Blood In, Blood Out [Clear Gold Black Splatter]

by Exodus

Overview

The veteran San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal legends' tenth studio album is also their first long-layer to feature the singing/screaming talents of Steve "Zetro" Souza since 2004's Tempo of the Damned -- Rob Dukes, who handled vocal duties on the band's four prior outings, split with the group in the summer of 2014. Band and ex/current/deceased lead singer acrimony aside, the 11- track Blood In, Blood Out mostly crushes it, offering up a pulverizing set of textbook thrash-induced mayhem that somehow manages to sound both classic and vital. The band tosses a red herring into the pit with the electro-stomp intro to opener "Black 13," but it doesn't take long for guitarists Gary Holt and Lee Altus to unleash a barrage of staccato riffage that, like a perfectly calculated headshot, effectively drenches the listener in assorted bits of viscera. Elsewhere, Metallica's Kirk Hammet returns to the fold for a guest spot on the particularly crunchy "Salt the Wound," the relentless "Collateral Damage" arrives via a malevolently dissonant descending run that eventually morphs into the scaly backbone of the song, and the insidious title track, with its pit-antagonizing shout-out to late vocalist Paul Baloff ("We wrote the book so you better know the plot/new breed, old creed, let's see what you brought"), all succeed via their obvious disdain for whether or not anybody actually gives a sh*t. For all its excess (some tracks definitely overstay their welcome), Blood In, Blood Out, much like Cannibal Corpse's 2014 offering Skeletal Domain, sounds remarkably dialed-in for a band so long in the tooth, and while it doesn't break any new ground for the stalwart rockers, it certainly does little to tarnish their reputation as thrash royalty. ~ James Christopher Monger

Product Details

Release Date:	01/26/2024
Label:	Nuclear Blast
UPC:	0727361341138
Rank:	16878

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Exodus   Primary Artist
Kirk Hammett   Soloist,Guest Artist
Lee Altus   Guitar,Soloist
Gary Holt   Guitar,Soloist
Jack Gibson   Bass
Tom Hunting   Drums
Steve Souza   Vocals

Technical Credits

Steve Souza   Lyricist,Group Member,Composer
Andy Sneap   Mixing,Tracking,Mastering,Drum Engineering
Exodus   Producer
Lee Altus   Composer,Lyricist,Group Member
Kevin Heybourne   Composer,Lyricist
Gary Holt   Composer,Lyricist,Group Member
Jack Gibson   Composer,Engineer,Lyricist,Group Member
Dan the Automator   Introduction
Tom Hunting   Group Member
Jason Victorine   Assistant Engineer
Par Olofsson   Cover Art
Eus Straver   Photography
Matt Mullin   Assistant Engineer
Steven Michael Souza   Lyricist