Let There Be Blood

Exodus has always been a somewhat consistent band in the quality of their releases. For each release, I've found the vocals to be fantastic, and the song writing to be great... And then 2005 rolled around. Souza was gone, and Dukes was in. "Shovel Headed Kill Machine" came and went without much notice. Then came "The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A" in all its crap covered glory, and now it has come to this...


"Let There Be Blood" was recorded as a tribute to Paul Baloff (RIP), although it has done more harm than good. It seems as if a fair number of well known bands have developed a bad habit of re-recording their old songs and Exodus is now one of those bands. "Bonded By Blood" is quite possibly the finest album that this group has done, so coming into "Let There Be Blood", I knew not to have very high expectations (especially after hearing "The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A"). Any bad thoughts I had about this band and album were shattered in the very moment that Dukes' vocals came over the stereo. This wasn't bad. This wasn't terrible.


This was complete and utter shit.


Everything that "Bonded By Blood" had was definitely not carried over into this record. Why Exodus believed they could pull this off with the way they've been "progressing" in recent years, shall forever remain a mystery. The entire band sounds sloppy, which gives the feeling that this was thrown together by a band of autistic kids. The drums should have been left out completely. They're sloppy, poorly done, and there are no flashes of brilliance, or amazing fills. The bass is its usual lumbering, repetitive, single-note self. The guitars are so forgettable, I can't even remember how crappy they were, and then there were the vocals, courtesy of Rob Dukes. The screaming, mallcore, "I'm having a tantrum because I didn't get my favorite choo-choo train" vocals. Please finger, click the off button and make the headache stop.


"Shovel Headed Kill Machine", displayed a sick, but still alive Exodus. "The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A" was the moment that Exodus' heart stopped beating. Now, with "Let There Be Blood", we're just coming home for the funeral.