Quite possibly the most astonishing highlight of this year’s resurgence in American thrash is the heralded return of California’s Exodus, the band largely responsible for how evil and fast metal became following their inception. While Metallica’s penchant for unbridled speed faded away after Kill ‘Em All only to return briefly on …And Justice For All, Exodus proudly embraced their need for speed spanning their entire career to teach lesson after lesson of pit violence and head-banging mayhem. For it was only due to the release of their debut Bonded By Blood in 1984 that Slayer hastily dropped their makeup and Priest/Maiden worshipping sound in favor of a faster, more lethal one. The three main issues that prevented Exodus from escalating to the echelons of success and status of Slayer and their other Bay Area comrades were an unstable vocalist situation, a record label not half as potent as Rick Rubin’s Def American, and the overuse of drugs which impeded their work ethic but rarely their creativity, as their five full length albums from their golden era will attest to.