Hachette Books has launched the quilt art work for EXODUS and SLAYER guitarist Gary Holt‘s upcoming memoir, “A Fabulous Catastrophe: From The Storage To Madison Sq. Backyard, The Laborious Approach”, which is tentatively due on April 8, 2025. Test it out under.
Within the guide, which includes a foreword by former EXODUS an present METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett, Holt presents an entertaining, private memoir detailing his “destruction-laden” life and the origins of the thrash metallic scene from the San Francisco Bay Space to its world dominance.
Since exploding out of the Bay Space heavy metallic scene within the Eighties, thrash metallic has made its option to each nook of the globe, conquering worldwide charts 12 months after 12 months. Because the guitarist and first songwriter of EXODUS, and an originator of the subgenre and one in every of its fiercest proponents, Gary Holt watched as his friends — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER, ANTHRAX — soared to superstardom. As his fellow artists amassed tens of millions of followers and report gross sales, EXODUS‘s albums obtained vital recognition and impressed generations of listeners however struggled to achieve the identical heights of success, because the band was tormented by years of dangerous administration, dangerous luck, and dangerous decision-making.
In “A Fabulous Catastrophe”, written in collaboration with Adem Tepedelen, Holt shares a deeply private account of what it was wish to “reside quick, play quick, and crash onerous” as thrash metallic dominated the globe. Readers witness his highest of highs and lowest of lows as Holt and his bandmates juggle main label contracts, MTV-sponsored excursions and festivals, rising addictions to alcohol and meth, and the departures of authentic members. Within the throes of habit, Holt‘s personal fall from grace is swift: one 12 months he is enjoying on the MTV “Headbanger’s Ball Tour” with ANTHRAX and HELLOWEEN, and the subsequent he is struggling to seek out minimal wage jobs as he battles medicine, divorce, and the upcoming collapse of his music profession. Finally, after the tragic dying of one in every of his closest mates and former bandmates — Holt realizes the one one who can save him is himself.
An “unadulterated odyssey by way of a long time of madness,” punctuated by Holt‘s distinctive perception and knack for storytelling, “A Fabulous Catastrophe” is a thrill journey from begin to end. His story proves that redemption — even from the pits of rock ‘n’ roll extra — is all the time doable.
Tepedelen is an award-winning journalist protecting metallic for over thirty years for Decibel, Revolver, RollingStone.com, and plenty of others. He is written and co-written quite a few books, together with “The Brewtal Fact to Excessive Beers” and “Mud Journey: A Messy Journey By the Grunge Explosion” (with MUDHONEY guitarist Steve Turner).
In a current interview with Mike Palm of TribLIVE, Holt mentioned about his memoir: “I had thought of doing a guide for a very long time. Simply my profession arc could be very completely different. Most of your rock books contain beginning out, mass success, big drug use and alcoholism and a spiral down, then redemption. Mine’s completely different. I had average success, utterly out of music, full drug addict, after which the redemption. It is actually near the completed levels now. I learn the newest model of it. It made me cry a few occasions. It made me cringe a bunch of occasions as a result of there’s some actually cringy [expletive] occurring. And it made me chuckle. It is chuckle, cry, on the sting of your seat, like every good film. That is all you could possibly ask for.”
Requested if there have been any tales that he unnoticed of the guide, Holt mentioned: “I unnoticed something that might be horrible to lots of people I do know, as a result of if I turned it right into a tell-all, I do know the place all of the our bodies are buried in thrash metallic. I might expose all the pieces. However nobody would inform me all that stuff anymore, as a result of Gary‘s a blabbermouth and he simply shared it with the world. I peel the layers again on myself closely, similar to I all the time have. However I am defending the harmless to a big diploma. I am not going into element about different folks’s stuff. That is for their very own books. And that is their very own determination, whether or not they need to share a few of that stuff. And anytime it did contain bandmates, I ran it previous them. Some stuff just isn’t a secret, the drug use and all that. … I left tons of stuff out, stuff that might have made probably the most riveting chapters on Earth, however it might’ve been damaging to folks I care about. And I do not thoughts damaging myself, as a result of it is my story.”
When Holt first shared the information of his upcoming memoir on social media in March 2023, he wrote: “Tremendous stoked!!! The announcement in guide circles has gone out right this moment, so I am sharing it in MY circle! The guide about my life is underneath method, from the beginnings of EXODUS and thrash metallic, to the drug fueled fall, to the surprising and tragic circumstances that led me to @slayerbandofficial to the bounce again to Madison Sq. Backyard with and @exodusbandofficial charting at quantity 20 on the MAIN Billboard charts, all can be instructed! No holds barred, all of the lows and highs can be retold! Been a challenge very near me, and I am stoked to be working with @ademtepedelen_ @lauramazer @bschafer714 @hachettebooks and @wendysherman to make this a actuality!”
Holt joined EXODUS in 1981, shortly after the band’s formation, and has been the group’s most important songwriter ever since. Holt has carried out on each EXODUS album, and is taken into account extremely influential on the earth of thrash metallic.
Holt started filling in for SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman at reside reveals in 2011, and have become the band’s full-time co-guitarist as of 2013, whereas remaining a member of EXODUS. Holt performed on SLAYER‘s ultimate album, “Repentless”, which got here out in 2015.
In a June 2012 interview with Full Steel Jackie‘s nationally syndicated radio present, SLAYER‘s Kerry King said about Holt: “I all the time regard Gary because the Glenn Tipton of our period — actually good, actually polished and no one talks about him. To this present day, no one actually references [JUDAS] PRIEST and Tipton that a lot as guitar gamers and I really feel the identical method about Gary. EXODUS have an enormous following however just a little extra neglected than METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER, ANTHRAX — the ‘Huge 4,’ so to talk, so [it is great] to have the ability to carry him to the forefront and shove him down folks’s throats and say, ‘Hey, this motherfucker kicks ass. Concentrate.'”
EXODUS‘s newest album, “Persona Non Grata”, got here out in November 2021 through Nuclear Blast Data. The LP was recorded at a studio in Lake Almanor, California and was engineered by Steve Lagudi and EXODUS. It was produced by EXODUS and was blended by Andy Sneap. For the third time within the band’s historical past, they returned to Swedish artist Pär Olofsson to create the album art work.
“Persona Non Grata” was the follow-up to 2014’s “Blood In Blood Out”, which was the San Francisco Bay Space thrashers’ first launch for the reason that departure of the group’s lead singer of 9 years, Rob Dukes, and the return of Steve “Zetro” Souza, who beforehand fronted EXODUS from 1986 to 1993 and from 2002 to 2004.
Kirk Hammett picture credit score: Ross Halfin
