Pic courtesy of: Exodus "Our goal since we step in the studio is to achieve the best sound as possible; off course you work with what you have and with technology advancing it makes things a bit easier to achieve the results that you want. I’m not interested in recording an album that sounds like it was recorded back in 85"

CR: Hey Gary how are you man?
Gary Holt: I’m doing fine man!

CR: Let’s begin very simple, it just happened yesterday… how about that election (USA presidential election)?
Gary Holt: Dude I couldn’t be more excited, I’m fired up you know; I was a supporter and I just expend so much time following every detail of this election and now I can finally relax, so yes I’m excited.
Lots of people aren’t happy you know but I’m not one of them.

CR: Exodus has a very busy year just by looking at your calendar? Does touring and promoting a new record gets easier with time? I mean no disrespect but you are not 19 year olds anymore.
Gary Holt: (Laughs) yeah now when we tour we do more shows than when I was 25 years old you know. Want I don’t want is to sit around because then we might lose any momentum that we have; we just want to stay busy because the longer we stay sitting down the older we get, and right now all I want to do is play metal.

CR: You guys just release a re-release of Bonded By Blood, what made you do this?
Gary Holt: We just wanted to updated those songs to give them the benefit of a better sound and recording, and production as well, because that was one of the aspects that I tough the original was lacking of; the album is a classic we didn’t change the original but I wanted to hear this songs now how they sound now and how good these songs are how powerful they still are. Also to pay an homage to Paul to Rick to Robbie, all the guys who played in the original you know; non of us could have image what that album would become, we just taught we were playing a good album and not realize how much people are still talking about it.

CR: What version of Bonded by Blood would you recommend a newcomer to Exodus to purchase?
Gary Holt: The original, because that was one of the albums that start it all and old school fans love it, and if you liked that version then… because I have notice that on many kids these days, that despite them liking the album, they didn’t like the production value of it so much. But yes I will always recommend the original because that’s sort of our masterpiece you know.

CR: What’s the story with this label Zaentz Records that’s going to be your new label or just for this album?
Gary Holt: No we just sign with Nuclear Blast, and we’ll probably be there for the rest of our careers. The re-recording was a project that we were working on before the new deal with Nuclear Blast; so we put this album together with partnership with my former manager, basically is 7 people involved in this the band and two other guys who are starting their own label; but yes we wanted to keep this project very personal. And right now we are writing for our next album that will be with Nuclear Blast.

CR: Does this re-release mean the promotion for The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A is over, show wise that is; because checking your schedule it says that Exodus will be doing a show exclusively dedicated to play the Bounded album?
Gary Holt: There are going to be two shows like this actually; we just wanted to play the entire album and some other songs as well; we want to see how that goes and see if maybe we can do some more shows like that. Last year when we were in Argentina we played the entire Bonded by blood album, so we have done it before not very often thou.

CR: But then after those shows you will get back to play and promote “The Atrocity Exhibition”?
Gary Holt: Yeah for sure, we had the tour from April till May in the US and after that, we will just be at home writing the songs for the next record; and let me tell you the new songs are going to be insane, people have no idea what they are going to get.

CR: The album has received a very good welcome by the public, at least that’s how I see it; off course there was some criticism, like it always happens no matter how good a record is; have you ever felt comfortable reading or listening to critics on your work?
Gary Holt: I have a very thick skin you know, so if someone doesn’t like it, it doesn’t bother me, but at the end most people seem to like our stuff, if at the end everyone hated it then it would probably bother me. Critics are just someone pay to give an opinion, that doesn’t make them and authority on anything, it just means that they liked or not. With Exodus we have always done what we want to do, and you can´t really think about what other people wants you to do because if you do you are just going to lose. At the end then you will end up writing songs for somebody else and not yourself.

CR: Who would you prefer behind a screen criticizing your job; I mean if you could choose a musician or a kid who just likes to listen to a lot of metal?
Gary Holt: Probably a kid who likes a lot of metal, because they are the ones whose opinion I value more; it does feel good to have positive feedback from your peers, but musicians are the kind of people who think they can do a better job you know (laughs). We are always sort of thinking “I would have played that part differently”.

