In a new interview with Jorge Botas of Portugal’s Metal Global, EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt once again opened up about the recent departure of singer Steve “Zetro” Souza and the decision to bring Rob Dukes back. Regarding what happened to cause Zetro’s exit from EXODUS, Gary said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I know it sounds like a stock response, but being in a band is like being married. And in the case of EXODUS, you have four spouses. SLIPKNOT’s got a whole bunch of wives. But you have four spouses, and everybody has to be on the same page. And sometimes marriages come to an end, and it’s not always due to adultery and spousal abuse. Sometimes you just grow apart. And at this current age — we’re not young anymore, for certain — we need to be on the same page going forward. And right now the energy and the vibe in this band is remarkable.

“When we parted ways with Steve, we joked about, ‘Let’s find some 30-year-old guy who’s got…. you could still see his stomach muscles and he’s got good knees and he could jump off the top of shit without leaving in an ambulance.’ But, no, we’d rather have someone who’s broken down as the rest of us,” Gary explained. “And Rob’s been one of my closest friends all along. The relationship has remained, and so we’re happy to have him back. And then we recorded the [new EXODUS] album and he showed us he could do a thousand more things than we thought, which was remarkable.”

Asked if all the songs for EXODUS’s twelfth studio album, “Goliath” — which is due on March 20 via Napalm Records — were already written before Rob rejoined the band, Gary said: “No. They were all written after. I mean, I’m always writing riffs, so I’ve always got lots of riffs, but no songs were finished until Rob was back in the band. I might have had some in my little home demos that were sort of lke close, but when we started recording the album, we had maybe five songs done and we recorded 18. We like to work that way. We write in the studio. We go on with ideas and riffs, and then we gather and we figure it out. And it works best for us. That’s the way bands used to do in the ’70s. DEEP PURPLE would go to Lake Geneva, or QUEEN would go to some chateau in the south of France. We rent a little vacation home, and in the past we’ve like built studios in the house. We used a full-time studio on this one, but we rented a home 10 minutes away and we lived together. And it helps that you get along and you want to do that. But it allows us to write music all day long. When we get back from the day’s recording, we have dinner and we still write — there’s guitars everywhere; there’s an electronic drum kit in the corner. And so we still work on ideas and then we go in the studio the next day and try ’em out.”

After Botas noted that it sounds like EXODUS is “pretty much still old school when it comes to the writing process,” Gary concurred. “Well, we used to do it like other bands do as well,” he explained. “We’d go in the studio. The first day of recording, we’d have 10 songs done. We’d record the 10 songs. And now this is how we like to work. And this album is the most collaborative effort we’ve ever done. Lee [Altus, EXODUS guitarist] wrote almost half the music on the album. Tom [Hunting, EXODUS drummer] wrote lyrics, Lee wrote lyrics, Rob and I wrote the rest. Jack [Gibson, EXODUS bassist] helps in all the arrangements. So the collaborative nature makes it exciting for us at this stage of the game.

“If I wrote most of an album in the past, it wasn’t ’cause I felt it was required; it’s ’cause I wrote the songs we needed,” Holt clarified. “If Lee wrote two [tracks], I had to write eight. And this time I wrote six on the album and Lee wrote four.”

When Botas pointed out that the more collaborative nature of the songwriting process for “Goliath” “must be refreshing” for Holt, Gary said: “Yeah, absolutely. It keeps things fresh. It adds other musical viewpoints to the album, which is part of why this album is so diverse. Lee being all of these years in HEATHEN, he is a melodic thrash legend, and he brought a lot of that to this album, especially with the song ‘The Changing Me’ that he wrote. And it makes my job easy. And while Lee’s working on his songs, I’m working on songs, Rob’s working on things, so everybody’s doing their jobs and then we get together and just make it happen and it’s awesome.”

Asked if he still finds it exciting to go in a studio and write new music, Gary said: “Yeah, I love being in the studio. Some people don’t like it. I love it. ‘Cause you’re able to try all these crazy [ideas] — no matter how insane the idea is, you could try it, and then you could say, ‘It’s stupid. It’s insane. What was I thinking?’ Or, ‘It’s awesome and it works.’ Like the song ‘Violence Works’, Tom started it out with a drum beat, like a funk drum beat. And at one point I said, ‘Maybe you shouldn’t do that. And he goes, ‘No, the funk beat stays.’ ‘Okay, cool. Let’s take it further.’ And I had Jack put the little funk bass notes, and then I added a little scratchy guitar thing and I was laughing, ’cause for five seconds people are gonna think EXODUS lost their minds. But we fucking thought it was awesome. And so we did it. But yeah, II enjoy it. I enjoy the process.”

Even over 40 years after their debut, EXODUS are steadfast in their refusal to settle for the safety of mediocrity and continue to forge their trademark just as resolutely as they did in their fruition. The band’s highly anticipated twelfth studio album is their most multifaceted offering so far, featuring several epic collaborations and marking the return of Dukes as lead vocalist.

Emerging hungrier than ever in 2026, with “Goliath”, EXODUS reinforces their eternal foothold at the top of thrash metal’s hierarchy with 10 of their most diverse, anthemic emissions to date. Further fueled by the widely embraced return of iconic late-era frontman Rob Dukes — first appearing on 2005’s “Shovel Headed Kill Machine” — the album boasts what the band describes as the performance of his life. “Goliath” is EXODUS’s most collaborative record in their four decade-plus history, featuring songs written by several band members and guest contributions from Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY, PAIN) and violinist Katie Jacoby.

