Steve “Zetro” Souza (Ex-Exodus) to Perform Solo During NAMM
If you’ve ever experienced NAMM, or the National Association of Music Merchants, trade show, then you know it’s a sensory overload of music appreciation, offering so much shit to walk around and see. So many people to talk to. When it comes to who’s bringing some of the heavy, it’s former Exodus frontman Steve “Zetro” Souza and his solo band. They’ll be performing on Saturday, January 24, 2026 at The Ballroom at The Grand Theater in Anaheim, California.
Zetro broke the news in a social media post, of course:
“Looks like I will be at NAMM this year. I will be there with my solo project, playing old-school Legacy/Testament songs and some Exodus songs you probably haven’t heard in maybe over 30 years, some of them we never played.
“Hope to see everybody Saturday night, January 24 at the Grand theater, literally walking distance from the show. Hope to see everybody in the pit!”
Souza played his first solo shows back in September
On the setlist for his first solo concerts, Zetro said on his Zetro’s Toxic Vault YouTube channel:
“I’ll be playing a lot of Exodus, a lot of deep cuts, a lot of songs that I’ve seen you guys, over the years through social media, chime in about wanting to hear. So that’s what you will see. Actually, some of you guys [on social media] are nailing some of the songs, some of them, but some of them I’m going to get to, ’cause I’ve actually answered on some of them about getting to ’em. So this will be an old-school evening of Bay Area thrash metal. I’ve even got a couple of very obscure [ones] because I think the Legacy [pre-]Testament songs that I’m playing don’t necessarily get played all the time anymore. I know one does, but I know the other three don’t. And then I would have to say, out of the Exodus songs that I have chosen, you’ve probably heard me — and I’m only gonna go on the last 10 years since I was back from 2014 until just six months, seven months ago — I would say there’s maybe only three or four that you have heard me sing in the set in the past. Everything else has not been played for a long time. Some songs probably when the albums came out initially. I know one song I can’t even remember playing ever. So that’s gonna be kind of cool for the fans. But songs that I’ve seen that you guys have all chimed in on and said, ‘Hey, when are you guys gonna play this?’ ‘When are you gonna play that?’, which I think is gonna absolutely differentiate my set from, say, if you go see Exodus, because I’m not necessarily gonna play the same songs. Am I gonna play ‘Toxic Waltz’ and ‘Blacklist’? Definitely, of course. I’m not going to hold you back. But that’s the thing — I’m picking the setlist. Absolutely. And I think you’ll like what I’ve chosen. I think it’s 16 or 17 songs total, so it’ll be a good evening.”
He quite realistic about what the fans want to hear, seeming to take no issue at all on them wanting to hear something classic:
“You guys don’t want to hear [new solo] Zetro songs [at these shows]. You’re gonna be yelling out the stuff from Exodus or the stuff that you know that I performed with Legacy. And I do [the AC/DC tribute band] AC/DZ, so you might even hear some AC/DC songs. So there’s a lot that I can do. There’s songs in the Exodus catalog that have never been played live. ‘Architect Of Pain’ has never been played live. It’s 11 fucking minutes — probably why [it has never been performed live] — but, hey, [Iron] Maiden plays ‘Rime Of The Ancient Mariner’ and some of those other ones that are, like, 12, 13 minutes, so I’m not opposed to doing it. So, I’m implementing those songs, and I want to play all of those songs. And everybody I’ve heard forever [asking for] ‘Cajun Hell’, ‘Verbal Razors’, ‘Chemi-Kill’, ‘Seeds Of Hate’, all these songs that have not been played in years, and I wanna play them. And then obviously the demo songs that I did with Legacy. I pretty much wrote the whole first [Testament] record, so I’ll bring those songs too. ‘Curse Of The Legions Of Death’, I wrote that. ‘The Haunting’, I wrote that.”
I fully support a mosh pit at NAMM. Just really going all in on that metal shit.
