EXODUS' STEVE 'ZETRO' SOUZA Talks To JUMP METAL About His Return, Upcoming Album 'Blood In, Blood Out'

Jump Metal recently conducted an interview with vocalist Steve "Zetro" Souza of San Francisco Bay Area thrashers EXODUS. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below.

EXODUS' August 10 performance at the Heavy Montreal festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada marked the band's fourth show with Steve "Zetro" Souza since he rejoined the band two months ago; EXODUS played on July 11 at the Bang Your Head!!!festival in Balingen, Germany; on July 12 at Antwerp Metal Fest in Antwerp, Belgium; and on July 25 at the "Fear FestEvil After Party" in San Diego, California.

Asked if he was planning to perform any of the songs from the Rob Dukes era of EXODUS, Souza told Metal Insider: "I'm going to, yes, definitely. Why wouldn't we? The songs are great. I didn't want to shun that at all. It was a big part of their history as well; it was nine years and three records. You can't just turn away that. Why would I? No way, I welcomed it on. I wanted to sing some of those songs. They're great songs."

EXODUS will release their new album, "Blood In, Blood Out", on October 14 via Nuclear Blast. The album art was illustrated by Swedish artist Pär Olofsson, known worldwide for his incredible renderings that have graced the covers of countless heavy metal albums, including EXODUS' "Let There Be Blood".

The concept for the art was impressively envisaged by Olofsson based on the album title alone, as guitarist Gary Holt explains: "The concept came from Pär Olofsson. I fed him the title and he immediately came up with the final concept, and it's perfect! One of my favorite covers we've ever done and it fits the title and theme to a T!"

"Blood In, Blood Out" will feature a guest appearance by METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett on the song "Salt In The Wound". "It felt really casual, really cool — just like it did back in 1980 when we were all just hanging out back in the day," Hammett told RollingStone.com. "Me, recording a solo on their album was a huge thing for me. Other than the EXODUS demo that's been heard by a lot of people, it's the only time I ever recorded with EXODUS. It was a huge thing for me."

He added: "I play a pretty cool solo, and then Gary comes in and plays another solo, and you know what? I listened to that and thought, 'Wow, it's 1982 all over again and here we are, Gary and I are trying to cut each other's heads off with our guitar solos.' Nothing has changed much in the last 30 years. I love it. I love those guys. I've only known them for most of my life, so I'm really happy that I finally got to record with them."

Hammett was a member of EXODUS' original lineup before replacing Dave Mustaine in METALLICA in 1983. In fact, Hammett was not only the person who came up with the EXODUS name, but also the first from the band to meet original EXODUS singer Paul Baloff and brought him into the group.

Dukes joined EXODUS in January 2005 and appeared on four of the band's studio albums — "Shovel Headed Kill Machine" (2005),"The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A" (2007),"Let There Be Blood" (2008, a re-recording of EXODUS' classic 1985 LP, "Bonded By Blood") and "Exhibit B: The Human Condition" (2010).