Gary Holt: Exodus Recorded Two Albums’ Worth of Songs So They Can Take a Break Later
I can’t imagine being in a touring metal band into your 60s. Shit’s gotta be hard enough for a 20-something, but to go out and play at such a high level as you age? That’s impressive. At 61 years old, Exodus guitarist Gary Holt‘s fully aware of that and he says the band’s taken measures so they’ll have to work a little less in the future.
During a recent conversation with Germany’s Rock Hard magazine (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), Holt explained that Exodus recorded 18 new songs while working on their next album. The idea, he said, was to work harder now so the band can take a breather down the line.
“We just decided we were gonna work ourselves as hard as we could and try to accomplish this. And the second one’s 80 percent recorded, ’cause we did 18 songs. And so when it’s time for the next album, we go in and record two more [songs], not 10 more. And then I can go on vacation. I’ve never had a vacation in my life… We worked hard. We were in the studio for seven weeks, and one day after we stopped recording, we were on tour. So since March 2nd, I’ve been home for two and a half weeks.”
We’ve known for a while that the band was working on two albums at the same time. Still, pre-loading a second album ahead of time is a pretty smart move, really. When you’re in business for yourself, which is effectively what you are when you’re in a band, you don’t really have an off switch. Doing something like pre-recording a buncha songs ahead of time to carve out some chill out time for you and yours sounds like a wise move made by a band that’s been around for four decades.
At this point, we don’t know much about either of the new Exodus albums. According to Holt, the first one will be out “early next year”, with the second one coming sometime down the line.
As for how the next album sounds? Holt didn’t hold back in extolling how much fans were going to enjoy it once it drops.
“The album’s spectacular. We couldn’t be more proud. It’s beautiful. It’s crushing. It’s catchy — hits, punishing hits. It’s spectacular. There’s some stuff that is so different for us, but it’s 100 percent Exodus. You’ll go, ‘Holy shit.’”