	Pic courtesy of: Exodus "When we did Tempo of the Damned, there was a bunch of people on our website that were really pist off about Shroud of Urine; and I found it kind of odd that people that were fans of the band were suddenly mad about an antichristian song, when Bonded by Blood was an album about violence and Satan and such"

CR: Do you guys have any figures on how many copies of “The Atrocity…” has Nuclear Blast sold at this point? Do labels normally provide bands with specific figures of their album sales?
Gary Holt: When it first comes out, we are always on top of things, to see how things are going but after a couple of months I don’t ask and I don’t care.

CR: Watching the video for Riot Act, I have to tell you… one of the coolest videos I have seen in a long time. Do you guys intend to keep doing this sort of productions, you know with lots of special effects and a sort of story behind it, instead of the regular performance videos?
Gary Holt: Well, performance videos are just the cheapest way of doing it; you just ask some people to come up with some cameras and you just jam and then put all the footage together on a video, but we were lucky enough to have Jon Schnepp one of the producers from Dethklok as well as having very good ties with Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha. Jon agreed to direct the video and he has all the technology available because he works on Dethklok and it turned out to be a really cool video I’m really happy with it.

CR: You guys did an episode of Dethklok right, as guest?
Gary Holt: Yeah, it was stupid fun. It was some of the most fun I have ever had, it was pretty goofy. They just gave us this little scrip and we don’t need much coaching when it comes to acting stupid you know (laughs).

CR: Do you have any favorite character on Metalocalypse?
Gary Holt: Yeah I have to say Dr. Rockso

CR: The Rock n Roll Clown! (Stupidly laughing)
Gary Holt: Yeah he rules!

CR: In a previous interview you speak about how you like the Exodus albums to have the best production as possible as the latest records show, What do you think of bands that search for the opposite, you know to strip their albums as much as possible production wise, something underground black metal bands tend to do a lot?
Gary Holt: It works for some bands, but for Exodus our goal since we step in the studio is to achieve the best sound as possible; off course you work with what you have and with technology advancing it makes things a bit easier to achieve the results that you want. I’m not interested in recording an album that sounds like it was recorded back in 85 you know.

CR: Would it be reasonable to divide Exodus history in two parts, you know the work prior to Tempo of the Damned and the work after it? And maybe if you will, what is the single most important aspect for you of those parts, what characterize the first segment of Exodus work and what is the main and most important aspect of Exodus music now?
Gary Holt: Yeah I think that’s fair; I sort of feel the same way writing songs now than I did before I just get different results, for example there are different periods of the band and hear different segments of those periods in the new songs. Part of it is the aggressiveness of the band were we just go for it and the next album is even more aggressive and that sort of surprises some people and blows them away you know; so yeah I think that’s fair.
Like you say for example that you discover Exodus with Tempo of the Damned, another aspect that people tend to overlook with Let there be Blood is that some of the younger audience may work backwards you know, that they might discover Bonded by Blood because of this re-release.

CR: You guys promised a long time ago that Exodus will never do a ballad, by far you have kept your word, is that principle still standing… to never do a ballad?
Gary Holt: Oh Yeah, I mean can you imagine Rob Dukes signing a ballad; I have nothing against clean guitars, but no we are never going to do a power ballad.

CR: Not even for a tribute album?
Gary Holt: I don’t know, I mean there are a lot of power ballads that I love, like I love the early Metallica ones, or go back to Scorpions; some of my favorite songs are ballads. But you know that’s just not for Exodus.

