Reaction: Exodus — Goliath

Exodus is an institution.

They’ve been around for decades and have been instrumental in the development and evolution of American thrash metal. Gary Holt is a riff master supreme. There is a reason he was tapped to replace Jeff Hanneman in Slayer due to his illness and untimely passing. But, while they are an essential thrash band, they’ve had one big problem over the years.

Consistency.

Lineup changes and multiple hiatuses have impacted their ability to put out reliably great music.

And that, dear readers, is why this article is a reaction, not a review. Goliath, the latest release from Exodus, and the first to feature the return of Rob Dukes as vocalist, suffers from such a lack of consistency that I haven’t been able to listen to the album enough to offer a thorough review.

I’m just going to say this, in the kindest way possible, with all the love I have in my heart for Exodus and their run from Tempo of the Damned through Exhibit B: The Human Condition:

Goliath is fucking boring.

First off, take a lesson from the recent Lamb of God record, Into Oblivion. Goliath has no reason to be 54 minutes long. It’s only 10 songs. That should clue you in to one of the biggest problems right there. Songs run on too damn long. Seven of the ten tracks come in at over 5 minutes. I’m a funeral doom fan, so I’m okay with long songs.

The problem is the lack of idea development to justify songs of that length. Riffs that are pretty okay the first time or three you hear them get run into the ground. They don’t progress, they don’t develop. Had this album clocked in at under 40 minutes, songs tighter with more punch, I would have enjoyed it much more.

But as it is? I still can’t make it through the album start to finish.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t good moments. There are. First track, “3111,” sounds sufficiently pissed off for the first half. And Exodus is always best when they sound furious. But then… at 2:35 in the song, it slows down. We get a riff that is fine for about 10 seconds. But now, it just repeats, over and over and over for more than a full minute. And when Dukes comes back in, he just sounds tired. Like he spent all his energy in the first two minutes and didn’t have more to give.

Tracks two, three, and four all have intros that last over a minute. This is fucking thrash metal, not prog or doom or post-metal. Get to the point and punch me in the face.

Or GTFO.

But hey, “Goliath”, the title track that comes halfway through the album, only has a 40-second intro. And it kicks in with the slow, plodding, sludgy sound. Cool. Oh, wait. That’s all the song has. The same plodding shit for over five minutes. Even Katie Jacoby’s violin (which she has powerfully employed with other rock acts) can’t rescue this snorefest. I give her full credit for trying to add something, but holy shit, there was no resuscitating this track.

What about the rest of the album? It is more of the same. Riffs that just repeat, over and over. No real progression and very little energy. If Exodus wants to write a longer song, like “Summon of the God Unknown”, it needs to be interesting. That eight-minute track doesn’t earn the run time. Not even close.

I don’t know what else to say, really. At this point, I don’t really care either.

It pains me to say it. I was excited for this album. The previous albums with Dukes on vocals are some of my favorite Exodus albums because they feel energized. They kick you in the face. The band sounds angry as a bunch of motherfuckers, and they are ready to rip some faces off.

Goliath? Well, it just sounds bored and boring.

One final criticism, though.

That album art? Dog. Shit.

Whoever thought that was a good idea needs to never be allowed to make album art again. Never. It is an abomination, and if AI wasn’t used to make it (Gary Holt says it wasn’t)… well, maybe they should have. It couldn’t have turned out worse.

It is only March. But I wonder if any album will disappoint me more this year. I hope not. My poor heart can’t take it. But hey, Neurosis dropped a surprise album the same day, so I’m good. Go listen to, well, so many other, better albums that have come out this year. This ain’t it.