EXODUS

With the crushing new Persona Non Grata, Gary Holt proves there's life after Slayer

- Jon Wiederhorn

IT'S PERSONAL

"I was so stoked to be doing another Exodus record," Gary Holt says of Persona Non-Grata. "I had no intention of doing anything that wasn't 100 percent killer"

KEY TRACK

"Prescribing Horror'... wound up being dark and super-scary, which we really liked"

DURING THE LAST part of Gary Holt's tenure as Slayer's second guitarist, he sometimes felt like he was neglecting his main band, Exodus. As honored as he was to be in Slayer, a group he had loved since their first album, 1983's Show No Mercy, he wished he had more time to spend with Exodus, the group he had played with since high school and for which he assumed the primary songwriter role after Kirk Hammett left in 1983 to join Metallica.

While Holt wrote and played on all of Exodus' 2014 studio album Blood In, Blood Out, he couldn't completely dedicate himself to the group. He missed shows that coincided with Slayer gigs (Heathen's Kragen Lum filled in on those tours). And, if Holt hadn't been in Slayer for nearly nine years, Exodus likely would have released another album between Blood In, Blood Out and their new release, Persona Non-Grata. There's no question that Holt was a major asset to Slayer when they needed someone to fill in for the late Jeff Hanneman. But some fans and former members of Exodus argue that his years with Slayer jeopardized his main band.