BONDED BY BLOOD
Paul Baloff - Gary Holt - Rick Hunolt - Rob McKillop - Tom Hunting
EXODUS, from the Bay Area of San Francisco released their legendary debut album on the 25th of April in 1985. Their reputation preceeded them much thanks to the spread of their early demos and live recordings. This led Exodus to a record deal with Torrid / Combat. Exodus then entered the Prairie Sun Recording Studios in the summer of 1984 to record their debut album, an album that was originally titled *A Lesson in Violence*. But they couldn't come up with a suitable album cover and this led to the album being delayed for almost a full year.
So before the album even came out Exodus had played gigs in New York as well as in Los Angeles with legendary underground bands like METALLICA, SLAYER and VENOM.
Even if Exodus has released more than ten studio albums by now, most fans seems to agree that none of them can compare with the greatness of Bonded By Blood. In this article we go through everything you need to know about Exodus legendary debut album Bonded by Blood.
THE EARLY YEARS (1979-1983)
EXODUS formed in 1979 in Richmond California by Kirk Hammett, Carlton Melson and Tom Hunting. They recruited Tim Agnello who would soon leave the band together with Carlton Melson. They were then replaced by Jeff Andrews and Gary Holt. Gary Holt whom at the time were a total beginner but Kirk Hammett helped teaching Gary how to write and play the guitar.
I 1981 Kirk Hammett met Paul Baloff at a house party in Berkeley. Paul wore an IRON MAIDEN button and Kirk asked Paul if he knew of the band U.F.O., Paul started to sing 'Rock Bottom' right away. The next day he came down and jammed with that early EXODUS formation and he was in, not because he had the best voice in the world, but he had tons of charisma, was funny as hell and he knew his shit musicwise.
Exodus started rehearsing "Rock Bottom" by U.F.O. and "Get Your Rocks Off" by Def Leppard. In 1982 they wrote and recorded a three track demo tape with the songs Whipping Queen, Death and Domination and Warlords. None of the songs would end up on Bonded By Blood or any of their other studio albums. The demo was very inspired by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and the whole NWOBHM wave. So Exodus had not yet found their thrash sound. Exodus started playing gigs around the area of San Francisco and soon they had played with bands like ANVIL CHORUS, LAAZ ROCKIT and VICIOUS RUMOURS.
The 1982 demo would be Kirk Hammetts only recording with the band before leaving Exodus to join Metallica as Dave Mustaine's replacement. Metallica spotted Kirk during their gig together with Exodus on the 29th of November in 1982. In April of 1983 Kirk got an offer to join METALLICA in an emergency. Kirk flew into New York on April 11th and played his first show on April 16th at the Showplace in Dover, NJ. They were on the verge of entering the studio to record their first opus (Kill 'Em All) and METALLICA replaced Dave Mustaine and Kirk stepped.
Kirk was recommended to METALLICA through Mark Whitaker whom later came to produce Exodus debut album. Exodus tried out several guitarists including Mike Maung and Evan McCaskey (Whom comitted suicide in 1989) but the band finally decided to go with Rick Hunolt. Bassist Jeff Andrews had problems keeping up with the bands high tempo so they fired him unwillingly. He went on and formed an early incarnation of the death metal legends POSSESSED. Jeff was replaced by bassist Rob McKillop.
LIFE AFTER KIRK HAMMETT (1983-1984)
"As soon as Kirk quit we moved up a gear and our songs began to get faster. The first two songs I wrote after Kirk went to Metallica were Strike of the Beast and No Love." - Gary Holt
After Kirk Hammet left, Gary Holt transitioned from a beginner into an incredible guitarist and songwriter. Gary quickly became the bands main songwriter. Around this point, Exodus wrote a lot of original songs, including 'Endor', 'Pillager', 'Impaler', 'Hell’s Breath', 'Child Of Evil', 'Interrogation' or 'Dying By His Hand'. The song Impaler was originally planned to be a part of Bonded by Blood but when Kirk Hammet left he took the riffs with him and the song was transformed into "Trapped Under Ice" which was a part of METALLICA's Ride the Lightning album released in 1984, so Exodus gave up on the song.
