Vocalist Rob Dukes Makes His Exodus from Exodus; Steve “Zetro” Souza Returns

Bittersweet news: Rob Dukes, who has been killing it with Exodus for nearly ten years, has been let go from the band. But his replacement is an old friend that longtime fans will surely welcome with open arms. Says the band:

“As a band, we all had to make a very difficult choice to part ways with Rob Dukes. We have nothing but love and admiration for him and the deepest gratitude for the hard work he has put in and the great work on some killer records. But at this time, Tom, Lee, Jack and myself thought a change was necessary and the unanimous choice going forward was to welcome back Steve Souza to the fold!”

Like I said, bittersweet news. Souza is probably the guy most people consider the definitive vocalist for Exodus — even more so than the late Paul Baloff, who sang on their seminal release, Bonded by Blood — because he appeared on the majority of the band’s studio recordings, and because “Toxic Waltz” was a staple of Headbanger’s Ball back in the days when that meant something. But like I said, Dukes has been doing a tremendous job since joining the band for 2005’s Shovel Headed Kill Machine. Sometimes when bands reunite with an old member, they stop playing all the material they recorded in that dude’s absence. I really, really hope that doesn’t turn out to be the case here. Some of the Dukes-era material is too good to be discarded forever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOynq_n_IXI

[via Metal Underground]