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Exodus > Another Lesson in Violence > Reviews
Exodus - Another Lesson in Violence

Live Albums to Die For (Part 1) - 100%

aidane154, August 16th, 2021
Written based on this version: 1997, CD, Century Media Records (Digipak)

Many know of Exodus for their classic 1985 thrash album Bonded By Blood. Before it was redone (poorly) in the studio with 2008's Let There Be Blood, Exodus reunited in the midst of their 90s hiatus and brought us this offering. This is a recording of an early show from their 1997 reunion tour, which they actually got vocalist Paul Baloff, the guy from Bonded By Blood, to come back for. Gary Holt plays guitar on here, along with Rick Hunolt, and of course drummer Tom Hunting is back. Soon to be longtime bassist Jack Gibson is new, taking Rob McKillop's spot in the lineup. The setlist consists of basically every Bonded By Blood song and 3 early versions of songs from Pleasures of the Flesh. That being said, this album is obscure enough that most Exodus fans will have probably heard the studio versions of these tracks before hearing this album. In some people's eyes, that is cause to question the existence of this album. Why redo tracks from a classic?

Well, even if you've heard those albums before, you haven't heard them like this. Thrash is a genre which generally benefits from being seen live, and this album is no exception. The songs are all great, with some being relentlessly heavy due to the live setting and production. All the songs on here benefit greatly from the chunky modern-style Exodus guitar tone which would appear on their studio albums from Tempo of the Damned onward. I'd say this album's versions of Piranha, Strike of the Beast, Pleasures of the Flesh, as well as the ripping rendition of Kirk Hammett's Impaler are especially enhanced. For a live album, it all sounds really good, it's honestly close to studio quality and would be mistaken as such if not for the occasional crowd yells and Baloff's endearing stage antics.

Baloff puts on a more lively performance than on Bonded By Blood, though his voice is quite different 12 years later. In my opinion, he's generally better here than on Bonded, despite how raspy his voice is. Anyway, he has such great moments, like the part right after Piranha, when he praises the crowd and starts talking about hunting down and murdering posers. A lot of his antics are hilarious and they really add to the feeling that you're there while you're listening, which is something that can't be said for many live albums.

I believe a lot of solos played on here are improvised, which is cool, but sometimes I find myself missing the solos I know and love from Bonded By Blood. Another of the only real complaints I have about this album is that the setlist doesn't contain the full Bonded By Blood tracklist. It's missing Metal Command. However, since that track isn't nearly the best song off their debut, I don't think it's so terrible that they didn't play it.

I can't stress this enough, if you like Exodus, you MUST listen to this. If you don't like Baloff's vocals on Bonded By Blood and wish you didn't have to listen to Let There Be Blood to sate your craving for these riffs, this is for you. If you love thrash and the energy of an 80s thrash show, you'll definitely like this. I personally go so far as to say they finally outdid their debut with this album. Mark this as one of the times that redoing an album worked.

This Lesson Hurts Incredibly - 100%

CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8, September 4th, 2007

Aaaaaaarghhhhhh!!!! This live album is fantastic!! This is the second live album Exodus recorded after the good “Good Friendly, Violent Fun” but this one is definitely their best. After “Force Of Habit” album they decided to stop for awhile and after 5 years they came back with this incredible power demonstration.
This live I think is the best one I’ve ever listened to. The production is simply great, even if we are in 1997 and still nowadays some live albums don’t sound so aggressive and powerful. This is perfection.

The band, with their classic line-up, plays like never before. They are incredibly fast, heavy as fuck and with a great production. Let me say that this one is not modified in a fucking studio; you can hear it…the guitars wall of sound is huge; the drumming is restless, always fast, extremely thrash.
To give you an idea of the sound, imagine the great production of “Force Of Habit” album in a live version.

This album contains all the classics by Exodus, the old ones. Already from the intro to the first song “Bonded By Blood”, you can understand this won’t be a normal, classic live album. The crowd is crazy and Paul Baloff is a great entertainer, talking to them and sometimes he is incredibly funny like in the introduction to “Piranha”…: “The next song is about fish…sh…and it ain’t about no gold fish…” and so on for other kinds of fish…amazing. His voice is raw, dirty, still childish…in a word, the perfect singer for Exodus. Sometimes like in “And There Was None” he also modifies some vocal parts, making them even more powerful and bad-ass.

It’s incredible how the songs sound so violent, but most of all, how they sound so similar to the albums. Seems like listening to a re-recorded version of their early works.
Here we only have songs from Bonded By Blood and Pleasure Of The Flesh albums, so their best efforts in my opinion.

