Bay Area thrash legends Exodus return with their brand new gargantuan record, Goliath. This record marks the triumphant return of vocalist Rob Dukes and his gritty, aggressive barks that accompany razor sharp riffs and breakneck drumming.
The record opens with single ‘3111’, which is a solid enough opener but a bit of a lacklustre choice for a single. It doesn’t take long for the record to properly pick up the pace with ‘Hostis Humanis Generis’ and its classic iconic tremolo picked zeroes before ripping through some stellar guitar work from the legendary guitar duo of Gary Holt and Lee Altus.
While the album doesn’t have that same gigantic progressive grandeur of The Atrocity Exhibition or even Persona Non Grata, it still has some bold and ambitious songwriting in the form of ‘Beyond the Event Horizon’ and the gigantic ‘Summon of the God Unknown’. There’s no shortage of weird tongue twister riffs like on the abrasive ‘The Changing Me’, which channels some Kreator energy, or ‘The Dirtiest of the Dozen’, which pushes down on the accelerator as far as it will go.
There’s an emphasis on groove as opposed to outright hostility, although Goliath still has hostility in spades. Drummer Tom Hunting shows that he’s more than just the fastest battering ram out there as there are some throwbacks to Force of Habit, albeit with more refined songwriting and less of that 90s poison that infected most thrash bands back then. Tracks like ‘2 Minute Hate’ and ‘Violence Works’ have an almost AC/DC style swing to them but with that classic Exodus twist and snarl. Consider these tracks spiritual successors to Force of Habit but good this time.
The title track, ‘Goliath’, manages to capture the energy of a colossal eldritch titan with crushing guitar riffs and thunderous bass work, but it does feel like there’s something missing from it. If this track had appeared on The Atrocity Exhibition, it likely would have been an eight minute long affair complete with grand storytelling and winding riffs that built and built until a glorious crescendo of insanity took place, instead of just six minutes of “look at the size of this absolute unit”. It’s still a solid track and will probably be amazing live but it’s certainly a weak point of the record.
Goliath has its flaws but it still boasts all the power and blinding aggression you’d expect from an Exodus record, and if you’re looking for a legacy thrash album in 2026, you can certainly do worse.
Goliath is available now via Napalm Records.
