Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to Exodus’ Guitarist Gary Holt about the bands upcoming Studio album “Persona Non Grata”, which will be released on November 19, 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records.
Holt also spoke about the band’s Legacy, Metallica early days and gave an update on Slayer.
Tell us what this new album “Persona Non Grata” sound like
“The album to me sounds like 2020. It’s the musical equivalent to the shit show that last year was. Some of the stuff I was writing as I am looking at the TV watching the world burn, of course that had an effect on what I was putting down on paper. The song The Years of Death and Dying, Tom (Hunting) wrote as an ode to all the people we lost including a lot of close friends, on top of that a loss of our way of life, jobs and homes that were lost, not just all pandemic related. It was a bad year and we hope this album is something positive that comes out of it. This album has got some of the catchiest choruses we have ever come up with. When you can make something that super heavy and sing along to it I think you kind of accomplished something. Zetro also learned a couple of new tricks (death growls) in the past he didn’t think it was in his wheelhouse but he learned that he could do it quite well. Some of the songs demanded it.”
When you first saw Metallica did you think they were going to be as big as they are today
“I thought they were great, we saw like a kindred spirit. We were both playing thrash metal, we didn’t know at the time another band did, it was kind of like looking into a mirror. No one knew they would be this big and anybody who says they did is a liar. They were crushing killer thrash made by guys like us, pimply faced kids with a total lack of social skills. No one knew James (Hetfield) would become the singer he did. No one knew they would write stuff like ‘Nothing Else Matters’. No one knew they would write ‘Sanitarium’. It wasn’t until Master of Puppets that I thought this band is going to do something massiv, cause I still consider ‘Master Of Puppets’ the greatest metal album ever made.”
Any updates on Slayer, perhaps a one off show or music?
“No, Slayer is done, enjoy the memories, I know I do.”
“Persona Non Grata” is the follow-up to 2014’s “Blood In Blood Out”. “Persona Non Grata” was recorded at a studio in Lake Almanor, California and was engineered by Steve Lagudi and EXODUS. It was produced by EXODUS and was mixed by Andy Sneap.
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