CR: Your bio on http://www.exodusattack.com/biography.php says “EXODUS gained huge notoriety in the international underground scene as a result of the tape trading community”; Don’t you find sort of ironic that some bands, very few but some metal bands that lived through that era and that benefited greatly from this activity (tape trading) are now criticizing the mp3 share movement? Is my comparison of the tape trading community to the mp3 download sharing community of today completely ridiculous?
Gary Holt: Maybe for young bands, you know that helps to get their music out to the listeners; but maybe it’s not the same because people back in the 80’s who were trading tapes still bought the albums and not only that because back then to trade an tape meant, to sit at home made a copy and then mailed it to let’s say Germany, you actually had to put some work into it you know; now days all you have to do is received an mp3 on your email and you can just press forward and send it to somebody else; you might not even like the song you just send it out anyway but if you were trading tapes you were a real fan, you were making those trips to the post office to share bands with other people who felt the same way about you. There was a lot more effort put into it back then.

CR: Do you think then that the scene today is lacking of some commitment towards the art of making this type of music?
Gary Holt: Maybe, since people don’t even need to leave their house to acquire music. In the old days people went to great lengths to get it, even to get a new album back in those days not every store had metal in stock so you have to go to that one store that only had heavy metal. There was more of a community.

		Pic courtesy of: mariegc.com "I sort of feel the same way writing songs now than I did before I just get different results, for example there are different periods of the band and hear different segments of those periods in the new songs. Part of it is the aggressiveness of the band were we just go for it and the next album is even more aggressive and that sort of surprises some people and blows them away"

CR: Do you think that the whole mp3 file sharing has affected the attendance level you know on live shows?
Gary Holt: Not really, it doesn’t affect as much live shows it affects record sales. The best albums are gonna bring in more people. Our tours have gotten better and better for the last few years here in America to the point that we are doing pretty well setting up live shows; I don’t know if that means that more people are downloading our stuff; We pretty much are about the shows and the merchandise on those; but you know the records are just to get the music to the people, because we don’t make shit of the records. Some people have actually told me “You re-recorded Bonded by Blood to cash in and make money”, and I just laugh, because we were not making any money when we were selling 250 thousand albums (laughs) why are we going to make money now when the album would probably just sell 15 to 20 thousand copies you know.

CR: Would you ever consider suing people for downloading your albums, something sort of what Metallica did?
Gary Holt: No, that’s just not worth it; you just try to make good enough albums so that when people download them they might like them enough as to go buy them, because when some downloads an album and it sucks they are definitely not going to buy it. So all you can do is keep trying to make good albums and remain consistent on this you know.

CR: Have you ever come to realize just how important Exodus is and was for the metal scene? I mean are you aware of the magnitude that the name Exodus brings when a magazine or promoter mentions you guys?
Gary Holt: In some ways for sure, especially when so many kids say complementary things about us, mainly when there are other bands saying this, that we are an influence. At the same time because of that I feel that Exodus has to be a band that works 10 times as hard as we can to deserve that recognition you know, but maybe that’s why we work so hard.

CR: Exodus has been through some really rough periods, the dead of Paul, Tom’s condition, the departure of Steve, drugs; but all and all, the band has always remain strong, I mean even with all those problems the music never suffered for it. As old problems fade into the past, what are the new challenges that you see Exodus facing right now?
Gary Holt: Right now everything is going great and that worries me (laughs); yeah everything is going great, everybody in the band is in the same page and having a great time, and very motivated, we just want to be consistent and put out the heaviest records that we can. As far as an older band goes I think we have set up a standard of good the records should be.

CR: What was the first thrash metal band that you ever heard, or that you at the time didn’t know how to label but that later was easy to recognize as “true thrash metal”?
Gary Holt: Well the first thing I ever heard playing anything that can be described as thrash was Exodus; I’m not saying we were the first, but after us and Metallica everybody else came later. We were sort of call in it thrash metal before everybody was calling it that way, you know in the early days it was called speed metal. I don’t know who invented the term thrash metal, but the very first time I heard the term was when we played together with Metallica, so it was cool to hear another band that had a similar style to us. It is not rocket science you know, we just took some Priest, Sabbath, Maiden, Scorpions and threw in some Motorhead and some hardcore punk and you have thrash metal.

