Bonded By Baloff -- Oakland, CA -- February 4th, 2012

[anomynous]

Alright, something that's been bothering me (Disclaimer: I'm not a fan of Baloff's voice)


Why does everybody worship Baloff? He was with Exodus for one album, their first. (Not counting that live album that came out later) In my opinion, Zetro is Exodus, and like Dukes' voice better than Baloff's. Nobody seems to worship Neil Turbin and put him on a pedestal. Is it because Paul died?

[Natrlhi]

Um, maybe it's because Paul's vocals were the best Exodus ever had, and he was the vocalist on the best album they ever made?

Just spitballin' here.

[anomynous]

Yep, that's the answer I was expecting to get.



I find Baloff's vocals to be kinda lazy, I just don't get the worship. On the song Bonded By Blood, he's practically talking the song, not singing.


I get it's because he's on Exodus's best album, but if he was on any other album, nobody would even talk about him.

[Nater]

I always felt that was the charm of him. He wasn't doing what some of the other thrash bands around that time were doing in terms of vocals. He had this raw almost punk kinda voice that was a ton of fun to listen to.

[anomynous]

His vocals are different, but I just don't get them I guess.

[jhdeity]

Awesome review man. Seriously if someone stumbled upon this site today and that was the 1st thing they read on here they would be like HOLY FUCKSNOT!

I'm going to go listen to some Exodus now...

[Natrlhi]

Originally Posted by jhdeity

Awesome review man. Seriously if someone stumbled upon this site today and that was the 1st thing they read on here they would be like HOLY FUCKSNOT!

Yeah, and then they would read the "Girl Troubles" posts, political rants, conspiracy theories, pictures of lasagna and links to stupid YouBoob videos and realize that no, it's just another fucked up site on the interwebs.

Just kidding. I love this forum.

Oh, and like jhdiety said, kudos to the OP for an excellent review.

[Natrlhi]

Originally Posted by Nater

I always felt that was the charm of him. He wasn't doing what some of the other thrash bands around that time were doing in terms of vocals. He had this raw almost punk kinda voice that was a ton of fun to listen to.

This.

At the time I first heard this album, I wasn't looking for vocal quality, or anything else. I just liked what I heard. Anon is correct in that a lot of the time he's just shouting, but that's fine with me. I never asked for clean singing. I didn't want Halford-esque range. I liked the fact that his voice sounded like gravel rattling in a blender - it was a perfect complement to the gritty quality of the music they were making at the time.

It sounds harsh to put it this way, but sadly for me, Exodus has been on a slow decline since day (album) one. Regardless of the technical prowess they may have developed over the years, there will simply never be another "Bonded by Blood", and of course there will never be another Paul Baloff.

[Seventhzealot]

Originally Posted by anomynous

Alright, something that's been bothering me (Disclaimer: I'm not a fan of Baloff's voice)


Why does everybody worship Baloff? He was with Exodus for one album, their first. (Not counting that live album that came out later) In my opinion, Zetro is Exodus, and like Dukes' voice better than Baloff's. Nobody seems to worship Neil Turbin and put him on a pedestal. Is it because Paul died?

Having watched a few thrash documentaries in my day and listening to people speak about him, it seems it was more due to the aura he had around him. He was in the forefront of that whole "Kill the posers" movement which really endeared him to the thrash disciples.

Besides he was a fantastic presence on stage despite maybe not being as good a singer as his contemporaries but an Exodus live show back in the day was considered the shit and a substantial part of that was down to Baloff's exuberance.

[Wizard in Black 666]

Originally Posted by Onioner

Possessed were the surprise of the night for me. Say what you will about the present lineup, but they just DESTROYED Oakland a few hours ago. Every single song had an active pit going for it, and all the instruments sounded heavy as hell. Jeff was rocking out in his wheelchair, and his vocals sounded even more evil live than on the original albums. They tried to do an encore, buf Jeff was taking so long to wheel off the stage after the lights went down that they just wheeled him back to center stage right away! If you get the opportunity, the present version of Possessed is not to be missed.

Seeing them next friday

oh, and awesome review by the way