When METALLICA went on their Kill 'em all for one tour with RAVEN in late 1983, EXODUS got the opportunity to open up for Metallica once again. SLAYER from Los Angeles also came to town January of 1984 and Exodus was the headliner without even having an album out yet. After the gig with Exodus, Slayer dropped the makeup. Exodus also gigged with bands like MOTÖRHEAD, HEAVEN, METAL CHURCH, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES and LOUDNESS.
In 1984 Exodus recorded another demo called ''Turk Street' demo, which was recorded in the Turk Street studios with drug fueled Doug Piercy (HEATHEN) as a producer. The demo wasn't finished but the demo still circled in the tapetrading circles. The reason why it wasn't finished was that the band was offered a deal with Torrid while recording the demo. At the time Exodus gigged with bands like MERCYFUL FATE (on their first U.S. tour), MEGADETH (who still haven't released an album yet), HIRAX, VERMIN, POSSESSED and DEATH ANGEL amongst others.
During this period Exodus were mainly influenced by NWOBHM-bands like Diamond Head, Venom, Blitzkrieg, Angel Witch, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Motörhead.
Bonded By Blood (1985)
IN THE STUDIO (1984-1985)
In the summer of 1984 Exodus signed a deal with the small New York label Torrid records with some help of Sam Kress from the Whiplash magazine. Todd Gordon whom co-founded Torrid signed the deal with Exodus and the album was licensed to Combat Records whom helped distribute the album.
Exodus then entered the Prairie Sun studios with producer Mark Whittaker, Mark had recently finished the production work on Metallica's Ride the Lightning. Mark Whittaker got credited for co-writing the tracks Metal Command and Deliver Us To Evil. Guitarist Gary Holt was the bands main songwriter together with vocalist Paul Baloff.
Exodus recorded the songs for the album in 1984, but the album was delayed when the album needed to be remixed and re-mastered. Originally the idea was to release the album under the name A Lesson in Violence and the artwork depicted the band going down a dark alley surrounded by mutilated women. So the band changed the artwork and the title of the album Bonded By Blood. The new artwork with the siamese twins was painted by Richard A. Ferrano with some additional graphics by Donald J. Munz.
Gary Holt used a Fernandez stratocaster through a Highwatt amp with two Boss super overdrives, both on with the levels all the way up and the drives all the way off. Which made his guitar sound super crunchy. Rick Hunolt played through a Marshall with an overdrive. All leads was played through a Marshall.
The Exodus Slay Team did the back-up vocals on the album. and the Slay Team was Toby 'Rage' Staniford (Whom died in a jetski accident in 2010), Lonnie Hunolt (Ricks brother) and Andy 'Airbourne' Anderson.
Ken Adams and Todd Gordon were executive producers and Mark Whitaker produced, remixed and remastered the album. The album was engineered by John Volaitis and Gordon Lyons. Robin Yeager worked on the mix and George Horn did the mastering.
In early 1985 Exodus made their first gig in Los Angeles. In April of 1985 Exodus was invited on tour with none other than SLAYER and VENOM. Exodus played a pretty significant gig in New York, at the Studio 54. The event was filmed and later released as on video as "Ultimate Revenge". The video started with a poster of John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever being set on fire. The video was a huge success and helped Exodus to build a steady fan base. The concert was also released as a CD in 1991 titled A Lesson in Violence.
On April the 25th, 1985 the album was finally released on 12"inch vinyl and cassette. The album was originally released by Torrid Records and it was re-released by Combat Records in 1986. The album was distributed by Combat in the States and Music For Nations in Europe. By the time of the release most people knew of Exodus, due to their demo tapes being wildly popular in the tape trading circles.
