Diehumane

BETWEEN 1983 AND 2005, Rick Hunolt played on six full-length Exodus studio albums and regularly toured with the top-tier thrash band. However, during a period of intense personal turmoil in 2006, Hunolt was replaced by Heathen guitarist Lee Altus, and aside from a couple of guest appearances, he remained largely MIA for 15 years.

“Once you’ve been in one of the best thrash bands in the world, it’s pretty hard to figure out what to do next,” Hunolt says.

Then in 2021, Hunolt’s childhood friend, Skinlab vocalist Steve Esquivel, referred the guitarist to a melodic, cinematic Texas band called DieHumane that was looking for a lead guitarist. Hunolt received rough demos of two songs and couldn’t stop listening to them.

“I was blown away by the big choruses, strong melodies and spacious arrangements,” Hunolt says. “I thought, ‘Man, I could see myself playing to this.’ It’s a big change, but if I’m gonna do something outside of thrash, this is exactly what I want to do.”

He contacted DieHumane’s multiinstrumentalists, Joshua Vargas and Greg Hilligiest Jr., and convinced them to give him a shot. The result is The Grotesque, a multi-dimensional escapade that blends industrial textures, percussive guitar riffs in drop B and drop C, evocative guitar lines and atmospheric jazzy embellishments