CR: How important do you think hardcore punk was for the sound of thrash metal?
Gary Holt: It was for us; Exodus came out especially from the inspiration of one band Discharge we really, really love and still do love Discharge; we did listen to a lot of stuff like Exploited and many more, I mean we were always looking for ways to play faster and faster, like listening to Motorhead and things like that.

CR: In The Atrocity Exhibition the “Children Of A Worthless God” has a pretty direct criticism to Muslim rebels that use the Koran to commit hideous crimes against humanity, have you received any complaints about those lyrics? Has Exodus ever been involved in one of those public “lynching parties” because of your lyrics?
Gary Holt: Yeah sure, when we did Tempo of the Damned, there was a bunch of people on our website that were really pist off about Shroud of Urine; and I found it kind of odd that people that were fans of the band were suddenly mad about an antichristian song, when Bonded by Blood was an album about violence and Satan and such you know. Maybe there were sort of upset because the song was more real and the other ones were kind of fairy tale lyrics.
When we are talking about a song like Children Of A Worthless God, that song is a condemnation of radical Islam, and some people have ask if the song is racist you know; and I just did everything I could to elect an African American is not racist at all is an antireligious song. People don’t understand that nobody calls you a racist or an Islamophob when you talk shit about Christianity, but suddenly other religions are out of bounds.
Is not condemning the people or even the religion is condemning the radical fringe you know.

	Pic courtesy of: Exodus "Well the first thing I ever heard playing anything that can be described as thrash was Exodus; I’m not saying we were the first, but after us and Metallica everybody else came later"

CR: Do you believe that Muslims don’t like the USA because of your freedom or because of your international policies?
Gary Holt: International policies; because people view America as this imperialistic country. They didn’t have a problem with America when we overthrew Saddam but they wanted us out the next day we were finished; me I feel we shouldn’t have gone there at all; and it’s not because I have a liberal point of view is just that I don’t think we should be the police of anybody. Is not our problem you know…

CR: I agree, is that’s country’s problem and it should be handle either by the UN or some other international body…
Gary Holt: Exactly, and the US just lie to go there and I don’t want to sound like this bleeding heart liberal because the republicans now are saying that we needed to liberate them and spread democracy, and you can´t bring democracy to those who don’t want it. And it is proven for hundreds of years that you just can’t do it you know, if they are not ready for it then you just can’t give it to them.

CR: Yeah and not everybody believes in a democracy or a republic…
Gary Holt: And it is hard especially in a country where everybody is very very poor, despite having a lot of oil; so they look for something to believe in and I don’t think that’s in a democracy. I think they’ll believe in democracy once you give them all new cars and new homes you know.

CR: The album pretty much cuts both ways, because there is some critic of the US government sending your soldiers to Iraq just so some companies can get a hold of their oil; at the beginning of the war, to oppose it was very unpopular, but now pretty much every poll describes the war as unpopular. When did you guys or whoever wrote the lyrics express his discontent for the invasion of Iraq? And how much do you think this type of lyrics impact your fellow countrymen and women in Iraq?
Gary Holt: Well you know that a soldiers job is to go and get in a difficult situation, a job that many people don’t have the courage to do; I do have a lot of admiration for them; their job is not to question if the fight is the right one, is to do it and get it done as quick as they can and that’s all you can ask from those people over there. I do see it as an unnecessary loss of live you know.

CR: What’s the best ever thrash metal album?
Gary Holt: I won’t pick my own stuff so, because once I finish one I just don’t listen to it again so it will be a three way tie for me between, Master of Puppets, Reign of Blood and Among the Living. Peace sells too maybe, I do consider Megadeth more of a legendary band, more about superfast and technical you know

CR: What do our promoters here in Costa Rica or any other Central American country have to do to get you guys over here?
Gary Holt: A plane ticket a place to stay and some alcohol (laughs)

CR: Ok man thank you so much for the opportunity
Gary Holt: All right man have a good day!