In a time when metal developed quickly it was very important to get the album out in time before the album was seen as yesterdays news. But despite the delay and the jeopardizing of the impact.
Torrid's co-founder Todd Gordon said:
"The original title was 'A Lesson In Violence'. Our distributor felt that a lot of retailers would not carry the album with the original cover due to the PMRC (censorship organization) climate at the time. Thus, it took some time to finally come up with the good / evil twin cover."
ON TOUR (1985-1986)
Bonded By Blood hit the metal scene like a knee to the face. The album didn't sell as much as your METALLICA, ANTHRAX or SLAYER album but it did enough to make an impact. The album received immediate praise almost everywhere but the comparisons with METALLICA were inevitably present sometimes, especially in Bob Muldowney’s review in Kick Ass Monthly as he would have given it more credit if this record had been out before “Kill ‘Em All”, but he wasn't considering the fact that EXODUS were active long before METALLICA even moved to the area.
Bernard Doe of the highly respected Metal Forces magazine wrote a review in 1985, he concluded:
"Bonded By Blood’ comes crashing through the speakers. The energy that Exodus produce is so intense it must be frightening to your average heavy metal fan. Devastating power riffs are complimented by excellent soloing from Gary Holt and Rick Hunolt. Listen in particular to ‘Exodus’ and ‘A Lesson In Violence’ as the two axe thrashers trade-off solos with lightning precision."
In August of 1985 Exodus went on a tour in U.S. and Canada supporting Exciter, but after just three gigs Exciter cancelled because of internal strides and Exodus kept going with different supporting acts such as Slaughter, Sacred Blade, Sacrifice and Blessed Death. By September Exodus returned but new gigs in Europe awaited. Once again as a support to Venom. Even if Exodus gained a few new fans some of the gigs were cancelled due to bad ticket sales. VENOM's popularity was simply fading but Exodus was still on the rise and while on tour, Exodus headlined an important gig in Eindhoven. In late 1985 / early 1986 Exodus started performing the track Pleasures of the Flesh, which also became the title of their next album.
Once back in San Francisco Gary Holt and Paul Baloff started the crossover side-project SPASTIC CHILDREN. They were also busy writing new Exodus songs. While playing at Mabuhay Gardens and Ruthies Inn in San Francisco, during February and March of 1986, Exodus debuted two new songs "Brain Dead" and "Faster Than You'll Ever Live to Be". "Seeds of Hate" also soon showed up in their live set. The new songs proved that Exodus was a force to be reckoned with. On the 14th of June, Exodus went to New York and played the Ritz with ANTHRAX. A few days later came the shocking news, Paul Baloff had parted ways with Exodus, due to musical and personal differences. Which came as a shock when the band already had written a few tracks for their sophomore release.
PAUL BALOFF VS. EXODUS (1987-1994)
A couple weeks later Paul was replaced by Steve “Zetro” Sousa from LEGACY (Pre-Testament) Zetro recommended Legacy to recruit Chuck Billy of ex-RAMPAGE, ex-GUILT). Once Paul had left EXODUS, he jammed with HIRAX as they were looking for somebody to replace the recently departed Katon W. De Pena but in the end it didn’t work out and Billy Wedgeworth got the job.
Instead Paul started right away a new band with Fred Cotton on drums, Bob Eggelston on bass and Ron Shipes on guitar. A while later he found a second guitarist in Chuck Sedlack. Al Voltage later joined. Paul Baloff opted for PIRANHA as moniker for his new band. Soon after Chuck left the band and retired, Al became the new guitarist while the bass position went to Eric Wong (ex-SPECTRE, ex-HEATHEN). A minor feud started between Paul Baloff and Exodus, Paul claimed that the new Exodus was too soft for his personal taste. But in the end the Pleasures of the Flesh album became heavier than anything Paul Baloff wrote while being the vocalist in PIRANHA.
