1. Jeff Hanneman, October 1994
Bill Clinton: I hate this Motherfucker! (Why?) He tries to be likely to every race but does NOTHING! Before the election he made promisses to different races and after the election he had done nothing! He only made those promisses to enter the White House. Anyway, I don't like him. I think he is an socialist.
Curch: I am not intrested in religion, but I would not claim that there isn't something like a God. Anyway, the more I think of it, the more I am in doubt about his Existence. (What do you think especially about the Church?) I hate people who own money in the name of the Church, and those who don't accept your opinion because of their faith to the Church. The only thing I like on the Church is, when people have so much faith that they stay clean and do nothing criminal.
Democracy: Democracy in my opinion means you life in a country where you can do whatever you want, as long as you don't hurt the rights of others.
Earth: Oh that's difficult! Well, it's our origin what we are. That's it. (Very short. Do you think that the Humanity is destroying the earth?) I think that we destroy ourselves. We damage the earth but the earth will exist longer than Humanity. We can't destroy the earth. Destroyed woods and air pollution, this can't destroy the earth, only Humanity! I think projects like "Save the Planet" are bullshit, their Name has to be "Save Humanity".
Fans: The SLAYER Fans are the best and greatest in the World! Madonna or Michael Jackson have more fans than us, but our Fans dedicate themselves to the band and understand the band!
Germany: Germany is great. I love Germany (laughs). I was landing here today and thought, oh God, I should buy myself a little house in this country. Germany is a beautiful country, the people are nice. The only thing what I noticed over the last years is, that the people are beginning to think political correct. The people should overcome their german past. We have nothing to do with this, had many years no problems in Germany and now we are getting asked if we are "Nazis" etc.
Hate: Hate is something that everybody has in his body. Many people say that it is not the case, but I am sure that even the peacefullest dude has some hate in his body. Hate is a part of the Human mind.
Indians: They life very close to nature, obvious they are a very primitve race. Well, they are humans (Wow, really?), that's it. (Do you mean that the USA were their origin Country?). Oh come on! This was a long time ago. The europeans came to America and found a good but very primitive culture, they have done their job (???) and that's it! Do you want that all Americans leave the USA, so that the Indians get back their Land? (Many Indians have to life in reservations). It's not that tragic. Many Indians live in the American community and life a normal life!
Judgement Night: Do you like the song with ICE-T? Yeah, I love this song! In the beginning I wasn't to keen about the Idea, because normally I don't like it to mix different Bands and Styles. Thats a job for Bands like ANTHRAX, because they do it of financial reasons. I love SLAYER, because we are what we are.
Ku-Klux Clan: They are a pile of Idiots. I know that, but I don't know more from them. I am not intrested in them.
Liberty: This is something we have to worry about, because the political correctness will kill the peoples minds. When somebody jokes about a Black oder a White he isn't a rascist. In every human race there are assholes, it has nothing to do with the color of the Skin. When I am angry about a Black dude, then not because of his skin, just because he has done something stupid.
MTV: They Suck! I don't want to talk about them! (Couldn't they be a great help for SLAYER?) Well, we don't need them. They try to be political correct (...), on the other side they play Videos of Bands who suck all day long. We've made it a very long way, WITHOUT MTV!
Nineteeneightytwo (1982): (The year Slayer was founded) We were a gang of 18 Year old Kids who don't knew what they wanted. I wanted to become the heaviest band of all Times. My biggest influences in this time were IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST and mostly the Punk. In this time Slayer was a combination of these two music styles.
OJ. Simpson: As I grew up, he was an Idol for myself, I love football. Icehockey follows football, I played it on the Highschool. I think the whole story with O.J. was made to big by the Media.
Pantera: Kerry Likes their Music. We've met them once, cool boys. But I don't like the music so much, I like other stuff.
Reign in Blood: ABNORMAL! KICKS ASS! This is Slayer History. (Do you think it is the best Slayer Record?) WHAT do YOU mean? (Sure it's the best) I think, it's one of the best Slayer Records.
