• facebook
  • twitter
  • rss

EXODUS Guitarist Says Stage Diving And Slam Pits In Thrash Metal Started In Bay Area

September 21, 2011

In upcoming deluxe thrash metal photo book "Murder In The Front Row: Shots From The Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter" by Harald Oimoen and Brian Lew, guitarist Gary Holt of EXODUS (and currently a touring member of SLAYER) claims that the bruising scenes seen nightly at metal shows everywhere first came to thrash metal from punk at Ruthie's Inn in Berkeley, California.

"From our first show together with SLAYER," Holt writes, "to all the shows with everyone from DEATH ANGEL, POSSESSED, VIOLENCE, LEGACY, and many others, Ruthie's Inn lives in infamy because it's the one and only birthplace of violence becoming part and parcel to an EXODUS show. I had never seen a stage dive, a pit, or anything coming close to resembling that before Ruthie's. It was born there, with the help of Wes Robinson and the Exodus Slay Team, and anyone who says different doesn't know what they're talking about or they're lying to you. While the rest of the metal world would later come around and learn the joys of a little good friendly violent fun, it all started there at Ruthie's, end of story."

Holt's full essay joins over 400 color and black-and-white live, candid, and studio photos in the large-format hardcover "Murder In The Front Row" book, an untouchable eyewitness viewpoint into the sometimes violent mid-1980s San Francisco metal scene that launched METALLICA, EXODUS, TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL and POSSESSED, and first supported MEGADETH and SLAYER. The book will be available December 2011 wherever books are sold, including directly from publisher Bazillion Points Books with a limited two-sided exclusive poster-size dustjacket.

For more information, go to this location.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).