Pleasures of the Flesh was released on the 7th of October in 1987. The fans were somewhat disappointed by the nature of the new Exodus album, because it had a very different sound. More mature and a lot less aggressive, mostly due to the different vocalstyles. Paul Baloff's hardcore grunts were replaced by Zetro's Bon Scott-influenced voice.
In 1988, PIRANHA entered the studio with none other than James Hetfield as the producer but instead of releasing an album with Piranha, the label Mechanic dropped them. This was disappointing to Paul Baloff.
In late 1988 David Godfrey White left Heathen and Paul Baloff was asked to join. Paul decided to leave PIRANHA to sing for Bay Area thrashers HEATHEN. By then Heathen had already released their masterpiece Breaking the Silence, so they were more established than his own Piranha. With Heathen, Paul recorded a two track demo in November of 1988.
But the way Paul sung didn't fit Heathen's more melodic sound and they parted ways and Paul returned to Piranha.
Piranha kept going with different lineups until 1993 when the band decided to fold. From 1987 and up until 1991 Exodus kept growing as a band and they released some successful albums (Fabulous Disaster and Impact Is Imminent) but then the grunge wave rolled in around 1993 and washed it all away.
RE-BONDING (1997-2001)
During this period Exodus reformed with Paul Baloff, the live CD Another Lesson in Violence was released in 1997. The album featured a lot of songs from Bonded by Blood and a few post-Bonded tracks. But all songs were written when Paul was still with the band. (Pleasures of the Flesh, Seeds of Hate and Brain Dead). For the first time ever, Exodus released the Kirk Hammet co-penned Impaler, which was originally planned for Bonded By Blood. The live album was the only official Exodus release besides Bonded By Blood to feature Paul Baloff. The Exo-Dudes also did a celebrated gig at the Thrash of the Titans festival in 2001. They had plans of recording a new album with Paul but he died of a stroke in 2002. Exodus then regrouped with 'Zetro' and they released the highly successful Tempo of the Damned in 2004.
In 2008, Exodus re-recorded Bonded By Blood and released it under the title Let There Be Blood. The album featured the track Hell's Breath, which was only a demo song that never made it to the original version of Bonded By Blood. The EXODUS lineup that re-recorded the album were Gary Holt, Tom Hunting, Rob Dukes, Lee Altus and Jack Gibson. The goal was to re-produce the album with modern studio techniques, but the re-recorded version scored pretty bad reviews and the fans saw the album as a cash grab.
RE-ISSUES
On the 1989 reissue of Bonded By Blood, the siamese twins were replaced by a red and black crowd with a yellow Exodus logo.
Both the 1989 (Combat Records) and 1999 (Century Media) re-releases of the album included two bonus tracks (And Then There Were None & A Lesson in Violence) with Steve 'Zetro' Souza as the bands vocalist. The bonus tracks were recorded at the Astoria, in London on March 8, 1989.
The album was also remastered and reissued by Century Media in 2008.
LEGACY AND IMPACT
In 2014, Kirk Hammett admitted in an interview that he thought that Bonded By Blood was as good as their Kill 'Em All.
Gary Holt on the impact of Bonded By Blood:
“I wouldn’t ever say that we invented metal, or even thrash metal, But we certainly played our part. And I would claim that Bonded By Blood is the classic thrash album.”
In 2005, in Pomona California, A thrash band was born and they took the name Bonded By Blood, from their favourite thrash metal album. As we speak Bonded By Blood has released three studio albums. The bands vocalist said that the album had a profound effect on him and that he wanted to start a thrash metal band after hearing Exodus debut album. Gary Holt commented that he was honoured by it.
In 2011, the photo book: Murder in the Front Row: Shots from the Bay Area Epicenter. The book is a photo book by Brian Lew and Harald Oimoen about the Bay Area thrash scene. The title Murder in the front row was taken from the Exodus song Bonded By Blood.
