The Classic Metal Album Reviews:
Title: Bonded by Blood
Artist: Exodus
Label: Combat
Release Date: 1985

Rating: 5 Skulls
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    • Submitted by Famine:
    No self-respecting thrash fiend should be without Exodus' Bonded by Blood. A debut of epic proportions, Bonded by Blood not only helped spawn the legendary Bay Area thrash scene, but influenced all extreme metal genres from that point forward.

    Exodus were among the earliest thrashers alongside Metallica, Slayer and Possessed. The album was recorded in 1984 and released in 1985 on the now defunct Combat label. Bonded by Blood is chock full of mosh riffs, soaring leads and creative drum fills. The guitar team of Rick Hunolt and Gary Holt (the H Team) was unmatched at the time and the work presented on this album still holds its own today. Lyrically, Bonded by Blood explores dark topics like Satan, gore and violence. At the time this was evil music for the hungry metal underground. It was true metal for true metalheads and represented a knife to the throat of the poser metal that was taking control of the airwaves.

    One of my favorite aspects of 80's thrash was the wide variety of vocal styles. From Metallica to Overkill and Slayer to Vio-Lence, each band had a unique voice. Bonded by Blood-era Exodus is no exception. The shrieking vokills of crazy frontman Paul Baloff are not to be missed. There is no beauty and there is no love, just violence and insanity. Listen closely and you will even hear the now familiar death metal growl creeping in on occasion to add a bit of color.

    Sadly, Exodus and Paul Baloff parted ways after this album. The band picked up vocalist Steve Souza formerly of Testament and marched onward. Subsequent albums were well received (check out Pleasures Of The Flesh), but they never recaptured the controlled chaos of the debut. The band deteriorated as thrash metal fell out of favor, and eventually called it quits.

    Then around 1997 a crazy thing happened. The band decided to get back together for another run with Baloff on vocals. A killer live album was released made up mostly of stuff from Bonded by Blood and the band toured the world. So if you can't get enough of Baloff-era Exodus, check out Another Lesson In Violence.

    In short, Bonded by Blood gets five skulls, each smashed by a crushing blow to the head.
    5 out of 5

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