Sepultura: I haven't heard their music yet. I think Tom heard them once. I don't know if its true, but I've heard that they say stupid things about us. If it's true FUCK THEM!
Ticket Prices: (The Ticket prices are Very high) Yeah, thats right, it sucks. The promoters want to earn much money. We try to push the prices down but we can't regulate that. We don't earn any Money with the Ticket Prices (you earn the money with Merchandise) Hey, you got it. We earn our money with Merchandise.
Underground: I think it don't exists anymore. For me personaly 1985 was Undeground in this Style of Music, the only bands were SLAYER, MEGDETH, METALLICA, ANTHRAX, POSSESSED and this Band from germany (he means SODOM). If there is an Underground today, then not in this type of music.
Venom: What? (Venom, the Band) Venom, wow, I forgot about them, haha. We've met Cronos 2 or 3 years ago. Venom were a real cool band in that time, that's all.
World War III: Will come in unforseen future, maybe we will experience World War III. The main reason for that is that the Humanity is going to be more and more policitcal correct (once again).
Youth: I have much trust in the Youth of today, as long as they begin to become political correct (and again).
This was the A-Z Interview with Jeff Hanneman.
Are we witnessing a mass punk revival? If so, Slayer aren´t being led by the crowd - their new LP is a collection of early `80s hardcore, Selected & Exhumed. Reviewed last issue, it features delights from bands like DI, DOA, TSOL, as well as the less acronymical Minor Threat and The Stooges, all in a mince-your-granny Slayer-type way.
Kerry King: "The record was supposed to be influences. Jeff Hanneman was on vacation for a while, so we just messed around and I tried to take all our influences and say ´this is what made Slayer Slayer`, obviously including bands like Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Iron Maiden and Rainbow. We played Burn and Gates of Babylon for a while and it just didn´t work - I couldn´t make them sound ´70s. In context with all the punk tunes we were playing, they just sounded out of place, so we shifted gears and started looking for more punk stuff to play.
"We had a list of twenty and we played them all, but some didn´t pan out. We were playing a Kennedys song for a while, for example, but it didn´t work. There was also a Minor Threat song we didn´t do vocals on. My trouble was I didn´t want to have a big family of punk songs that you´ve got to pay publishing on. They´re only fifty seconds to a minute and a half long, so I was trying to keep the number of tracks down".
SHORT, NOT SWEET
As guitarists, we all know the
joy of playing short, more intensive pieces - Slayer are well known for
their intensity, coupled with the ability to write some seriously long
tracks (as their late ´80s album Seasons In The Abyss demonstrated).
They fared well with the change of pace that these hardcore covers demanded,
though. Kerry: "Yeah, it´s easier, it´s not as technical -
you can go off a bit more and make it your own. It´s not about being
precise as Slayer is". So could this be the start of a more diverse band
in the future? "It´s hard to say - now that we´ve done this
I can certainly see something coming from it. I like the way it came out
and if there´s a demand for it, that might sway me to have something
come out writing wise". There´ll certainly be a demand for it; both
punk and thrash fans alike (at our local - that passes for market research
around here!) have taken to the album, though with vague trepidation. Still,
everyone awaits the next album proper. Will the next one be as punk-fuelled?
"We certainly aren´t planning on it, but then we didn´t plan
on this one - we just came up to it and said ´hey, let´s do
this´. That´s about all the reason for doing this was to put
up something out in a quicker time frame than it would have taken for a
real Slayer record. We want to stay in the public´s eye and put out
something with credibility.
Q: A few years ago, in an interview for MTV, you declared that SLAYER was fed up with writting about the devil. So, why did you come back to this subject as it's showed in the album title: "Diabolus in musica" ?
A: That was true for the moment of "Seasons in the abyss", because it was being systematicly in what we were commonly calling trash metal. All the new bands were dealing with that because they were thinking that it was the only way to make them become popular. For that moment, I was telling myself that I had done with that subject and that it was time to move to an other. I have always been the one who was writting the darkest lyrics. On "Divine intervention", I composed "Dittohead", with no doubt that was the most realistic song ever made in my repertory. It deals with politics, which is a subject that I rarely deal with. When I began with the new album, it came to me that it was missing to me, and I came back to diabolic subjects.
