As with all bands when they are starting up, there was a revolving door of members in and out of the band. Singer Stewart and bass guitarist Melson moved on, as did guitarist Agnello. At this point Hunting took on lead vocals as well as drums, a new bass guitarist was acquired in Jeff Andrews, and eventually Kirk Hammett’s friend and as it turns out roadie, Gary Holt, came into the band as the second guitarist.
In 1981, Hammett met and befriended Paul Baloff at a party, finding a mutual love of punk rock and 1970’s heavy metal music. It was this growing friendship that led to Baloff becoming the band’s lead vocalist, and the subsequent incorporation of punk and hardcore into their own music and thus setting themselves up as one of the early leaders of the fledgling thrash metal scene of the Bay area in San Francisco. This lineup recorded a three track demo in 1982, and in November of that year supported another up and coming band of the area, Metallica at the Old Waldorf Club, a gig that was to have huge consequences for both bands. Exodus continued to play more shows and their fanbase continued to grow with them.
In April 1983, Hammett left Exodus to join Metallica after they had sacked Dave Mustaine. It was a huge move for Hammett, who not only had to prepare himself for Metallica’s imminent recording of their debut album, but it meant that he left the band that he had been a founding member of as they were making their own push for recognition and a recording contract. This would have to have been a surreal moment for the band, given that Hammett received the recommendation from Exodus’s manager Mark Whittaker. It also meant that Gary Holt took over as the creative control interest for the band. In Hammett’s place there were a few guitarists who filled in, before Rick Hunolt was hired as the permanent replacement on second guitar. This also coincided with the departure of Andrews, who went on to be a part of Possessed, with Rob McKillop being hired as his replacement on bass guitar.
It wasn’t until a year later in 1984 that Exodus went into the studio to record more demos, these ones with the hope they would lead to an album deal. The band eventually signed an album deal with Torrid Records, and in mid-1984 the band recorded their debut album in Prairie Sun Studios in California. However, it was not to be a smooth ride. Originally titled “Another Lesson in Violence”, an advanced cassette copy found its way into the large tape trading network that existed in those day, which created an enormous buzz about the album’s upcoming release. The album’s title was then changed to “Bonded by Blood”, with artwork that featured conjoined twins where one was obviously good and the other evil. Unfortunately, this along with other artistic setbacks between the band, management and the record company delayed the album being released. Instead of having a favourable release date of September of 1984, it wasn’t until April of 1985 that the album finally saw the light of day in record shops. In this time, the initial huge buzz that had been created had cooled, and other bands had overtaken them with their own album releases. And such was the slow build up to the release of Exodus’s debut album, one beset by all of these setbacks, and one now out there in the world under the name of “Bonded by Blood”.
The album kicks off straight into the title track (well, the second title chosen for the album at least) in a pummelling way, drum and guitar crash it together and straight into the opening riff at a scintillating speed. From the outset the music is right at you. It might be a simplified riff and underlying drum pattern, offset by the guitar solos in the middle of the track, and lyrics that aren’t the most intellectual of all time, but it does provide a great chorus in “Murder in the front row, Crowd begins to bang, And there's blood upon the stage, Bang you head against the stage, And metal takes its price, Bonded by blood!”, one that anthemically for the fans hit all the right notes that those of other bands of the era did as well. The eponymous band titled song comes next, reacting with the same template as the opening track. A simple but effective rhythm riff underneath carries us through the length of the song, Paul Baloff mixes screams with vocals of the hardcore variety and the guitars of Holt and Hunolt lay waste to the middle of the song for their soloing duel. Their speed and note flinging in rapid succession is impressive if not particularly neat and precise. It is still a fun track. This is followed by “And Then There Were None”, a less frantic paced track that touches on themes of war and the destruction that it brings. It’s a chugging rhythm riff that proliferates the first half of the track, until the breakdown comes and changes that chugging riff for a second one. It sounds great, though the solos come in over the top only into the final minute of the song, which always seems like a missed opportunity to freshen up the rhythm before this. Still it’s a solid track on the album ot follow the first two.
Rebellion returns with “A Lesson in Violence”, with a far more typical example of the Exodus thrash guitars and speed of track. Baloff is demonstrative in vocal lines throughout, and the speed of the soloing from Holy and Hunolt in the middle of the song is impressive, boosting the excellence of the track. There is more to like here, and not just a touch of early Metallica and Megadeth about it. “Metal Command” is more in the solid variety of track here, much like “And Then There Were None”. It has an atypical thrash riff as the basis of the song, dutifully held together by the bass riff and fast evolving 2/4 drum beat, and Baloff screams his vocals over the top, giving us another metal anthem for the crowds to sing along with and praise their heroes. Again, it isn’t Tolkien here, with the chorus charging “Fists are in the air, thrashing everywhere, Banging to the sound, faces melting down, it’s time to fight for metal tonight, Bangers take your stand and obey, our Metal Command!” The other thrash bands of the era had their own variations of this track, and no doubt the punters adored them at their live gigs.