TRACK BY TRACK
BONDED BY BLOOD
The song Bonded by Blood came to be, after a 'bonding experience' between Kirk Hammett, Gary Holt, Tom Hunting and Paul Baloff. One night, after drinking they were talking about how great it was to be in a band, and play the music they like. At some point, they decided that they wanted to immortalize it. So, the four used a razor blade make some cuts in their hands and mix their blood and therefore be "bonded by blood". according to Kirk Hammett.
The title track starts out with the sounds of an incoming airplane and in crashes into some dense drumming that instantly leads into fast Machine Gun riffage, somewhat similar to Metallica's Kill 'Em All. But unlike Kill 'Em All had some hints of speed metal and squeaky vocals by Hetfield, Paul Baloff enters with some seriously demented and shouting vocals that were more aggressive than anything heard prior to that. The song is a real thrash metal anthem, with tons of violence, headbanging and murder, the lyrics are simply brilliant and Bonded By Blood is one of the most iconic thrash metal songs of all time. It's also the shortest song on the album.
EXODUS
Track two also focuses heavily on violence. Paul Baloff screams "Kick in your face and rape and murder your wife", So you'll know that you're in for some over the top brutality. Track two is also a high-paced thrasher with some dense and frenetic drumming. The song has a ton of speedy riffs and the song follows the classic formula: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solos and verse.
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
Track three is a bit different. And then there were none starts a slower riff and some drum fills at the start of the song. Overall it's less intense than the first two tracks, especially the chorus stands out with "The Slay Team" bringing you the backing vocals, which makes the song more melodic and it's more in the mid-tempo field compared to the first two tracks. After the chorus part the song explodes and picks up tempo and becomes catchier while the solos flies by in an almost Slayer-styled fashion. The lyrics are about the death and destruction of the world.
A LESSON IN VIOLENCE
Originally planned as the title track of the album, A Lesson in Violence is yet another lesson in extreme violence. The lyrics are almost hilariously over the top. The song itself is real intense and one of the fastest tracks of the album. Paul Baloff shrieks violently and the solos are good,
METAL COMMAND
Metal Command was a bit different compared to the first half of the album. It feels catchier than the previous tracks and maybe it was intended to be the "hit song" of the album. The lyrics are about metal and violence. A band like Saxon comes to mind, since they wrote many great heavy metal anthems in the early eighties and it feels like Exodus continues this tradition with Metal Command, but dressed in a tight jeans instead of spandex. The song was written in the studio since producer Mark Whitaker is given credit for contributing to the song.
PIRANHA
"It Ain't about no Goldfish, It ain't about no Tuna Fish, and It ain't about no Trout, This song is called Piran-ha-ha-ha-ha!. Baloff roared from stage while introducing the track Piranha. Lyricwise the songs differs from the other as it isn't about headbanging and murder. Instead it's about attacking piranhas, which makes the song somewhat stand out a bit from the pack.
The intro riff and the determined drumming is a highlight.
NO LOVE
No Love starts with a beautiful acoustic intro, which almost feels sarcastic, maybe due to the title and the nature of the song. It's just one of the most beautiful and aggressive love songs of all time. The song is about someone being sacrificed to Satan. Tonight there will be no love!
DELIVER US TO EVIL
Deliver us to Evil is an ambitious "thrash epic", since it is over 7 minutes long and ambitiously arranged. It's about the dead coming alive, while pentagrams are held high and hell hounds are barking. Calling the song an early piece of black metal might not be totally wrong. Because the lyrics are truly dark and satanic in an early Mercyful Fate / Venom fashion. I like the break four minutes into the song when the band picks up pace and the solo comes in.
STRIKE OF THE BEAST
Strike of the beast starts with a superb and hectic riff, which I think is one of the best riffs on the album. Strike of the Beast is about trying to get away from the fire breathing beast that is right behind. It's a song that gets your pulse going, a real stressful tune with tons of speed and a cool aggressive chorus. The song will make you look over your shoulder one extra time.
