THE TOXIC WALTZ BY EXODUS

THE 80s WERE nearly over; Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth represented the cutting edge of the metal mainstream, and thrash – once a widely reviled, underdog genre – was reaching the pinnacle of its soaraway global success. A crucial presence at the birth of the movement in San Francisco’s Bay Area, Exodus had struggled with line-up changes and label hassles that had held back the baby-faced trailblazers from attaining the giddy heights of their Big 4 compadres. Their much-delayed debut, the legendary Bonded By Blood, had set the underground on fire in 1985, while ’87’s Pleasures Of The bedded in new singer Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza, but hadn’t grabbed the world’s attention as powerfully as Exodus deserved. Then, towards the end of 1988, a bunch of mega-bouncy riffs and a wacky spoof concept turned up that secured the quartet a breakthrough anthem that would remain a highly anticipated mainstay of their setlist forevermore.