HATRIOT's 'Fiery' Performance In Cotati Captured On Video

Shortly after HATRIOT — the San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal band led by former EXODUS and LEGACY (pre-TESTAMENT) frontman Steve "Zetro" Souza — started playing the song "Murder American Style" on January 18 at Spancky's in Cotati, California, a fire started in one of the PA speakers.

Jesse Amazeen, who attended the concert and shot the clip below, tells BLABBERMOUTH.NET: "The fire got put out pretty quickly, but a lot of us realized this could have easily been another GREAT WHITE type of club fire. Scary."

HATRIOT's sophomore album, "Dawn Of The New Centurion", will be released on February 21 via Massacre Records. The band once again used producer Juan Urteaga and graphic artist Mark DeVito for the new effort, which will be made available on CD and digital download, as well as a limited-edition CD digipak with bonus tracks, and a limited-edition vinyl LP.

"Dawn Of The New Centurion" track listing:

01. From My Cold Dead Hands
02. Your Worst Enemy
03. The Fear Within
04. Honor The Rise And Fall
05. Superkillafragsadisticactsaresoatrocious
06. Silence In The House Of The Lord
07. World Funeral
08. Dawn Of The New Centurion
09. Consolation For The Insane

"Over the past year, HATRIOT has grown tighter as a band, and the songs on the new record will reflect that," said Souza. "The songs are longer and more melodic, while keeping the classic thrash metal feel that we are known for.

"'Heroes Of Origin' was our 'Kill 'Em All', and 'Dawn Of The New Centurion' is our 'Ride The Lightning'."

HATRIOT's drummer is none other than Steve's son, Nicholas Souza. Nicholas auditioned for the band after the departure of Alex Bent and "proved himself to be the best choice," according to Steve.

HATRIOT's lineup also includes Zetro's son Cody, who got his first bass as a present from his father after Zetro bought it off current EXODUS bassist Jack Gibson.

Regarding HATRIOT's musical direction, Zetro said, "It's in the vein of typical Bay Area thrash, but these guys are a lot younger, so there's gonna be some blast-beats in there. There's gonna be some kind of death [metal] approach to it, a little bit. 'Cause these guys are new. They're raw, and they're fast, young, heavy, hard and aggressive, and I'm trying to convey that along as well."

He added, "These new kids seem to understand what we did in the '80s, but still bring a little bit of a new essence to it. We put that together with what I write vocally and it's turned out to be really, really killer. It's good stuff."