EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt has opened up about the band's twelfth studio album "Goliath", released March 20 via Napalm Records — and about the extraordinary creative surge that generated enough material for two complete albums simultaneously.
Speaking with Rebel Radio in Chicago, Holt explained the album's title: "The song 'Goliath' just screams enormity to all of us. We've never had a single-word title, and the album is pretty enormous as it is." Goliath also marks the first EXODUS record to feature the return of vocalist Rob Dukes, who rejoined the band in 2025 after nearly eleven years away.
Holt praised Dukes' expanded range: "We knew Rob could do ultra-aggressive, violent thrash better than anybody. But on this album he showed all this additional range he had developed, and so you do start running with it." Songwriting was a genuinely collective process — Holt, guitarist Lee Altus, Dukes, drummer Tom Hunting, and bassist Jack Gibson all contributed to both lyrics and arrangements.
The creative energy was so powerful that the band ended up recording 18 songs and had to pare them down to 10 for Goliath. The remaining eight are already recorded and mixed for the follow-up album. "We don't know what tomorrow brings," Holt admitted bluntly. "I just turned 62. If something happens to me, it'd be nice to have these last remaining works available for my children." The next album is fully complete, meaning EXODUS can skip the studio entirely after the current touring cycle ends.
Notably, Goliath is the first EXODUS album mixed without Andy Sneap in nearly three decades. EXODUS filmed three music videos for the record in December 2025, including "3111", directed by Jim Louvau.