Q: A note addressed to the press indicates that the album title refers to the tritone which in music represents, as a musical theory, is an melodic interval or a harmony of three tones...
A: That is obviously a musical term. The composition often deals with heavy. It's a so "diabolic" and "risk" key, one of the few things that I remember from the few music lessons I took.
Q: Which is it's real signification in the SLAYER context?
A: We do not achieve to find something that was really satisfying us. During a long time, the title was to be "Violent by Design", but I found it a little all-purpose. Anyone could have produced it: a new or a ancient heavy group! Everyone can talk about violence. It's seems to be too generic; we needed another thing. The Japanese, it's the Japanese who made most of our songbooks, have written a small paragraph about the "The Antichrist" and the expression "Diabolus In Musica" appeared in this paragraph. Our manager faxed us the document and I was really fond of it. The sleeve totaly stick with. Visualy, the album was very interesting.
Q: "Diabolus in musica" is totaly heavy, from the beginning to the end. Have you ever felt the need to extend the SLAYER music to new musical horizons?
A: I think that it is the case. Simply, that didn't happen radicaly. The song, for example, as extend this time. The way Tom sings is now more "groovy". We feel more his personality.
Q: You mean that in this album, the song is more preponderant?
A: It is more important, and that differs from the other albums. The song has a real new sound.
Q: The Japanese version will contain 2 bonus tracks: "Unguarded instict" and "Wicked". Why aren't these songs included in the other editions.
A: It all began with "Divine Intervention". We discovered the joy of marketing. Frequently in Japan, the albums are in stores later than in the USA or in Europe. Even if it is one week, the market can be destroyed by imports. That's why we put bonus tracks on those albums. Those albums save the Japanese market.
Q: But, don't you think it's unfair for american or european fans?
A: The japanese imports are always available. If you go in good stores, you can find them. That's not easy but we can say that it's possible. And then, we may release a box with all our old albums and you can be sure that the bonus tracks will be included
Q: Do you think of banding all SLAYER albums?
A: I don't know exactly the shape it will have. For the moment we are talking about that with Sony. The two bonus tracks of this album should be featured in this, and the other ones from "Divine intervention" also (but I don't remember the names of those songs!)
Q: Do you know when Sony will release this box?
A: No. For the moment we are just talking about that.
Q: We have heard about the selling of your label, american recordings, but how did you get signed to Columbia?
A: American have been bought by Sony, if I remember well. And Sony has then decided to send us to Columbia. That wasn't our choice. Sony bought American, and now we do what they want!
Q: As a compare to "Seasons in the abyss" and "Divine intervention", "Diabolus in musica" owns a cleaner and more precise production. Why that arbitrary decision?
A: Rick Rubin produced us one more time. I don't think that he worked in the totality of "Seasons in the abyss". He was only an executive producer in my opinion. When he's more implicated, he is more interested, like this time. When he was working, he had a lot nuanced the tones and that's why we have got this sound.
Q: From the middle of the 80's to the beginning of the 90's, Rick has build up his reputation in working with heavy metal bands like Slayer, Trouble or Danzig. Later, he began to colaborate with "non metal" bands like the Smashing Pumpkins or Red Hot Chili Peppers, among others. Why have you called him an other time?
A: I think that he chooses the people with who he wants to work. When he has collaborated with Trouble or Danzig, those bands were very important. They merited that he spend time with them. Nowadays, how many metal bands merite that we spend time on them? Two or three, not more. I wasn't preoccupied by his implication in the production, because he knows us from "Reign in blood". He knows what we want and we know what he will bring us.
Q: In an interview given to "Hard force" last year, you declared that "South of heaven" was the last album that Rick really produced. But now that he has worked on the last album, how do you compare his production between "South of heaven" and "Diabolus in musica"?
