Bay Area thrash legends Exodus have dropped the title track from their highly anticipated 12th studio album, Goliath, and it is very powerful. Slow, brutal and chaotically heavy. It’s kinda doomy, and we love it.
‘Goliath’ marks a bold departure for the band, simmering the tempo right down into territory they’ve never explored before. Winding, malevolent leads meet towering drums and ominous string work from violinist Katie Jacoby, who laid down 18 tracks of strings for the middle harmony section.
The band themselves put it plainly: “‘Goliath’ may quite possibly be the heaviest thing we have ever done, and certainly the slowest song in our catalog, as close to doom metal as Exodus get! Just pure evil, as sinister as it gets.”
Goliath drops March 20, 2026 via Napalm Records, and sees the return of Rob Dukes on lead vocals. This is the most collaborative Exodus record to date, with four songs written by guitarist Lee Altus, lyrics contributed by Gary Holt, Dukes, Altus and drummer Tom Hunting, and guest vocals from Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain) on ‘The Changing Me’. Mixed and mastered by Mark Lewis (Whitechapel, Nile, Undeath), the 10 track record sounds like a band who still refuse to settle for anything less than everything.
Across its runtime, Goliath delivers pit fuel like ‘Promise You This’ and the grimacing groove of ‘2 Minutes Hate’, while the nearly eight minute epic ‘Summon Of The God Unknown’ pushes the band into ambitious new territory. Closer ‘The Dirtiest Of The Dozen’ wraps things up in suitably manic fashion with duelling solos and an isolated bass excursion from Jack Gibson.
Oh, and the band have casually mentioned the follow up album is already 80 percent complete. Classic Exodus.
UK fans can catch them on tour with Kreator, Carcass and Nails from March 20, hitting London’s O2 Academy Brixton (March 27), Manchester’s O2 Apollo (March 28) and Glasgow’s O2 Academy (March 29). They’ll also tour the US with Sepultura from April 29, and have already been out with Megadeth and Anthrax across Canada.
