Exodus – Garage Oslo 2008

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Exodus’ touring in support of The Atrocity Exhibition: Exhibit A has been going on for over a year, bolstered by the release of Let There Be Blood, with this being the second European leg so far. Only select cities were being hit this time, mostly in Scandinavia and Germany, but they promised they’d be back to Europe in 2009.

Openers 3 Inches of Blood started reasonably late to very few people, but turned in a superb set mostly culled from their critically acclaimed Fire Up The Blades and Advance And Vanquish albums. Many seemed pleasantly surprised by the band, who have gained a large following online, but still seem to be fairly unknown on the live circuit.

Like a lot of other 1980s thrash bands, Exodus suffer a little from their early material having become cult classics and tend to find their later material is not received quite so well when they try to broaden their sound. The effect this tends to have in the live environment is the early songs are greeted rapturously and the later ones less so. Fortunately for Exodus tonight, although the crowd was disappointingly small, everyone in it was a true Exodus fan, meaning the crowd were manic for the entire set.

Newer songs like Deathamphetamine from Shovel Headed Kill Machine and Funeral Hymn, Children of A Worthless God and Iconoclasm from the new album, were welcomed on a similar level to the reinstatement of Blacklist from the grossly overlooked Tempo of The Damned album amongst evergreen classics Bonded By Blood, And Then There Were None, Piranha and A Lesson In Violence in the main set.

These selection did mean the Impact Is Imminent and Force of Habit albums continue to be ignored, and unexpectedly on this occasion Pleasures of The Flesh too. But whatever they play, there’s no denying how tight the current Holt-Altus-Hunting-Gibson line-up is, and regardless of his detractors, the pure venom with which Rob Dukes delivers all of the songs, old and new, is unparalleled.

As on several other nights of this tour, after another revived Tempo of The Damned track in War Is My Shepherd, the encore included a jam on Metallica’s Seek And Destroy, initially with Rob Dukes on guitar, handing over to Gary Holt, the band’s guitar and drum techs take over from Lee Altus and Tom Hunting and fans are pulled up to sing. It’s all a bit of fun before ending the set with a handful of classics. Unfortunately time constraints deprived the crowd of two of these.

Part of the planned setlist Strike of The Beast and Shovel Headed Kill Machine were cut, leaving only Toxic Waltz to end a 90-minute set which just slipped past midnight (which was presumably the venue’s curfew).

“ manic for the entire set ”

Setlist: Bonded By Blood / Iconoclasm / Funeral Hymn / And Then There Were None / A Lesson In Violence / Children of A Worthless God / Piranha / Deathamphetamine / Blacklist // War Is My Shepherd / Seek And Destroy / Toxic Waltz

Written by Andy Lye
More: Gigs, Thrash Metal, Exodus