“Piranha” is another template driven thrash track, the lyrics are there and out of the way early, the thrash rhythm holds its own and then the lead guitars take over for the second half of the song to bring it home in style. Sure it might be underdeveloped in places, but that doesn’t make it less than enjoyable. “No Love” has a small acoustic opening which is a bit of a change up from what has come before it. It then combines the mid-tempo grinding riff with a slighter change in tempo in the upward direction for the solo break in the middle which is nicely performed, each following the other with more speed and energy. In fact, this is perhaps the best written and performed solo break on the album, not just trying to create something that is as fast as you can possibly play, but show some real technical skill and offer something different from what thrash was morphing from at this point of the era. Perhaps the most unexpected part of the album is the seven-minute monster “Deliver Us to Evil”. Thrash bands were only just beginning to delve into songs that extended beyond the 4.5-minute range, a time span they would try and fit one billion notes into to appease their fans. Here though Exodus manages to create a song that has slight progressive elements about it, but more importantly moves into territory that pushes the boundaries of the genre. The album then concludes with “Strike of the Beast”, returning to the fast and the furious that best defines the band, charging to the end of the album with style and speed that makes for a pleasant and satisfying ending.
Exodus is what I like to call a third-tier discovery for me. A first-tier discovery is finding a band when I first got into heavy metal music, say between the years of 1985-88. A second-tier discovery is a band I really should have found in those early years of discovery but for various reasons did not. A third-tier discovery is a band I may have known about during those first two tiers but never really had access to anyone who had albums of that band, so I didn’t really discover their music until I made the effort to sometime after 1992. For me Exodus definitely fall into that category. I really should have been listening to them far earlier than I actually picked up on them, but none of my friend group had any of their albums, and as my friends group has barely changed in the last 40+ years that meant I had to make the effort to go out and find their music myself. Which is exactly what I started to do in the early 2000’s, when I began my quest to track down every significant artist I could think of, find their albums and start listening to them. And in a way it was the perfect timing for me. Most of the bands I loved had stopped making albums that I enjoyed, I had over indulged in the European power metal scene, and was looking for something different to dip my toe into. Or, perhaps more correctly, I wanted more of the stuff that I had initially fell in love with when I first discovered heavy metal music.
I had obviously heard of this album years before I eventually heard it all for the first time. It was hard to know the history of the Bay Area thrash movement WITHOUT knowing about Exodus and their highly regarded debut album. And I knew songs off the album, the title track and a couple of others. But listening to the album in full for the first time was an interesting experience. I had expected something like Metallica and Death Angel’s debut which I knew, or perhaps like Armored Saint’s debut which I had only recently found as well. And in the long run I got something in between all of those. One of the things that initially threw me was that I got all of Exodus’s first three albums at the same time, which meant I was listening to all three at the same time. And they sound different from each other through different band members and improving song writing. So getting a handle on this album in particular early on was a bit of a problem. After juggling for awhile, I moved on to other bands and albums. Eventually, after a little time had passed, I came back to this album, and without the outside noise around it, I really discovered it for the first time. And yes, it might be rough around the edges for people in the modern day to come into and accept, but again that is the charm of albums from this era. This is how debut albums from bands are supposed to sound – not albums that have artists form other bands coming together to form a new band, they all done it before. But thrash metal bands who are just trying to put it all out there, who don’t want to leave anything untried and untested, this is what those albums needed to sound like. And this one certainly does.
And I really love this album because of it. Unrefined? A bit scrappy in places? Oversimplified with periods of unchanging riff patterns? Vocals that go off the rails occasionally? Yep, this has all of that. But it is honest, it is uncompromising, and it showcases the band as they were at this point of their history, five years into a journey that had far longer to go than anyone probably thought imaginable.
I’ve pulled out my CD version of this album again this week, turned it up and let it rip. I have had some legendary album to review in recent episodes, all of which I gushed over because of their status in the metal world. And “Bonded by Blood” may not be quite in their echelon but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t an important release in the history of the genre of thrash metal, and that it doesn’t stand on its own pedestal as a result. I have really enjoyed having this go around once again, and not for the first time wondered why it is that I don’t listen to it more often. The answer of course is, because I have too many albums to choose from. That’s what this podcast is for. To allow me to listen to albums I love that I may sometimes forget about. This has been another great one, well worth the amount it has annoyed my fellow workers at work with how loud I have played it.
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