Kev Rowland
The full title of this album is ‘British Disaster! The Battle of ’89 Live At The Astoria’, from which one might guess this is a live recording from 35 years ago when the band were promoting their third album, ‘Fabulous Disaster’. They may have lost Kirk Hammett to Metallica before their debut album, but they never let that small matter get in the way of them making huge waves in the thrash scene and by the time of this recording they had already been playing for a decade, and it shows. This is hungry, angry and in your face, showing exactly why thrash made such a huge impact when it hit.
Back then the line-up was Steve Souza (vocals), Gary Holt (guitars), founder Tom Hunting (drums), Rick Hunolt (guitars), and Rob McKillop (bass), and it really says something about the band that the first three can still be found in the current version of the band. They have obviously given the title they have as it was recorded in London on March 8th, 1989, and they were touring ‘Fabulous Disaster’, but this is certainly not what one might think given the title as this is a triumph from beginning to end. Here we have a thrash band who have often been touted as one of the ‘Big 5’ alongside Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax and there is a strong argument for them to be included as such given the impact and importance of what they were doing in the Eighties (and given that Metallica have done nothing of note since ‘And Justice For All’ I would personally happily kick them out altogether). Here we have a band who are out to attack the UK on the last night of their headlining tour (supported by Acid Reign), before heading back to the USA to open for Anthrax, and the 20+ gigs in just over a month had the band incredibly honed and battle ready.
Thrash rarely gets better than this, and one can only wonder as to why it has taken so long for the tapes to be released, but at long last we have them. If you ever wondered what Exodus sounded like in their heyday and why they are still deemed to be so important then put this on and crank it up, LOUD!