Rob Dukes Exodus is my favourite Exodus. Hell, I'm even one of the few people who actually likes his re-recorded version of Bonded by Blood (1985). The last couple of Steve Souza-fronted records also haven't done a whole lot for me. So, I was very excited when the Bay Area legends suddenly gave ol' "Zetro" the boot last year, before unexpectedly welcoming Dukes back to the fold. It is with a heavy heart then, that I have to report that Goliath is the weakest Exodus album since he first joined the band over two decades ago.
Dukes does his part just fine, with his distinctively gruff and maniacal delivery adding a layer of menace and malevolence to proceedings that was sorely missing from the intermittent Sousa-fronted outings. The songs themselves though come across completely uninspired and entirely unmemorable. There isn't anything here that even comes close to replicating anthemic choruses of more memorable modern Exodus outings like "Downfall", "Children of a Worthless God" or "Black List", or even the snarling catch-cries of songs like "Raze" and "Deathamphetamine". Far more concerning though, is that all of the riffs fall extremely flat, and—without a more exciting foundation to play off of—so, ultimately, does Dukes' performance.
Gary Holt is one of the most lethal riff writers metal has ever produced, and dare I say he has done most of his best work alongside Lee Altus, who joined Exodus alongside Dukes in 2005. However, there isn't anything here though that's worth of his or even their legacy. None of it is particularly terrible. "The Changing Me" is fine, if extremely stock. "Violence Works" and "The Dirtiest of the Dozen" have cool jam sections that still never really seem to take off, and "Summon Of The God Unknown" has a decent solo section that recalls the more elaborate and (relatively) progressive structures shown on Exhibit A (2007). To get to these "highlights" though, you have to wade through at least half a record of the most mid-sounding thrash you've ever heard. Again, it's not awful, the way some of Exodus's '90s output was, just infinitely forgettable
A recurring issue with Goliath is that the band regularly ride their riffs for far too long. As I said above, I'm a big fan of first-Dukes-era Exodus, and I generally prefer my thrash on the groovier side of things, but I also recognise that the genre is built upon an inherent momentum. When Exodus slip into a groove on Goliath, it's like the whole album comes to a standstill. The main offenders are the end of "3111"m which goes absolutely nowhere, and the title-track whose, slow, sludgy riff proves excitingly unexpected for all of five-seconds or so, before it becomes clear that the band have no idea what to do with it for the following five minutes. A more successful example is the mid section o f"Beyond The Event Horizon", which interjects little technical flurries and variations to keep things fresh, and is probably the best song on the album for it, but it still pales in comparison to what Exodus were doing on the Atrocity Exhibition albums (2007–10) and the couple of albums before them.
Goliath's "big purple monster" cover art is also gaudy as hell, and, if no AI was involved in its creation—as Gary Holt claims—then I would love to know what’s going on with all the windows and the people’s heads on the left. Either way, it was definitely used to bring its hideous monstrosity to "life" in the accompanying video, which unfortunately only adds to the disappointing number of revered, old-school thrash bands, who made much of their name preaching about authenticity, embracing this souless, plagiaristic technology. It's not as bad as Testament using AI while directly decrying its use, or Nervosa busting it out for a song and album called "Slave Machine", but it still sucks and also looks like complete shit. I'd also love to hear what Exodus and all these other bands have to say about AI-generated music... Fucking posers.