ROB DUKES On Upcoming EXODUS Album: 'It's The Best Thing I've Done To Date'

At this year's Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California, EXODUS singer Rob Dukes spoke to PipemanRadio about the band's upcoming follow-up to 2021's "Persona Non Grata" album, which is tentatively due in March 2026 via Napalm Records. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We worked our ass off on this record. It's the best thing I've done to date. I know every musician's, 'Oh, my new album's the best,' but it is the best thing I've ever done… Even if it wasn't, I would still say it, even if I thought it was shit, I'd be, like, 'Oh, this is the best album ever.' But truly, man, this is fucking killer. It's fucking epic because it's so different and there's so many different fucking directions that it went in, and they let me just do my thing, man. It was fucking killer."

Asked what he thinks he has brought to the table musically as far as the new EXODUS album is concerned, Rob said: "Well, I've got, like, four or five different voices I can sing in, you know what I mean? I got to use a clean, I got to use a fucking monster fucking growl, I got to use my mid range, my high range, and I was just all over the place. I've never thought I was a one-trick pony — I always thought that I could do more stuff — but thrash metal's kind of limiting, and it's easy to go over the cliff and go into a realm that's, like, 'Uh-oh.' But we didn't do any of that, man; we didn't do that. It's heavy and dark and fast and it's just great, man. There's some MOTÖRHEAD-y rock and roll shit. It's fucking good, man. So that's where this new one is, man, and it's fucking killer."

Also at AftershockEXODUS guitarist Gary Holt told Baby Huey and Chasta of the San Francisco radio station 107.7 The Bone about the band's upcoming LP:  "New album will be done today. I mean, it's technically been done for a month, but since we have the time, we keep messing with it a little bit… Mark Lewis has been mixing it, and we did some additional overdubs in other spots."

Regarding what fans can expect from the new EXODUS material, Holt said: "It's something else, man… It's crushing, but it's also all anthems. Every song's an anthem. It's awesome. We're super proud of this record."

Gary also confirmed that he and his EXODUS bandmates have recorded nearly two albums' worth of material this time around. "We have 80 percent of the next follow-up done," he said. "We started recording March 2nd, and I've been home four weeks till today. We stopped recording and we were on tour the next day. We went to Europe, and we were home for two weeks. Then we went on [tour] in the States. I was home two weeks, [went] to Europe, and then I went and joined SLAYER for [the summer 2025 shows]. And then I came home for two more weeks. So I'm exhausted."

Lewis had previously worked with MEGADETH, WHITECHAPEL, DEVILDRIVER and BAD WOLVES, among many others.

The follow-up to "Persona Non Grata" will mark the first time in nearly three decades that an EXODUS album hasn't been mixed by Andy Sneap, who has acted as JUDAS PRIEST's producer and touring guitarist for more than seven years.

Gary previously wrote on Instagram about EXODUS's collaboration with Lewis: "First album since 97 to mix with someone else, and it's crushing. Andy said it's time to venture out of our comfort zone and it's amazing. Mark has CRUSHED IT!"

EXODUS's upcoming LP will be the band's first since the departure of singer Steve "Zetro" Souza and the decision to bring Dukes back.

In a recent interview with Chicago's Rebel Radio 92.5 FM as part of the station's 31st-anniversary celebration, Dukes praised the material on EXODUS's upcoming effort, saying: "It's killer. It's the best thing I've ever done with EXODUS. I thought [2010's] 'Exhibit B: [The Human Condition]' was probably some of my best work, and I think this tops it. It's so different than what we've done. We've added so many little different things that it's still EXODUS, but we've definitely stepped outside the box a little bit and tried a few different things and it worked well… It's fast. it's dark, it's awesome, man. It's gonna be a lot of fun to go play these songs live."

Souza joined EXODUS in 1986 after previously fronting the band LEGACY (which later became TESTAMENT). He remained in the band until their hiatus in 1993, but rejoined them for two years from 2002 to 2004. Dukes had joined EXODUS in 2005 (following Souza's departure) and remained until 2014, when Souza rejoined.