A: "South of heaven"... that's really far! I don't clearly remember . I didn't really put a lot in that: I played my guitar parts and... fuck! I think that this time he has worked more on the drum sounds, even when we were not recording. For the guitars, we played and he came to inspect what we were doing. He has never intervene without a good reason. In any way there is a very good link between Jeff, our engineer, and me.
Q: Contrary to others albums, the bass is really put forward. Was it an other idea from Rick?
A: I only believe that it's the way that it naturally happened this time. Nobody thought that we had to put the bass forward. I don' t think that such decisions come to our mind. When I listen to this album, there are things that I want to change but this is the same impression for all albums. You have to set yourself a term to stop touching up, constantly.
Q: Paul gave a very complex work in that album, with lots of drum rythms, tempo and variations. Did the band asked him to work that hard?
A: He is a work addict. I thought that drumers were only doing rythm, to find some descent and... Paul does a lot more. He has a guitarist touch. He structures the song. For example for a chorus, he plays the same things than during the previous but in putting different new things. He thinks of drums as a stand alone instrument, and not only like the rythm skelleton of the song. That's the feeling that Paul gives me. He goes into creation. If he didn't do that, that would be Jeff and mine job. But at the drums, that wouldn't be so good...
Q: In an other interview with HARD FORCE, Tom annouced us that Paul wanted to put Latin rythm in SLAYER and when we listen to this album, I don't know where they are. Do you know why he changed his opinion?
A: I remember that we spoke of that when composing, but that never happened. I have always told him that he has gone with tribal rythm, I would try to write the music which would stick with, but that never happened.
Q: You declared that "Diabolus in musica" would be slow. Finally, it copes with slow rythms, medium or heavy. Why did you change this goal in writing?
A: That was maybe our vision at that time. After "Undisputed Attitude", we wanted to play slowly, because we were playing a lot of fast songs. So, at the beginning, we slowed the rythm, but finally, the speed is indissociable from SLAYER! She always points her nose.
"We scare people," says Tom
Araya, Slayer's singer and bassist. "The persona we project is dark
and ominous. Maybe we
scared them a bit too much at first. Some people started to make up stories
about us. But that's
alright. We thrive on controversy."
South of Heaven, on Def
Jam, is Slayer's latest Album. It once again proves that so-called thrash
metal can be more than
a sheer cauterizing blitzkrieg of frenzied sound. It also says something
about
television evangelists,
Vietnam, child abuse, chemical warfare, religion, the insanity of murder,
and
the eternal struggle
between good and evil. There's nothing polite about how Slayer says it.
The
lyrics, and the music,
are chilling, unnerving, brutal.
"We write bluntly, explicitly
and graphically," Araya says, "Kids go to see Freddy Krueger slice up a
couple of kids in Nightmare
On Elm Street. They come to see us for some of the same reasons. We
tell little horror stories
and instead of watching it in a movie, they feel and hear it."
Controversy about Slayer
has included its supposed Satanic and Nazi leanings, not to mention
necrophillia-subjects
about which the band frankly was surprised at being so misunderstood.
"A lot of people are
apparently confused," says guitarist Jeff Hanneman. "They think we're serious.
We don't write these
songs to start a controversy but to tell you the truth we don't do anything
to
stop it either." Araya
adds, "The songs are documentaries and caricatures of real life. That's
what
we do best.
But South of Heaven
may also shock some Thrash Metal fans. It is a great deal slower and heavier
than the previous Reign
in Blood, which was dubbed speed metal's finest album.
"We do things speed metal
bands are afraid to try," Hanneman says. "We're just changing naturally,
maturing and evolving
as a band. We want to see what we can do. It's not a drastic change. The
guitars are cleaner,
Tom sings instead of screams, there are more melodies and there are some
songs
that might be played
on the radio, but we still have our hard edge."