Every song, as I said before is incredibly similar to the studio ones but if I had to choose some of them, I’d choose surely “Piranha”, “Deliver Us To Evil”, “Seeds Of Hate”, “A Lesson In Violence” and “Strike of The Beast”. I don’t want to say that the other ones are less good (how could I say a thing like that for an album like this??), I mean only that they are the true classics even if the other songs are just amazing!

A live album like this, made of passion, sweat (I can only image how much…) and fucking thrash, is unique and belongs to the history, men…no jokes. Fucking Exodus…What a live panzer…

A lesson in violence you won't soon forget... - 95%

Subterfuge, July 26th, 2006

This album was the product of Exodus' reunion in 1997 with 4/5ths of the line-up from their highly acclaimed debut, Bonded By Blood.

It was the first show of their American reunion tour, and has a fantastic sound. The sound courtesy of Andy Sneap is very heavy, and the mix is superbly done. That is one of the finest qualities of this album, with other live albums (especially more modern ones) I repeatedly find that the album sounds like it has been tampered with too much in the studio, and consequently lose that live feeling. Megadeth's Rude Awakening is a perfect example. This album definitely finds the right balance.

The setlist for this album is near perfect, with it consisting of the entire Bonded By Blood album, along with three tracks from Pleasures Of The Flesh and one of Exodus' demo-era tracks, Impaler.

The highlights are definitely Bonded By Blood, and the three tracks off Pleasures. Bonded's classic chorus comes off just as good live, and it's great hearing the three Pleasures... tracks with some decent fucking production.

The band's playing here is absolutely flawless, which is impressive considering the apparently rehearsed only twice. The guitar work, as one would expect from the H-Team, is fantastic, with the H-Team delivering their solos note-for-note. Jack Gibson's bass playing sticks faithfully to how Rob McKillop played these songs, which is following the guitars pretty much all the time. He does have a nice smooth bass tone though, which is particularly noticeable on Brain Dead and Pleasures Of The Flesh. Tom Hunting's drumming is also top-notch, and his drums sound fantastic. The kick drums sound thick and full, but still come through very clear, as does the snare. Sometimes I think Sneap's work in the studio annoys me, but this album sounds great.

Paul Baloff's performance is memorable, and his vocals are spot on and his comments in-between the songs are hilarious. Things such as "I'd like the thank Gary, Tom, Jack and Rick for letting me be so heavy" and "This one's older than shit and heavier than time; this one's called Impaler!" It sounds cheesy in words, but ireally gives the album an awesome touch. There is also a guest performance from Robb Flynn on A Lesson In Violence, which I guess is cool if you're a Machine Head fan. You can't actually hear another guitar in the mix, so for the rest of us it doesn't matter. I didn't actually know until I read about it.

The only complaint I can think of is that Metal Command was absent and the setlist doesn't cover any of Exodus' material after 1986, but I'm really nitpicking here, since Paul Baloff didn’t do vocals any Exodus material after Bonded By Blood.

And there we have it folks, what I consider the best live album behind Unleashed In The Fucking East.

(this was written in it's original form by me at http://www.sputnikmusic.com as Apocalyptic Raids)

Best Live Album Ever - 100%

Deadwired, July 26th, 2006

Ah, the flavors of cheese swirl about in my mouth like an orgy of cheese... women...

Yeah...

Whatever man, the title is the point. Spot on, Bay-Area Thrash titans Exodus have always held an embargo on the ass-kickery that is Thrash Metal. Sure, Destruction this, Sodom that, Kreator killed Jesus with a whiffle ball bat, but no other bands had as much raw energy and power as Exodus had. You can give me all that bullshit about evilness of Black Metal, and brutality of Death, but the fact of the matter is that during the older days of the reign of Thrash, Exodus ruled every ass and kicked every pregnant woman in the stomach world-over. "Another Lesson In Violence," which was the last Baloff-featured album ever, will forever live as the best live album for a number of reasons.

Number one, sound quality. Too often, bands like to think that they can space on live quality and pretty much deliver shitty sounding music. Along with Overkill, Exodus decided to do something better for the fans than just hand us a pile of under-produced trash and call it essential listening for any Exodus fan. No, the guitar his is thick and fucking crunchy, like Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch. The drum sound is pungent and potent, with the bass audible enough to provide a dynamic palette for the band to work off of.

