEATHAVOK

REFLECTIONS REACTIONS REVIEWS of albums by EXODUS, DEATH ANGEL, and HAVOK

NPZ #2 — DECEMBER 2024 — PAGE 10

EXODUS

Exodus, founded by Gary Holt and Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, is arguably the core band of the Bay Area thrash metal scene in the 80s. Their impact in the scene are legend, and have been documented in projects like Murder in the Front Row (pg. 5), whose title comes from the title track of their first album, “Bonded by Blood”.

BONDED BY BLOOD (1985)

Starting with one of the most quintessential albums of the Bay Area thrash metal era, Bonded by Blood, with vocalist Paul Baloff, who has been honored as a legend in the scene. As a vocalist, it’s fair to say Baloff doesn’t have the strongest chops, but the roughness in the voice adds to the overall feeling of the album that really has that liveshow sound and vibe. “Bonded by Blood” is such a classic thrasher song, and I also like “And Then There Were None”, and “A Lesson in Violence” (pg. 6)

PLEASURES OF THE FLESH (1987)

The band’s 2nd album replaced Paul Baloff with Steve Souza, who notoriously sounds a LOT like AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott. There are some interesting songs in here with things like audio sample song intros, jungle sounds and tribal instruments, and classical guitar. The sound quality is definitely improved, and the riffs are more complex. I also noticed the lyrics getting more political. I liked “Choose Your Weapon”, “Pleasures of the Flesh”, “Seeds of Hate”, “Chemi-Kill”, and “Brain Dead” which reminded me of AC/DC’s “Jailbreak”.

“Chemi-kill”: The song calls out the rich white-collar that hoard their wealth, and how paid-for politicians allow corporations to poison the earth to the detriment of all. “Politicians, they’re all on the take / … / Campaign contributions are nothing more than bribes” It’s interesting to see this type of political commentary (pg. 14), when Exodus now declares half the band are Trump-voters (pg. 13), although the GOP, and Trump, have always been on the side of corporations.

FABULOUS DISASTER (1989)

I do like a good handful of these songs, especially the political ones discussing the fucked up prison system in “The Last Defiance”, “Fabulous Disaster” (pg. 1) covering lying politicians. Some very unexpected songs, like the cover of War’s “Low Rider”, and the Southern swamp-core “Cajun Hell”. And of course “The Toxic Waltz”, one of their most popular and a parody of dance songs from the 50/60s.

“Corruption”: One interesting line mentions “the weapons that we sell to the trash in the middle east”; this album came out near the end of the Iran-Iraq War, surely referring to US government support of Iraq. I may not know all the politics of that war, but seeing how the U.S. sends Israel billions of dollars as they commit genocide on Palestinians, while people here are experiencing worse quality of life, the chorus of this song still rings true: “let us know, where our tax dollars are spent / tell us how, how much it costs to repent / Time has come, for us to take a stand / let us know, when you meet our demands”

DEATH ANGEL

Death Angel is one of the core bands of what has been called the 2nd wave of thrash, alongside fellow Bay Area band, Testament. What makes Death Angel pretty unique from the other metal bands of the time, is the members being primarily Filipino Americans. I only recently got into them, but not only do I love to see fellow AAPI succeeding, but also making great metal music.

THE ULTRA-VIOLENCE (1987)

Crazy impressive that this album was released before any of the members were 20, it’s awesome! I think the album overall has a roughness and scrappiness that I tend to enjoy. Some vocals aren’t completely polished, but hearing Mark Osegueda performing live (pg. 9), that has definitely developed his skill. Also really impressive was “The Ultra-Violence”, a 10+ min. long instrumental that flows from complex and dark to slashing riffs.

HAVOK

I’ve written about Havok in the last issue, and I am not super familiar with them as a band. From what I’ve seen, they’re part of the late 2000s—early 2010s “thrash metal revival” bands, alongside Warbringer (pg. 1), hailing from Denver, CO. David Sanchez is the founder and only consistent member through the band’s history, active since 2004.

CONFORMICIDE (2017)

While listening to the album, I definitely noticed it was very non-subtle, and certainly interesting. Lots of criticism of religion, questioning misinformation, and disillusion to the lies of those in power. “Peace is in Pieces”, discussing war profiteering that is “paid for because of misinformation”, “Intention to Deceive” seems to (in my interpretation) align with the concepts of Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent (1), wherein media corporations craft narratives to aid the capitalist elite and distract the masses, and encourage “hysteria / Followed by amnesia, gullibility, and phobia”. The opening track, “F.P.C.” meaning “Fuck Political Correctness” was interesting; “political correctness” defined as “conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated“ There is validity in criticizing the way liberals will focus on identity politics to avoid focusing on real problems like class struggle, and I think discouraging racial/bigoted/ableist slurs is not an infringement on freedom of speech, but the right often turns the liberal/corporate use of “political correctness” as a way to increase hostility towards socially progressive ideas of tolerance and diversity. Hard to conclude the perspective given in this song.

Havok got onto my radar from “Hang ‘Em High” which I still really like, particularly the chorus: “The enemy is not coming from overseas”. Especially as Trump ran and won with a campaign of mass deportation, I feel like the lyrics can emphasize how it’s not “illegal immigrants” causing the problems in our system, but our own “politicians and big business / the United snakes of America.” I agree with Havok’s take on how fucked up our politicians are, but my opinion is we need stronger enforcement on corporations and lobbyists that have total control over policies (pg. 14). I’ve seen some say Havok are Libertarian-leaning, but not totally sure. I feel like a lot of their lyrics can be read in the faux “anti-establishment” message Trump conservatives run on, despite being in the pocket of the capitalist establishment; but also can be read in the anti-capitalist, socialist perspective that calls for destruction of neoliberalism and corporate oligarchy.

Looking at “Circling the Drain”, the lyrics seem a little more hopeful: "…the whole world thrown into the fray / Entering the final stages, but it doesn’t have to be that way”, and the chorus “Unless we fight for change / We’ll be circling the drain”.

1: Recommend watching this video “Noam Chomsky: The five filters of the mass media machine | The Listening Post” by Al Jazeera English for a summary.