Slayer came to life in
southern California in 1982 with Araya, double lead guitarists Jeff Hanneman
and Kerry King, and
drummer Dave Lombardo. Their goal? To become the heaviest, fastest,
loudest and rudest metal
band ever. Playing music no one else dared to play, they had a rough
beginning. If nothing
else, they're proud to say, they were kids in rebellion, having fun and
pissing
everybody off. Before
long Slayer took advantage of its unique mixture of punk sensibilities
and
metal music and won
over the Los Angeles scene.
Slayer's independently
released recordings (Show no Mercy and the EPs Haunting the Chapel and
Live Undead) caused
metal fans to take notice. Despite concert bannings in Canada and the United
States, Slayer was gaining
a well-deserved reputation for tremendous performances.
Says Hanneman, "People
are fascinated by us on stage. We feed off each other's energy. If you
could see that energy,
it would light up the whole concert hall.
The August 1985 release
of Hell Awaits consolidated Slayer's preeminence on the thrash metal
front. With 100,000
copies sold in very short order, major record companies began to gather
around. Siginign with
Rick Rubin of Def Jam Recordings, Slayer became the label's first metal
band,
though Rubin was not
unfamiliar with extreme forms of rock'n roll considering his success with
Run
D.M.C., the Beastie
Boys, and LL Cool J.
Album number three, Reign
in Blood, was produced by Rubin and the controversy surrounding
Slayer exploded. Def
Jam's distributor, Columbia Records, refused to have anything to do with
the
albu. Geffen Records,
however, was quick to pick up distribution of the album in late 1986. Selling
well over 500,000 copies,
it charted in the Billboard Top 100 despite virtually no airplay on radio
stations. Last year
(1987) the band was also heard on the Less than Zero soundtrack with a
metallic
remake of Iron Butterfly's
"In A gadda da vida."
Slayer records as intensely
as it performs on stage. In its early days, the band would rehearse eight
hours a day five days
a week. The chemistry between the players grew close. The result is a
firestorm of razor-edge
rock'n'roll-one which overflows a stage and sweeps into audiences, where
fans tackle each other
in a mass slam dance. "That's good", says Araya, "considering the
alternatives."
"They are aggressive
kids and they release their aggression through the music. I know it's a
release
for me. I take it out
on stage. After a performance I'm so relieved I got rid of that aggression.
All we
are doing is rebelling,
which is what has always been the essence of rock'n'roll. One reason I
think
our fans are so loyal
to us is that we are so extreme - and that's never going to change. Let's
face it,
our name alone scares
people."
You know the names by now: guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, vocalist/bassist Tom Araya, drummer Paul Bostaph. Together they sit around musing on the band's very definite past, and its not-so-assured future. Though they've established themselves with such terrifying classics as the thrash blueprints Reign In Blood and Hell Awaits, many say that the band's best years are behind them. Hell, 15 years is a long time for anyone to stay together, no less a bunch of embittered cranks from a down and out L.A. byway.
But listening to them talk, it's clear that King and crew don't feel that way, that their splattery new album, Diabolus Musica, is more a beginning than an end, more an invigorated start to the next phase of their career than a lame finish. "Yeah, it's a new start for us," says King. "Each fucking time we come out with something we have to prove ourselves." He raises a worn jack boot and drops it on the coffee table. "It's not that we haven't earned any respect, we just don't get any."
Formed sometime in rock's Paleolithic era (1982) in Huntington Beach, California, Slayer has demonstrated an extraordinary longevity. Though they began as aimless marauders with only inspiration and anger as their guides, King, Hanneman, and Araya (Bostaph would join later) have become one of this rock generation's most unique and strident voices-a hairy beast of a band capable of Darwinian survival under any pop music climate. Forget the resurgence of ska and the minor commercialism of poppy punk. Slayer's built to last, baby, fit to freak the competition with decibels, power, and ramrod attitude.
"Shit," says Tom Araya, "one of the reasons we came together was to go against all the glam shit that was going on in Los Angeles."
"It made us sick, all that stuff," says Kerry King, his widely girthed neck wrapped in ghoulish tattoos. "All the punks were saying 'fuck you' to that pussy glam shit."