Number two, Baloff, for all his odd vocal work, is absolutely amazing on this album. His gall bladder must be giving him hell with those bile-drenched vocal chords, and he sounds absolutely biting here, but in the same sense that Bon Scott sounded for AC/DC; very complementary to the music. It's also great to hear him adding a sense of humor to the already rocking music. Listen closely before the solo in the Thrash classic "Piranha," you can hear the band shout: "Everybody dies! REDRUM!" In the context of the song, it's enough time to die laughing before you get kicked the FUCK out by the steel-toed asskickery boots of THRASH.

"Give it up! This ain't no Arsenio Hall show, DESTROY SOMETHING! AND NOW YOU HAVE THE CHANCE!"

Classic.

Third, and lastly, H & H are at the peak of their performance here. If there's a mistake, it's turned into a psyke! Most of the time, they blaze through songs, upping the tempo on already maddening music. The leadwork is absolutely phenominal. Extended rhythm bridges for squealing and searing solos that could teach John Petrucci a thing or two about relevancy.

All in all, "Another Lesson in Violence" should be the standard of live recording, and it perfectly illustrates the ferocity of the mightiest Bay Area Thrashers, Exodus.

Bonded by Blood + Demo + Stupid Jokes = Good - 93%

music_shadowsfall, December 12th, 2004

The above equation pretty much summarises this album. This is Bonded by Blood without Metal Command live with some other Baloff era songs thrown in for good fun. And it completely kicks ass.

All those who enjoy raw production on thrash albums will most likely be dissapointed. As the previous reviewer said, the guitar sound is much more modern. Personally, I find that the Bonded by Blood songs work quite well with this new production, and are even better live, and thus I see no reason to bitch about it. Each band member does his job well, and there are no fuck ups to be found. Also present are Baloff's incredibly cheesy jokes and general awkwardness between songs. Lines such as: "All right, this one's about fish... It ain't about no goldfish.. And it ain't about no trout... Piranha!" actually are pretty funny, in a completely retarded way. In any case, its better than Matt Barlow bellowing out "Brothers and sisters!" for the 20th time.

Onto the songs. The definite highlight is Bonded by Blood, which is simply meant to be played live with that killer chorus. Piranha also rules quite a lot live, and Impaler and the Pleasures of the Flesh songs rule a lot more with Baloff than with Zetro, proving once again that Baloff was one of the greatest thrash vocalists ever. No Love is also played amazingly with its excellent ass solo. Everything is played well, and there are definitely no weak songs.

So, what we have here is another excellent live thrash album in the vein of Overkill's Wrecking Everything Live and Sodom's Live in Bangkok. Thrash doesn't get much better than early Exodus, so pick this up and bang your fucking head against the stage!

A fitting epitaph... - 90%

Vic, August 5th, 2002

The Exodus attack is back (or was, as it seems they broke up AGAIN...) with a 'reunion' live album. But don't let that scare you off. If you're one of the three people in the world who didn't hear about this, this isn't that 'Toxic Schmaltz' stuff - the reunion is of the only Exodus lineup that was worth a shit, the first one, which featured the unique vocal talents of Paul "Buddy Hackett" Baloff (well, they also couldn't dig up Rob McKillop, so they dragged in Gary Holt's Wardance bassist Jack Gibson, but believe me, it's a BIG improvement...). For the set list, they also focused exclusively on the songs from the Baloff-era of the band - everything from the first album except for Metal Command, three songs from the second album that Baloff did demos for before getting the boot, and the demo-era song Impaler (co-written and later ripped off by Kirk Faggett for the Metallica song "Trapped Under Ice").

However, a great set list doesn't automatically guarantee that the performance will be worth a shit, but the band did a fantastic job - the tempos were even faster than back in the day, the H-team nailed literally EVERY solo perfectly, and I dare say that Paul Baloff's vocals were even MORE OTT than they were fourteen years ago. Also present were Baloff's unique stage banter, full of threats to posers and bad jokes on the song titles. Also for another little bonus (if you give a shit about Machine Head, that is...), Robb Flynn takes over on guitar for the song "A Lesson In Violence". The only other thing that might turn off the classic fans is the sound - it's uncompromisingly 'modern' in sound, from the clean, slick obviously digital recording to the blatantly 90's solid-state guitar distortion, but for me the feel and attitude of the band keeps it firmly rooted back in 1985 (as does some of the stage banter - the band relentlessly heckles the idiots who shout out for Toxic Waltz - "this it a fuckin' history lesson, motherfucker!"). If you're the kind who laments the demise of vinyl you might want to try before you buy, but anyone with an interest in classic mid-80s thrash in general and Exodus in particular should end up liking this.

(Originally published at LARM (c) 1999)