Heart of Steel: Concert
Reviews
Exodus - Tempo of the Damned
European tour 2004
Stengade 30, Copenhagen, Denmark
June 10th, 2004
Review and
pictures by Anders Sandvall
 Earlier
this year Exodus released one of the strongest comeback albums
in recent memory called TEMPO OF THE DAMNED. Live they are just
as strong with a brilliant lesson in how old school bay area
thrash should be played.
Their European tour started the 29th of May in Germany and
they had reached the halfway point of the tour when they landed
in Copenhagen Denmark. The day after they were scheduled to play
in Sweden at the Sweden Rock Festival and after that is the rest
of Scandinavia’s turn to host the thrash legends.
Stengade 30 is a very small club in the middle of Copenhagen
with a capacity of about 300 people. In other words, it can get
very sweaty and warm in there (which you can see on the
pictures) but it’s okay anyway because you can get pretty close
to the bands and that creates a very close and intimate feeling.
But this evening, there was about 100 people there ‘cause of
Sweden Rock Festival which had just started. The day before the
Exodus show, The Haunted and Entombed had a secret warm up gig
at Stengade 30 and then the crowd was much larger.
There were two support acts before Exodus entered the small
stage a little late because problems with the equipment. But
after that was fixed Gary, Steve, Rick, Tom and Jack delivered
1hr 35mins of pure old school bay area trash. Instead of doing a
greatest hits show they put the main focus on the excellent new
album but of course they did some older songs to the delight of
the fans. Some of the new songs they played include “BLACKLIST”,
“SHROUD OF URINE” and “WAR IS MY SHEPHERD”. “PIRANHA”, “TILL
DEATH DO US PART” and “BONDED BY BLOOD” were some of the older
songs. Altogether they did 15 songs and 7 of them were from the
new album.
 
Exodus ran through all the songs and didn’t do any encores
but I think that it was just as hot for them on stage as it was
for the crowd, it was like being in the Tropics!
They opened the show with the first song on TEMPO OF THE
DAMNED called “SCAR SPANGLED BANNER” and already at the
beginning it was only to surrender to the old heroes. They
totally crushed the headbanging audience, who had started a
little mosh pit at the center of the floor, with the opening
track. Even though the show started a bit late (25 min. to 1am!)
it was full speed ahead and the crowd helped out in the songs
with some heavy sing a long. The guys looked a bit worn out on
stage but that probably depends on the hard life they have
lived, despite that they seemed to really enjoy the show that
night.
Mr. Souza didn’t talk much between the songs - it was mostly
“Come on Copenhagen” and “I want to see the mosh pit move around
again”. He introduced all of the songs and he was polite enough
to thank the crowd after every track. He also invited us to sing
along in songs like “BONDED BY BLOOD” and “WAR IS MY SHEPHERD”.
He told us that the band hasn’t been in Copenhagen for about 12
to 15 years and that they really liked the city. Vocally he
sounds just like on the album.
Mr. Holt and Mr. Hunolt delivered some really strong guitar
playing with heavy riffs and stunning guitar solos and duels
between the both of them. Mr. Hunolt did some serious head
banging through the whole gig and because of the lack of space
on stage the guys mostly stood put on their side.
 
Mr. Gibson was the most laid back man that night and you
could hardly see Mr. Hunting behind all his drums. But he was
really fast and technical and he kept up the tempo through all
the songs...which is quite amazing when you think of the speed
of their songs.
I think the music sounded more melodic than it does on the
albums but they still did their famous old school bay area
thrash that they do so good. When they had finished their last
song on the set-list they did one more before they called it a
night. That song was the bonus track from “TEMPO OF THE DAMNED”
the old AC/DC cover “DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP” which Mr.
Souza made the somewhat tired crowd to introduce themselves. Mr.
Holt got some problems with his guitar so they did the first
verse with only one guitar, needless to say that he was very
angry at his guitar tech before he got the guitar to work again.
Exodus delivered a brilliant show this night and the set list
was magical. The sound left nothing to the imagination and the
band really seemed to have a great time on stage and meeting
their fans in Copenhagen.
A legendary band is back in a big way and I hope they
continue to deliver what they do best - old school bay area
thrash. I met the guys earlier during the day and they all were
very nice and they also went into the crowd and talked to
everyone. Everyone who wanted to talk to the band got a chance.
Setlist
Scar spangled banner
Deliver us to evil
Blacklist
Piranha
Till death do us part
Shroud of urine
Fabulous
And then there were none
Forward march
War is my shepherd
Bonded by blood
Tempo of the damned
Toxic
Strike
Dirty deeds done dirt cheap (cover)
Thanks to Jaap at the head office on Nuclear
Blast in Germany for help at the show. Also thanks to the local
security at Stengade 30 for the friendly treatment I received as
compared to the security at Pumpehuset.
More info about the band:
www.exodusattacks.com
Label:
www.nuclearblast.de
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