But weren't the glam bands saying the same to the punks? "If they were," snickers King, "they were sayin' it quietly, 'cause they would've gotten their asses kicked otherwise!"
When King and Hanneman joined forces with Tom Araya in those early days, their band experience was limited. Araya had been playing in a cover band with King's guitar instructor, who referred the bassist to Kerry based on what he saw as mutual musical interests. King, a big Van Halen fan, had been taking lessons for a few years, and was developing a taste for heaviness. His first teacher was a doctor of music theory. "It was definitely worth it to put my time in with teachers," he says. "I didn't know any better at that age. It was just another learning experience for me. I was in school anyway."
Araya had also begun playing in his early teens, though because his brother played guitar, Tom was left with the bass. His first gig came with a Top 40 band, one in which Bad Company was considered heavy. "I did sight reading, and played a lot of songs, but I didn't know heavy music until I got a call from Kerry." Having grown up in the '60s, Araya knew psychedelic and acid rock-Steppenwolf, Robin Trower, and Hendrix. (Today he calls himself the "King of Karaoke.") When he met King, bands like Venom and early Iron Maiden made a lot more sense, given his penchant for political uprising and the like. Araya, a rebel to his soul, never looked back as his classic rock chops metastasized into a fire-breathing vehicle for furious noise.
Hanneman admits that in the early days, he didn't know much, but he was desperate to participate. "With [Kerry and Tom] I had to learn fast or I was out," he remembers. "There was a real incentive that it was better to learn quickly." The blonde-haired guitarist is at least for the moment soft-spoken, laid back to the point of sleep. "I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just knew it was gonna get me out of a real job for a while."
Fifteen years later, Hanneman and Slayer have successfully avoided "real jobs," opting for a life on the road, employed by millions of fans who've been more than happy to pay them a decent wage, lavish them with fanatical adulation, and loft them up into the rarefied ranks of rock and roll lore.
"In the beginning," Araya recalls, "we just started doing it. I knew it was the only chance we were gonna get, so we had to take advantage." Starting out, a studio owner asked Slayer to make a record before they even had songs, or money. "So we got a studio without money and without songs. 'Ah, we'll pay him tomorrow,' we said. 'Let's get the studio and worry about it later!'" The album to emerge from those sessions, Show No Mercy, sold 60,000 copies and etched Slayer's crucial modus operandi in big slabs of stone. The world heard.
After the record, there was a tour. "We had dates lined up for our first tour," says Araya. "But on the day we were supposed to leave, we had no van and no money." Fortunately, chutzpah and, oh yeah, pot, were in abundance. "We all hitched a U-Haul onto my Camaro, piled in and left. Bye-bye, everybody. . . . What the fuck, you know? Like I said," says Araya, "we just had to do it."
So, yeah, the band's been "doing it"-with all attendant ramifications-since the beginning, when doing it meant doing it or dying, becoming irrelevant. Today, the stakes are equally high, but in a different way. Today, if Slayer doesn't "do it," the deep foundation on which they've built a career remains, and so remains their end-of-the-day satisfaction that what they've done will live on long after they're gone. Then again, not doing it means losing what they've fought for all these years, losing relevance, losing a means to an end. "This is like our first gig again," says Araya. "Right now, every record's important. I still get butterflies when I think about it. We hope it's accepted. We hope it counts, and kids buy it, 'cause then we know we've bought ourselves a little more time on this spree of ours."
Diabolus Musica is a spree, all right, a shooting spree in which songs replace bullets, and are aimed right between the eyes. Tracks like "Love To Hate," "Perversions Of Pain," and "Desire" communicate the kind of sharp-toothed sentiments, political stridency, perverse fantasy, and violent tendencies with which the band has become synonymous.
