EXODUS: New Song Available For Streaming

"Hammer And Life", a brand new song from San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal veterans EXODUS, is available for streaming on the band's MySpace page. The track comes off the band's ninth album, "Exhibit B: The Human Condition", which is scheduled for release in North America on May 18 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Guitarist/songwriter Gary Holt shares the background on the new song: "We decided to put up an early rough mix of 'Hammer And Life' to give everybody a little taste of the new record. The really fast songs you'll get soon enough!

"This song is inspired by the one and only [original vocalist] Paul Baloff, our ode to him.

"Paul was always the hammer in EXODUS and he lived for metal more than anyone I've ever known. R.I.P."

"Exhibit B: The Human Condition" track listing:

01. The Ballad Of Leonard And Charles
02. Beyond The Pale
03. Hammer And Life
04. Class Dismissed (A Hate Primer)
05. Downfall
06. March Of The Sycophants
07. Nanking
08. Burn, Hollywood, Burn
09. Democide
10. The Sun Is My Destroyer
11. A Perpetual State Of Indifference
12. Good Riddance

Nuclear Blast USA's webshop will be issuing an exclusive mail-order edition of the album featuring a slipcase with different artwork (to be unveiled soon) plus the North American bonus track, "Devil's Teeth".

Regarding the "Exhibit B: The Human Condition" cover artwork, which can be viewed below, Holt recently stated, "We wanted to portray the violence of man at its finest, so we started with our own version of the Leonardo da Vinci sketch [of 'Vitruvian Man'], but done the 'EXODUS' way! I was pointed in the direction of Colin Larks of Rainsong Design for the cover and he killed it! To me, the artwork represents man and his affinity for bloodshed, ignorance, and all-around ability to be led like sheep to the slaughter. The image fits the songs on this record perfectly. The whole layout is going to as sick as the record itself!"

"Exhibit B: The Human Condition" was recorded this past December in Northern California with producer Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, ARCH ENEMY, KREATOR).

In a recent interview with Way Too Loud!, EXODUS bassist Jack Gibson stated about the upcoming CD, "There's a couple [of songs] that are long, and a couple that are shorter, too. Song kind of write themselves. Anyone who creates music or art, and even people who write stories — it takes on its own life. If it's an epic tune, it's a crime to cut it short thinking it could be on the radio or whatever. Especially in today's day and age, radio and video don't mean shit. Radio has never meant anything to a band like us. Maybe now that there's XM satellite radio with real metal stations. We really wouldn't unwrite a song so it could be on the radio. The songs are just the way they come out. The new album has a couple short sweet ones, and I think one of 'em is 10 fucking minutes long! . . . Lyrically, it has to do with the depravity of man, how fucked up things have gotten, and how perverted in the dark corners of everything from religion to politics."

EXODUS is currently on the "Rust In Peace 20th Anniversary Tour" with MEGADETH and TESTAMENT.