After being banned by YouTube for apparent graphic displays of violence, Exodus have launched their new music video for “3111” online below via social media platform X. The thrash metal veterans spoke about the clip not meeting YouTube’s community standards yesterday (January 21st). Despite making several edits to the video, the group were unable to get it past censors.
The lyrical inspiration for the song, and hence visual inspiration for the video, stem from the ongoing conflict of the cartel drug wars in Juarez, Mexico. The band stated of it yesterday:
“We decided to go hard with the leadoff single, ‘3111‘. The song is about the narco killings in Juarez, and ‘3111’ is the estimated number of murders for 2010 alone.”
The group’s guitarist Gary Holt also revealed that they have been working on a censored version of the video to appease YouTube as well. The song serves as the lead single from the group’s twelfth studio album “Goliath“, which will receive a March 20th release date.
3111 video. This got banned by YouTube. Let’s see if we’ll be allowed to keep it here. pic.twitter.com/RTV6JM4VP0
— Exodus (@ExodusAttack) January 22, 2026