But Diabolus Musica isn't all sturm und drang. "Love To Hate," for example, is a complex cadre of bits stitched crudely together, featuring some prog-ish dual guitar figures to accompany King's manic soloing, as well as King's sing-shout, hip hop-style vocals. Araya's chugging "Bitter Peace" works in some nasty neo-metal trills. "Unguarded" features a stunning double and triple-tracked lightning solo that reaches into the unlikely and very trebly territory of Queen's Brian May. "Desire" hinges on King's absurd notion of what comprises a solo, something he and his V have made near-classic.
"We take our work seriously, this is what we wanna do," says bassist Tom Araya. "When people say stuff about Reign In Blood being our peak or whatever, I say, 'Great, has anyone ever been heavier than that?' The intent of Slayer's musical and lyrical content is selfish. It's what pleases us--we have to be happy with what we're doing before anyone else hears it. We feel very strongly in the integrity of Slayer, about the importance of staying true to yourselves."
Diabolus In Musica, which features Araya, guitarists King and Jeff Hanneman and drummer Paul Bostaph, is the first to truly bear their full-throttle aggression since 1990's Seasons In The Abyss. Produced by American Recordings kingpin Rick Rubin (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash, Beastie Boys), the album's song titles ("Bitter Peace," "Point" and "Love To Hate") are all indications that Slayer are back and black. "Diabolus In Musica was actually a musical scale which was outlawed in the 1400s by the church," explains Araya, "as they felt it would bring out the devil in people because it was a scale called 'the devil's music.' I don't know how true it is, but people were apparently executed for writing it or using it. As for the album, well surprise surprise, it deals with the usual cast of deviants, miscreants and madmen."
"When we were writing this album I was looking for something to beat; I wanted something to beat, but nothing impresses me right now," says Hanneman. "Nothing sounded really aggressive or heavy enough to inspire me to beat it, so I just had to come up with my own shit. We're still the number one fans of our music, and we still get amazed at some of the shit we come up with. It's still fun to us to try and get even better, hit greater benchmarks."
Most bands who play such ferociously violent music are usually expunging the horrors of an ugly past. Slayer are a surprising exception, given their sheer extremity. "I guess we all have demons," Araya sighs, "but I really cannot think of any. I had no problems growing up, no demons. I'm just up there yelling at the world, it's my opportunity to do that. I'm yelling at the fucking world, but it's the music that gets me there. Obviously we have opinions, we hate certain things that are going on in society but I don't need that as a fuel."
However, Araya has seen more than his share of gore, guts and grizzle. "I worked in a hospital for four years," he divulges, "I was a respiratory therapist and I worked with chronic lung patients: tuberculosis, emphysema, life support systems, stuff like that. You have to maintain some of those machines sometimes, and everyday you'd see some crazy shit."
Yet most of Araya's reference points for Slayer's grim subject matter come from books. "I read all sorts of stuff," he chuckles. "Of course lots of true-crime books about things like deviants and lunatics out there right on through to the strategies of war and the games behind it. I take on, or introduce, information that interests us and try to word it in really colorful terms to get your thoughts and ideas to were people can understand them."
One thing Slayer have been accused of doing is stirring up unnatural amounts of testosterone and aggression among their fans. Araya is only too aware of the power Slayer hold over their audience. "Which is why I don't abuse it," he retorts. "Because they will go out and do it if you ask. A lot of promoters wouldn't touch us for years after that riot stuff in '88, so we had to travel with an insurance policy for a few years there in order to get gigs. We had to cover our ass, and a lot of insurance companies are still wary. There's been worse shit than us--look at the Who. The people weren't even in the building when that happened, so there's been far worse stampedes and what-have-you than ours. But the thing is, we have the stigma now of being 'violent.' And no, we're not violent."
"Bitter Peace"
"Death's Head"
"Perversions Of Pain"
Ask Hanneman why Slayer has worked
so well for 17 years, and he's at a bit of a loss to answer. "That's the
question we can't answer, and we've never looked too hard to answer," says
Hanneman, "I mean, why fuck with it?"