“Goliath” wastes no time proving as massive as its name, with a sinister introduction opening “3111”. Ode to owning one’s own volatility “Hostis Humani Generis” features a palpable lyrical delivery from Dukes that cuts like crystal amid frenetic riffs, before rolling into “The Changing Me”. The track’s introductory notes cascade into hair-raising rhythms, forming one of the band’s most anthemic offerings — blending menace and melody with the cleans of guest Tägtgren together with Tom Hunting and at the end both Peter and Rob scream off the song. Harmonic dual axe acrobatics from resident guitar legends Gary Holt and Lee Altus. “Promise You This” incites mosh pit treachery with explosive energy, cyclonic riffs and turbocharged soloing from Holt and Altus, prior to colossal title track “Goliath” simmering the tempo down with winding, malevolent leads, towering drums and ominous string work from Katie Jacoby coupling with intricate guitars. The album standout showcases the band’s ever-increasingly dynamic approach, even decades into their historic reign. Tracks like “Beyond The Event Horizon” and “2 Minutes Hate” provide EXODUS’s trademark deadly dose of thrash theatricality — the latter boasting one of the album’s most grimacing, grooving pit primers — while undeniably ’90s-tinged metallic charm attacks alongside drummer Tom Hunting and bassist Jack Gibson’s unmistakable rhythmic rage on tracks like “Violence Works”. The nearly eight-minute epic “Summon Of The God Unknown” turns the danger dial to max capacity, setting the stage with a wicked introductory passage before traversing a variegated passage of trudging riffs and heavy metal melody. Power-packed closer “The Dirtiest Of The Dozen” wraps the album on a manic high, showcasing EXODUS pulling out all the stops on all instruments. Flurried dueling solos, an isolated bass excursion, rigorous drum dexterity and a blend of both gritty vocal passages and cutting chants combine to serve as yet another prime example of the band’s ever-evolving musical mastery.

Produced by EXODUS, mixed and mastered by Mark Lewis (WHITECHAPEL, NILE, UNDEATH),”Goliath” beams with the explosive authenticity that has set EXODUS eons apart from their peers since the release of their debut, 1985’s groundbreaking thrash blueprint “Bonded By Blood”. 40 years later, EXODUS are steadfast in their refusal to settle for the safety of mediocrity, fearing nothing and no one and continuing to forge their trademark just as resolutely as they did in their fruition.

“Goliath” track listing:

01. 3111
02. Hostis Humani Generis
03. The Changing Me (feat. Peter Tägtgren)
04. Promise You This
05. Goliath (feat. Katie Jacoby)
06. Beyond The Event Horizon
07. 2 Minutes Hate
08. Violence Works
09. Summon Of The God Unknown
10. The Dirtiest Of The Dozen

This past December EXODUS filmed music videos for three songs from “Goliath”, including “3111” and “Goliath”. The clips were helmed by Jim Louvau, a musical and visual creative artist based in Phoenix, Arizona, who previously worked on EXODUS’s music video for the song “The Fires Of Division” from the band’s 2021 LP “Persona Non Grata”.

In November, EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt told Robb Chavez of Robbs MetalWorks about “Goliath”: “It’s fucking awesome. I mean, it’s so awesome. We’re so proud of this record.”

According to Holt, EXODUS completed nearly two albums’ worth of material during the latest recording sessions, with a view toward releasing the second collection of songs when the first touring cycle is finished.

“80 percent of the follow-up [to ‘Goliath’] is done already,” Holt explained. “We just kept working. We never stopped. We were in the studio for two months. And we tend to record by… We all live together in a house, or sometimes we build a studio in a house, and it’s like heavy metal summer camp. But we like each other enough to live together still. A lot of bands — that’s a rarity. And so we write the whole process. When we started recording, we only had four songs done and a million ideas. And Lee wrote a ton of stuff; he wrote four out of 10 songs on the new album.”

Asked what it is about the new EXODUS album that is so good, Gary explained: “It’s just the songs, dude. It’s all about the songs. I mean, it’s crushing, but it’s all anthems. And it’s so varied, this record. So many different aspects of EXODUS are in there, from the blinding speed to the slowest, heaviest shit we’ve ever done. And Rob’s vocals are, like, at the top of the pyramid on this shit.”

“Goliath” marks the first time in nearly three decades that an EXODUS album hasn’t been mixed by Andy Sneap, who has acted as JUDAS PRIEST’s producer and touring guitarist for eight years.

Souza joined EXODUS in 1986 after previously fronting the band LEGACY (which later became TESTAMENT). He remained in the band until their hiatus in 1993, but rejoined them for two years from 2002 to 2004. Dukes had joined EXODUS in 2005 (following Souza’s departure) and remained until 2014, when Souza rejoined.

Dukes previously joined EXODUS in January 2005 and appeared on four of the band’s studio albums — “Shovel Headed Kill Machine” (2005),”The Atrocity Exhibition… Exhibit A” (2007),”Let There Be Blood” (2008, a re-recording of EXODUS’s classic 1985 LP, “Bonded By Blood”) and “Exhibit B: The Human Condition” (2010).

EXODUS played its first concert with Dukes in nearly 11 years on April 5, 2025 at the Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest: Philly at the Fillmore in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Although EXODUS rarely gets mentioned alongside the so-called “Big Four” of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — the aforementioned “Bonded By Blood” LP inspired the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and many others to launch their careers and is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time.

Photo credit: Jim Louvau