In a new interview with Heavy culture, ex-EXODUS guitarist Rick Hunolt explained why he believes his former band failed to reach the same commercial heights as the so-called ‘Big Four’ of 1980s thrash metal, namely METALLIC, KILLER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “First of all, we were just children. We couldn’t even buy alcohol. We were super young and just crazy, full of crazy energy. We recorded the album, ‘Bound by blood’, and it took forever and ever and ever for it to come out – it took forever. So it really turned us upside down in the world. KILLER, METALLIC and EXODUS – we were all there at the same time, we all had albums ready to release, and of course ours was the last [to come out] because of the madness of the record companies. Thus, the follow-up [1987’s ‘Pleasures Of The Flesh’], to lose Paul [Baloff, vocals] was super tough.
“I think when someone … A good example if ‘Van Halen I’ – to date, everyone compares everything they have done after ‘Van Halen I’ To ‘Van Halen I’. The same thing we’ve been dealing with for 30 years – everything we do after ‘Bound by blood’ will be compared to ‘Bound by blood’. So there will always be people who say, ‘No, no, no. Nothing will ever be as good as ‘Bound by blood’. ‘ And then there will be people who say, “Yeah, their stuff after that is good too.” It’s always going to be like that. We have no control over it.
“Hiring of a new singer [Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza] and turn off ‘Pleasures’… And then we had to wait another year for ‘Pleasures’ to get out; it was, like, another year for ‘Pleasures’ to get out. So it was like a double… ’84, and then we waited until… ‘Pleasures’ came out, what, ’86 or something? End of 85? So people waited and waited and waited. And we’re setting there saying, “Damn it. It was a lot of pressure. Meanwhile we have METALLIC and KILLER and ANTHRAX now on board by releasing albums every year. And we’re slowly but surely losing traction. It was hard. But shit happens. We were just children. We didn’t know anything.
“I think losing Paul was a big deal at the time ”, Hunolt added. “I think we may have made a mistake shooting Paul. And that’s just a look back at everything for me; this is just my personal thought. That’s the thing I think about sometimes. What would have happened if we hadn’t fired Paul? I just think we might have had a little more traction if we hadn’t had this lag between the two.
“People like Paul. And Paul was… he’s a legend. He was having a bad time in his life, and I guess at the time we thought he might be holding us back; I think that’s probably what we thought. I think we probably would have thought of improving it instead of sending it back.
“But as far as the ‘Big Four’… well, I don’t know… Maybe it should just be the ‘Big Five’. I’ll say this: I think everyone has a place in old school thrash. If you want to give them a number or whatever, go ahead. I don’t think it means anything. I think the people who were there and the people who love our genre know where everyone is at. And I know where we are, for sure. Without EXODUS, I think thrash metal would be very, very different. “
Hunolt makes an appearance on EXODUSthe new studio album by, “Person not grateful”, which will be released on November 19 via Nuclear explosion records.
Next San Francisco Bay Area Thrashers Disc To Follow Up From 2014 “Blood in blood outside”, which was their first release since the singer left the group for nine years, Rob ducs, and the return of Souza, who has already directed EXODUS from 1986 to 1993 and from 2002 to 2004.
A long time EXODUS fans will remember that Hunolt – the other half of the famous EXODUS “Team H” who is on every studio recording from 1985 to 2004 and co-wrote some of the band’s best-known songs such as “A lesson in violence” and “Deliver us from evil” – left EXODUS after the band’s acclaimed reunion album in 2004, “Tempo of the damned”. Following his departure, Hunolt has been replaced by PAGAN guitarist Lee Altus.
Back in April 2019, Hunolt guitarist joined Gary Holt and other EXODUS members Tom the hunt (battery) and Steve « Zero » Souza (voice) to perform several of the group’s classics during a METAL ELEGANCE concert in San Francisco, California. More recently, Hunolt joined EXODUS on stage in August at Psycho Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The original range of EXODUS composed of guitarists Hammett and Tim Lamb, Hunt and singer Keith Stewart. Holt joined the group in 1981, while Church left two years before EXODUSthe first album of, “Bound by blood”, was born.
Souza is now in his third stint with EXODUS, having previously led the group from 1986 to 1993 and from 2002 to 2004. A decade after his second departure, Souza returned to the fold in 2014, just in time to appear on “Blood in blood outside”.
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