Araya's response is different. For him, everything has already been pre-destined in life, therefore he's never too worried about anything. "I tend to just believe that destiny will take its course and not to worry about it. It seems that everything falls into place all the time, in the end it's always been okay and that's the way I view life. It was even that way with the band coming together: Kerry called me, they showed up. They weren't a bunch of guys just getting together to jam and party, they had an idea and a focal point which we all shared. We were all reaching for that same vanishing point."
1. Track by Track guide by Tom Araya,Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman for 98.
Stain of Mind - "It's about some fucked-up character I made up", Hanneman says.
Love to Hate - "We originally did that one for the soundtrack to the Howard Stern movie, "Private Parts", says King, but it got dumped because they needed more classic rock!"
Death's Head - "About a guy who likes killing women, then he forgets he does it", Hanneman explains.
Screaming From the Sky - "It's a song about assassin", says Araya.
Overt Enemy - "An anti-government song, an anti-people-in-authority song", says Hanneman. "It just talks about people having much power".
Scrum - "A song about rugby!", laughs King.
In the Name of God - "That's my little contribution to the Satanic underground!", King notes.
Perversions of Pain - "It's about a "Hellraiser"-type being", explains King. I didn't base it on the movie, but you could apply that to it".
Desire - "About someone who feels such a strong love for another person that he needs to slice their neck", says Araya. It's the OJ Simpson story!"
Point - "About a frontline dude, who finds mines, kill, snipers, tells people when to shut up", says King.
2. May 28th 1998, 11.00 in the evening, "Virus" on German Viva Television. With Tom, Kerry & Paul.
Kerry: This is Slayer, we are controlling the "Virus" Mix right now. Later on you will be watching "Therion" Live. But now here are some Videos we chose.
Videos they Chose:
Slayer - Dittohead
White Zombie - More human than
human
Judas Priest - Burn in Hell
Suicidal Tendencies - You can't
bring me down
Alice in Chains - We die young
(Commercial Break)
Tom: We are back...Surprise! (Laughs). Well we are Slayer allright? And this Band "Therion" is going to play next for a Live show obviously. But if we get bored and really don't care about the crap, then we will be back and you will be listening to some REAL music, allright?
Then there was a live Song by "Therion" recorded live in Poland. After that Therion was on screen and their lead singer said "So here is a Video by Portishead". Then something really cool happened, the Portishead Video ran 5 Seconds and then there were some effects like somebody interrupted the broadcast. Suddenly Slayer were on screen back again, and instead of the TV Station logo there was a sign in the upper left of the screen saying "SLAYVISION".
Kerry: You gotta be kidding me!!!! What is this? Yo, we are trying to get on this cool show playing some heavy music. But we are going to play Pantera now to show you what's real music.
(Pantera - I'm broken)
Then there was a live song by Therion again, and after that the same effects like somebody interrupted the broadcast were used. "SLAYVISION" was on again.
Paul: Well that's enough of that crap now. Wanna check out something real heavy? Check this video by Machine Head! It's called "Ten Ton Hammer"
(Machine Head - Ten Ton Hammer)
Then there was a live song by Therion again, after that the Band Therion was on screen. They wanted to show a Therion Video called "The Beauty in Black". Hehe but guess what, "SLAYVISION" interrupted the show again.
Kerry: I thought we talked about that stuff a minute ago? Heavy Music, right!!! Wish I could see this Video, but I can't (???). You know playing Heavy Music, making a cool show here on "Slayvision". We'll show you now Rollins Band "Because I'm a Liar".
(Rollins Band - Liar)
(Commercial Break)
Paul: Therion are gone, WE are still here. We will be seeing you very soon in a special show about us. And now we'll leave you with a tour tip. Later!
Kerry: Adios!
Tom: Bye!
Tourtip:MANOWAR
Then the Video "Metal Warriors"
by MANOWAR was played.
SHOW END
When I get the date when this "special" show about Slayer is on air I will write it on the page and will write a review about it.
US Slayer fans: Please don't ask
me to make a copy of the show, because it is in European PAL Video format,
and in the US there's NTSC, so it wouldn't work!
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