EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt was interviewed by longtime Serbian hard rock/heavy metal journalist Jadranka Janković Nešić when the band played at SKCNS Fabrika in Novi Sad, Serbia on June 16 as part of the San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal pioneers’ spring/summer 2025 European tour. During the chat, which can be seen below, Holt confirmed that he and his EXODUS bandmates recently recorded 18 songs for follow-up to 2021’s “Persona Non Grata” album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It’s [going to be released as] two totally separate records, but we kept writing and kept writing and we had so much material that we just [thought], let’s work extra hard and so when it’s time to start thinking about a [second] new album [after the first new one], we could relax a little bit. I wish we had 20 songs done [instead of 18], ’cause then we would have the next album done, and then I could go on vacation or something. I’ve never had one.”Holt went on to say that none of the songs EXODUS has recorded so far for the two upcoming albums are “fillers”, or tracks that were included simply to add time. “They’re all great,” he claimed. “They’re all amazing. There are 18 songs, and they’re all totally awesome. It’s hard to pick which ones [will end up on the first new album]. But we did it so we could work less later.”He continued: “We’re getting older. I’m 61 years old. By the time we think about releasing the next album, that’s gonna be three years [from now], so I’m gonna be that much older. And then I can go on vacation in between albums. Like I said, I’ve never gone on vacation. I’ve had vacations where I played guitar to be, but I’ve never gone on a vacation where I didn’t have to play to be there.”After the whole [second new] album [is done] and all, yeah, I’m gonna go [on vacation] somewhere,” Holt added. “I don’t know how not to work though. I’m a workaholic. My wife will have to tell me to shut the phone off. At home I relax, though. But at home where I live in the country, it’s a lot of work living there in the woods. So, I’m working, but it’s working on my house, and I like that. I live in the country, yeah. No city life for me anymore.”Regarding the musical direction of the new EXODUS material, Gary said: “It’s 100 percent EXODUS and at times 100 percent different. There’s some surprises on it. It’s super heavy. There’s some moments that are so fast. There’s moments that are super slow. Just satanic, evil as fuck.”After Jadranka noted that EXODUS is a band that continues to release full-length albums and isn’t putting out standalone singles like more artists are choosing to do nowadays, Holt said: “We write albums. We’ve never concerned ourselves with singles. That’s why in the past some of our songs were 11 minutes long, ’cause we didn’t care. A song’s done when it’s done. If it’s three minutes, cool. If it’s 11 minutes, that’s cool too.”Holt also once again opened up about the recent departure of singer Steve “Zetro” Souza and the decision to bring Rob Dukes back. Regarding what happened to cause Zetro’s exit from EXODUS, Gary said: “Well, I don’t wanna go into any details ’cause there’s no bad blood. It’s just we’re all getting older and we want to be happy. And he was not happy. He was very unhappy. He was awesome on stage and awesome in the studio and awesome to the fans and there’s no problem with that. And I loved his performance and his voice is as great as ever. But it’s the time when you’re not on stage when it became to where it’s bringing everybody’s spirits down. And this is a hard job to do when you’re our age. Every single time I go to the airport to go on tour, I’m sad, ’cause I’m leaving my grandchildren and my kids and my wife and my house, and it’s hard. But once I get out here [on tour], I’m with my brothers and I have fun. And if that part isn’t fun anymore, then none of it’s fun. Maybe on stage — maybe. But we’re happy now. Rob’s here and all five of us hang out and spend a lot of time together and we have a good time.”When Jadranka said that Rob was “the logical choice” to step in as EXODUS’s singer for the band’s next phase, Holt concurred. “I’m set in my ways,” he explained. “I don’t like change. So changing singers was never in my future plans. I don’t like change at all. I’m stuck in my ways. And the idea of finding a new person who you don’t know and you don’t know if your personalities work, that was never an option for me. I mean, I could find someone half my age who’s got tons of energy and [is] awesome and has got visible abs muscles and jumps off the top of the drum riser, but I might not have anything in common with him… [Hiring] some kid that’s the same age as my youngest daughter, it would be weird. I’d feel like a father telling him to clean up his room all the time. [Laughs]”Souza joined EXODUS in 1986 after previously fronting the band LEGACY (which later became TESTAMENT). He remained in the band until their hiatus in 1993, but rejoined them for two years from 2002 to 2004. Dukes had joined EXODUS in 2005 (following Souza’s departure) and remained until 2014, when Souza rejoined.Dukes previously joined EXODUS in January 2005 and appeared on four of the band’s studio albums — “Shovel Headed Kill Machine” (2005),”The Atrocity Exhibition… Exhibit A” (2007),”Let There Be Blood” (2008, a re-recording of EXODUS’s classic 1985 LP, “Bonded By Blood”) and “Exhibit B: The Human Condition” (2010).EXODUS played its first concert with Dukes in nearly 11 years on April 5 at the Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest: Philly at the Fillmore in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.EXODUS’s next studio album — the band’s first for Napalm Records — is tentatively due around March 2026.As previously reported, Souza will celebrate the 20th anniversary of EXODUS’s 2004 album “Tempo Of The Damned” on a 10-date solo tour of Latin America in September 2025. The trek will kick off on September 4 in San José, Costa Rica and end on September 14 in São Paulo, Brazil. At all the shows, Souza will also perform classic songs from his other former bands TESTAMENT (Zetro was the lead vocalist for LEGACY, an early incarnation of TESTAMENT) and HATRIOT, as well as the Bon Scott era of AC/DC.On a recent episode of his Zetro’s Toxic Vault YouTube series, Souza stated about his latest departure from EXODUS in part: “My life has changed a lot. What I liked when I was younger in my twenties and my thirties are not necessarily what I’m into anymore.”I think I was kind of already done with the rigorous life of touring, ’cause it’s very demanding,” Souza admitted. “And the business doesn’t care about what you have going on. [I’ll] give you an example — in 2016, my mother died and I was in El Salvador on tour. I should have been at her bedside, but I wasn’t, because I had to do this. I’ve had dogs pass. I’ve missed graduations from my children. Any musician that has been in my position can absolutely relate with this, because it is part of it. And a lot of times people don’t necessarily think of that.”I think I’m more interested in what’s going on in my house and around what I’m doing here,” Zetro explained. “I like to see my dogs every day. I have three pugs that absolutely love. I have a grandson now. I never get to see them. I wanna see my wife every day. I wanna sleep in my bed every day. It’s been something that mentally has gone on and changed… I don’t wanna be doing this, and all of a sudden I end up getting sick or my wife end up getting sick and one of my children, and I have to come home and I’ve got six months to live, or they’ve got six months to live and I’ve missed all of this with them and I missed it all. I don’t want to do that anymore. I’ve missed too much over the years, and it’s just kind of where I’ve been mentally — especially the last few years I’ve been thinking about that.”[embedded content][embedded content][embedded content]