For me, Exodus was a first time experience, but I know for a fact that many others had come primarily to see this band, as was evident by the larger pressure of people as they were about to hit the stage.

In the past, I must admit I haven’t paid Exodus much attention; actually, the only thing I can say for sure is that it was the band Kirk Hammet played in before joining Metallica, and to be honest, that’s not an astounding piece of news I’m bringing you there. It has always been a factor of ‘too many bands, too little time’, but tonight this was to be remedied.
The sheer pressure of the audience helped raise my expectations, and finding other old-school thrash bands in recent years (i.e. Death Angel, Forbidden) opened my mind further to the chance that this was something I would really enjoy.

Sadly, it was not so.
The songs were delivered in the machine-gun speed that is thrash of course, but I didn’t feel the band was getting them across the edge of the stage. Only vocalist Rob Dukes seemed really active in involving the audience, and for me, even this was not working as well as it could have.
And more importantly, the songs didn’t catch me at all, I am sorry to say. The only thing positive to say there was that the sound was remarkably well balanced, as it had been all night.
There is of course not much I can say about the setlist as I don’t really know the band, but I did catch the titles Children Of A Worthless God, A Lesson In Violence and Blacklist, and I know a common complaint was that there was too much of the new, more aggressive style, which was not as appreciated as the older, more fun material.

Still, going from a good performance of Suicidal Angels, and on to the phenomenal act that was Death Angel, I couldn’t help but feel that this was nothing more than an intermission and a chance to catch up on my beer-drinking before Kreator would come on…
Interestingly, none of the fans of Exodus I spoke to afterwards were particularly impressed with the performance either, so I guess the excuse ‘maybe it’s just me’ does not count on this occasion, and I had to admit to myself that not all encounters from the Bay Area are good ones.