Exodus – Goliath: What Happens When Everyone Gets a Say?

Released: March 20, 2026

Exodus have changed singers often enough that Rob Dukes’ return could easily have become the entire story. Goliath raises a more compelling question: what happens when a band long driven by Gary Holt’s riff writing lets the rest of the lineup leave a larger mark? Dukes is back for his first Exodus studio album since 2010’s Exhibit B: The Human Condition, Lee Altus wrote four of these ten songs, and the lyrics came from Holt, Dukes, Altus, and Tom Hunting. You can hear that broader input in the music.

“3111” opens with dissonant, Sabbath-sized chords before Hunting snaps the song into fast thrash. The unease of that introduction stays inside the quick riffing, especially when Holt and Altus split into sharp, separate leads. Jack Gibson follows the stop-start guitars closely, thickening each pause and restart. “Hostis Humani Generis” tightens the pace further, with Dukes delivering the Latin phrase like the final line of a sermon gone rotten.

Altus’s writing brings a stronger melodic pull. “The Changing Me,” written with Dukes, begins with chiming guitar and grows around a chorus that combines Peter Tägtgren’s clean voice, Hunting’s singing, and Dukes’ rasp. Tägtgren and Dukes eventually turn the ending into a scream-off. The lyric deals with dementia, so the changing voices suit a song about someone losing their sense of identity. Dukes has often been treated as Exodus’s blunt-force singer, yet here he phrases a melody, holds back, and then tears through the final section.

The band keeps finding new ways to bend its usual approach. “Promise You This” runs Southern-rock swing through a punk pulse while Dukes puts a rough drawl into the chorus. “Violence Works” begins with a brief funk-and-disco groove before the main guitar figure drops. Hunting makes that opening bounce, then locks into the harder riff, as if both sections always belonged together. These moments work because Gibson and Hunting keep the rhythmic changes direct and easy to follow.

The title track reaches furthest outside the expected frame. Holt wrote its opening and verse riffs, along with the bass line, in 1999 but could not finish the song for decades. Slow bends and murky chord movement leave space for Katie Jacoby’s mournful strings, while Altus places a clean EBow line underneath. When the guitars accelerate beneath the strings, the sadness remains. The arrangement grows from the mood of the original riff instead of treating the violin as a decorative guest spot.

Several lyrics also benefit from having more writers involved. “3111” takes its name from the reported 3,111 murders in Ciudad Juárez during 2010 and addresses the narco wars in blunt, ugly terms. The nearly eight-minute “Summon of the God Unknown” examines missionary John Allen Chau’s fatal attempt to contact North Sentinel Island. Its slower entrance and extended guitar sections fit a story about obsession pushing past every warning. “The Dirtiest of the Dozen,” written from the band’s own history, begins with rowdy gang vocals before ending on a more sombre note.

Mark Lewis’s mix keeps the two guitars distinct while leaving room for Hunting’s cymbals and Gibson’s bass. Dukes stays clear at the centre, whether he is barking verses, adding melody, or trading screams with Tägtgren. At 54 minutes, a few sections continue after their central riff has made its point. Still, the different tempos, vocal approaches, and guitar textures keep the album from settling into one long thrash pattern.

So what happens when Exodus gives the whole lineup more room to write? They produce songs that can move from a disco pulse to a decades-old doom riff, stacked clean vocals and mournful strings while remaining recognizably Exodus. Dukes’ return becomes part of that expansion, not a trip back to his previous era. Goliath answers its central question clearly: wider collaboration gives this particular lineup a sound and character of its own.

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