EXODUS Guitarist GARY HOLT Explains BANG YOUR HEAD!!! Cancellation

Guitarist Gary Holt of veteran San Francisco Bay Area metallers EXODUS has issued a statement explaining the band's decision to cancel their appearance at this year's installment of the Bang Your Head!!! festival, set to take place June 23-24, 2006 in Balingen, Germany.

In a June 5 press release announcing the band's withdrawal from the festival, the Bang Your Head!!! organizers wrote, "[EXODUS] simply refused to go on stage before acts like DEATH ANGEL, who sell less records than EXODUS. Instead of accepting a position in the middle, taking the challenge to prove their stage qualities and giving everything to the audience in order to show everyone that they deserve a higher rank on the bill, they decided to decline and withdraw from the negotiated agreement. We really regret this final decision. However, we are not will[ing] to [be] pressured by EXODUS or any other band concerning bill position matters. Our running order has never ever represented the economic status of the bands we invited only. Being fans ourselves and regarding the festival as an event OF fans FOR fans, we always felt free to give those bands a special rank, who were highly acclaimed by our audience thanks to their fantastic performances. . . It is a pity, that the band considers its ego more important than the possibility to get on the stage of a festival like ours, as by this they let down all their fans who were looking forward to their Bang Your Head!!! appearance."

Responding to the Bang Your Head!!! organizers' comments, Holt wrote in a June 7 online posting, "it all came down to a lack of agreement as to the running order, as well as a show conflict that has us playing in Beilefeld the same day. Ultimately the Beilefeld show was moved only after we cancelled Bang Your Head!!! One of our best friends in this world booked that show so it was not an option to cancel it. We never named any band who we wouldn't play under, BUT who we would have had to play under if our Bang Your Head!!! set was moved a day later. I've heard nothing but great things about Bang Your Head!!!, that it is one of THE best run festivals in Europe, and I'm sure it will kick as this year. And I was quite looking forward to hearing 'Juke Box Hero' [referring to the classic track by FOREIGNER, who are scheduled to play this year's Bang Your Head!!! festival — Ed.]! But this is not the first time a band has cancelled a show, and it won't be the last, I'm sure."

EXODUS are continuing to tour in support of their latest CD, "Shovel Headed Kill Machine", which was released in October 2005 via Nuclear Blast Records. Recorded at Trident studios in Pacheco, California and mixed by Andy Sneap (MACHINE HEAD, ARCH ENEMY),the follow-up to 2004's "Tempo of the Damned" is the band's first to feature new members Lee Altus (guitar; HEATHEN),Paul Bostaph (drums; ex-SLAYER, TESTAMENT, FORBIDDEN) and Rob Dukes (vocals).