THE RUTHLESS REVIEW
Comparisons with Kill 'Em All has followed Bonded By Blood ever since it was released in 1985. Sure the chainsaw like guitars are here as well but Bonded By Blood is a much more violent thrash metal album, Much thanks to their charismatic front man Paul Baloff and his homicidal and quite demented approach to singing, Paul is definitely no well-mannered clean cut front man, his strengths are his aggressive ways and his attitude. The lyrics are also something that differs from Metallica's debut, the lyrics here are much more violent and it was not completely rare that the band draws references to Satan. But Bonded By Blood was no black metal album even if it was influenced by the music of Venom and Mercyful Fate.
I really love the the intensity and harsh vocal-delivery that this album has to offer. Another thing I really like is the guitars, The H-Team (Holt and Hunolt) are definitely up there with amongst the best guitar duos the genre has ever seen. The solos might not be flying like some something off Reign in Blood by Slayer but Bonded By Blood is an amazing album for those who like impeccable and real crunchy riffs.
Bonded By Blood are excellent right through, every riff, solo, vocal line and drumbeat provides to the greatness of the album. There are no place for fillers here, Bonded By Blood is one of those rare albums that really doesn't have any weak tracks. How many albums do you know that has songs of the same magnitude as "Bonded By Blood", "Exodus", "And Then There Were None", "Piranha" and "Strike of the Beast". I really love the guitars on Bonded By Blood, how they sound, from the saw-toothed staccato guitar attack to a blistering, precision pace throughout the album.
I like the authentic sound on the album, it's pure thrash with no extra fluff fluff. The production isn't clean and sterilized like most productions of today. There is a purity and a youthful honesty to Bonded By Blood that are hard to come about these days. Sure the lyrics aren't that thoughtful and at times they are even immature. But as said before, that just adds to the authenticity of the album. Things doesn't have to be perfect, but they sure are evil, violent and murderous.
I really wished that Exodus would have kept going with Paul Baloff, imagine what he could have done if he wasn't fired from the band in 1987. Maybe Exodus would have remained as violent as they were here and if so, things might have been pretty different. But all these what if's doesn't change anything. But no matter what, we all should be grateful that Exodus managed to record and release such an incredible album. It's definitely one of my all-time favourites.
Bonded by Blood is truly a landmark in thrash metal. It remains one of the most important albums of the genre besides Metallica's Kill 'Em All and Slayer's Reign in Blood. The album set the standard in the Bay Area and it set the bar for other bands to follow; Testament, Heathen, Forbidden, Vio-Lence, Defiance - You name it. Bonded By Blood is a groundbreaking masterpiece in every way, and I consider it to be the purest definition of the genre we all love. If you ask me, I must say that it is the best metal album to ever be pressed on black vinyl.
10/10
Studios:
Recorded At: Prairie Sun Recording Studios (Cotati outside San Francisco, California)
Mixed At: Tres Virgos Studios (San Rafael, California)
Credits:
Art Direction: Donald J. Munz
Painting: Richard A. Ferrano
Engineer: (Prarie Sun Studios) John Volaitis
Engineer: (Tres Virgos Studios Assistant) Gordon Lyons
Executive-Producers: Ken Adams & Todd Gordon
Mastered by: George Horn
Mixed by: (Tres Virgos Studios) Robin Yeager
Producer, Engineer (Prarie Sun Studios) Assistant], Mixed By: Mark Whitaker
Lineup:
Vocals: Paul Baloff
Guitars: Gary Holt
Guitars: Rick Hunolt
Bass: Rob McKillop
Drums: Tom Hunting
Backing Vocals:
T. Rage, Lonnie Hunolt & Andy 'Airborne' Anderson.
Exodus - Bonded By Blood
"Murder in the front row
crowd begins to bang
and there's blood upon the stage
bang your head against the stage
and metal takes its price
Bonded by Blood"
/ Ruthless
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