EXODUS: Rare Poser-Crushing 'Slay Team' Thrash Metal Comic From 1985 Resurfaces

February 1, 2013

"Murder In The Front Row: Shots From The Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter" co-author Brian Lew has posted a rare 1985 EXODUS "Slay Team" comic book to the Bazillion Points Blog. Created by Lizzy Green, a member of EXODUS' inner circle during the pioneering "Bonded By Blood" days, this lengthy black-and-white saga portrays members of the band as they slash, assault, and mow down the poodle-haired metal posers spreading falseness instead of relentless metal mania. This is truly legendary metal lore, madness from inside the wild minds whose crazed faces you see on every page of the "Murder In The Front Row" book.

As EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt explains in "Sound Of The Beast: The Complete Headbanging History Of Heavy Metal": "Our singer's ex-girlfriend was a really good cartoonist, and she drew up these comics that showed us knifing and beating up MÖTLEY CRÜE clones. We were constantly drinking and chain-sawing and jack-hammering people to death. They were just for our own amusement, and then it spread off to our fans in the local club scene."

"Slay Team: The Poser Wars" can be viewed at this location.

"Murder In The Front Row" is a stunning volume that collects over 400 amazing color and black-and-white photos from the time when locals EXODUS and Los Angeles transplants METALLICA reigned in small clubs like the Old Waldorf, The Stone, and the infamous East Bay bastion of heaviness, Ruthie's Inn. Thrash metal upstarts SLAYER and MEGADETH found a second home in the Bay Area, while a homegrown breed of tempo-crazed teenagers like LEGACY, POSSESSED, DEATH ANGEL, HEATHEN and VIO-LENCE brought Bay Area thrash metal to critical mass.

"Thank you for writing this book! It's the definitive story of the scene and what we managed to make of it here in the Bay Area," said METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett.

"'Murder In The Front Row' captures the true essence of thrash metal in its embryonic stage," said SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo.

For more information, visit www.murderinthefrontrow.com.

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