Dukes previously 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's classic 1985 LP, "Bonded By Blood") and "Exhibit B: The Human Condition" (2010).

EXODUS played its first concert with Dukes in nearly 11 years on April 5 at the Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest: Philly at the Fillmore in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

This past June, Holt told longtime Serbian hard rock/heavy metal journalist Jadranka Janković Nešić that he and his EXODUS bandmates recorded 18 songs for their next studio album. He said: "It's [going to be released as] two totally separate records, but we kept writing and kept writing and we had so much material that we just [thought], let's work extra hard and so when it's time to start thinking about a [second] new album [after the first new one], we could relax a little bit. I wish we had 20 songs done [instead of 18], 'cause then we would have the next album done, and then I could go on vacation or something. I've never had one."

Holt went on to say that none of the songs EXODUS has recorded so far for the two upcoming albums are "fillers", or tracks that were included simply to add time. "They're all great," he claimed. "They're all amazing. There are 18 songs, and they're all totally awesome. It's hard to pick which ones [will end up on the first new album]. But we did it so we could work less later."

He continued: "We're getting older. I'm 61 years old. By the time we think about releasing the next album, that's gonna be three years [from now], so I'm gonna be that much older. And then I can go on vacation in between albums. Like I said, I've never gone on vacation. I've had vacations where I played guitar to be, but I've never gone on a vacation where I didn't have to play to be there.

"After the whole [second new] album [is done] and all, yeah, I'm gonna go [on vacation] somewhere," Holt added. "I don't know how not to work though. I'm a workaholic. My wife will have to tell me to shut the phone off. At home I relax, though. But at home where I live in the country, it's a lot of work living there in the woods. So, I'm working, but it's working on my house, and I like that. I live in the country, yeah. No city life for me anymore."

Regarding the musical direction of the new EXODUS material, Gary said: "It's 100 percent EXODUS and at times 100 percent different. There's some surprises on it. It's super heavy. There's some moments that are so fast. There's moments that are super slow. Just satanic, evil as fuck."

After Jadranka noted that EXODUS is a band that continues to release full-length albums and isn't putting out standalone singles like more artists are choosing to do nowadays, Holt said: "We write albums. We've never concerned ourselves with singles. That's why in the past some of our songs were 11 minutes long, 'cause we didn't care. A song's done when it's done. If it's three minutes, cool. If it's 11 minutes, that's cool too."

Holt also once again opened up about Souza's departure and Dukes's return. Regarding what happened to cause Zetro's exit from EXODUS, Gary said: "Well, I don't wanna go into any details 'cause there's no bad blood. It's just we're all getting older and we want to be happy. And he was not happy. He was very unhappy. He was awesome on stage and awesome in the studio and awesome to the fans and there's no problem with that. And I loved his performance and his voice is as great as ever. But it's the time when you're not on stage when it became to where it's bringing everybody's spirits down. And this is a hard job to do when you're our age. Every single time I go to the airport to go on tour, I'm sad, 'cause I'm leaving my grandchildren and my kids and my wife and my house, and it's hard. But once I get out here [on tour], I'm with my brothers and I have fun. And if that part isn't fun anymore, then none of it's fun. Maybe on stage — maybe. But we're happy now. Rob's here and all five of us hang out and spend a lot of time together and we have a good time."

When Jadranka said that Rob was "the logical choice" to step in as EXODUS's singer for the band's next phase, Holt concurred. "I'm set in my ways," he explained. "I don't like change. So changing singers was never in my future plans. I don't like change at all. I'm stuck in my ways. And the idea of finding a new person who you don't know and you don't know if your personalities work, that was never an option for me. I mean, I could find someone half my age who's got tons of energy and [is] awesome and has got visible abs muscles and jumps off the top of the drum riser, but I might not have anything in common with him… [Hiring] some kid that's the same age as my youngest daughter, it would be weird. I'd feel like a father telling him to clean up his room all the time. [Laughs]"

Although EXODUS rarely gets mentioned alongside the so-called "Big Four" of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — the aforementioned "Bonded By Blood" LP inspired the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and many others to launch their careers and is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time.

Image credit: Chris Kato