Capitol Records - 1992
9/10
Seeing where different brands of thrash and hair metal went in the '90s is one of my favorite things about having been born in that decade; as an adult, I can retrospectively see these without the "you had to be there, man" factor. Exodus is a special example, because while I absolutely adore their masterpiece Bonded By Blood, there aren't many other albums I have that close of an attachment to. Don't read my wrong, the other '80s albums are pretty good, but at the expense of sounding like a contrarian, I truly think Force Of Habit takes second place for me. Not only do I think the time it was released hurt it, but the album art added insult to injury.
From the gate, this is easily Steve "Zetro" Souza's best vocal performance by a longshot. He wasn't an awful fill-in for Paul Baloff, but the direction this record takes fits his voice better than any album before or after it, in my humblest of opinions. Force Of Habit works around vocal melody far more than any of the other classic discs, or the revival records, channeling its aggression into attitude rather than full-force heaviness. The rasp is still present, yet contains a cleaner swiftness in delivery that oddly taps even more into the AC/DC-inspired snarl that the band hinted at with its earlier cover of "Overdose."
But musically, the guitar chugs and the toned-down groove-gone-bluesy metal almost allow this to feel heavier than the straight thrash attack that was their whole career until this point. Density and precision over speed with a cleaner vocal approach turns what could have been a disastrous overproduction with too much gruff into a more pleasant experience in line with Anthrax's Persistence Of Time. The bassy eruption of the title track comes to mind, as well as the more evenly-layered "Count Your Blessings," that nice acoustic lick at the end being a solid touch. Both are packed with attitude that doesn't feel too "tough-guy" but also utilizes catchy verses and bouncy rhythms.
Catchiness is another thing worth discussing as well. Exodus have had a few of those banger-standouts on each of the other Zetro albums to this point, but none seem to focus in on this angle to the same degree, further cementing my belief that this is the style he was meant to sing. Opener "Thorn In My Side" brings in one of my favorite riffs the band ever wrote, caking on poetic builds and a memorable chorus that I can never get out of my head. Adding a kick to the first blow, "Me, Myself & I" follows this up with the exact same presence, understanding the need to hook the listener early on with a release of this length. (Because no band could simply not use up as much space as possible when the CD hit it big, amirite?) "Climb Before The Fall" is another one that sneaks in between the two longest tracks, feeling like a hardcore-inspired dance number that has chop after chop, and some of the meanest drum kicks.
Let's not forget the outliers, ones that manage to stand apart significantly but somehow don't come off as awkward (well, mostly). "Architect of Pain" is a full-on doom metal tune, an eleven-minute epic that admittedly could have trimmed itself a bit but still reinforces its statement with strong repetition and a menacing delivery. Gradual phasing, acoustic layering, and fierce undertones work as the backbone. I probably sound like a broken record by now, but again, Zetro's singing is absolutely impeccable overtop of this slow-burning fury. "Good Day To Die" also comes to mind, as it's about as close to straight up rock 'n roll that Gary Holt and co. have ever gotten. The stripped-down instrumentation along with its tongue-in-cheek lyrics really seal things off nicely.
My only real complaint about this record is the inclusion of two extremely unnecessary covers, The Rolling Stones' "Bitch" and Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up." The band clearly didn't learn its lesson from the train wreck that was War's "Low Rider," and while these aren't quite as offensively bad, they create awkward spots in a long experiment that would otherwise be entirely void of it. Perhaps it would also be fair to say that a few other spots on Force Of Habit are a bit more ambitious than they needed to be. Closer "Feeding Time At The Zoo" felt a little unnecessary, and a few of these longer numbers could have lost a minute or so.
Ultimately, what I love about this outweighs my tiny complaints ten-fold, and save for the covers, there's no single track on here that I don't enjoy to some degree or another. For years, I kinda stuck to the first three records and would occasionally dip my toes in the 2000s-onward pool, simply because of this record's heinous sleeve. That was a grave mistake, and I urge anybody who made it this far to give it a try as well. It's one of those albums where the more I listen to it, the more I like it.
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