METAL HAMMER: Parts of "South Of Heaven" are very different from "Reign in Blood". What are the main changes?

Jeff Hanneman: The record is much slower than anything we’ve ever done. Tom isn’t screaming like a turtured pig anymore, but actually singing for a change which surprised alot of people.

Tom Araya : I even surprised myself. We’ve wondered about changing something about the vocals for a while, and we just went for it. I started sticking more to melodies and singing higher too. Jeff and I tried out some ideas on our 4-track tapemachines before production, and we’re both pleased with the result.

SINGING SLAYER

METAL HAMMER: Did you want the songs to sound more simple, was that why you changed your style?

Jeff Hanneman: Tom started singing a bit on "Show No Mercy" on all our earlier records he just screams. This is just his latest attempt to sound different, and I think it turned out really interesting. It’s not meant to sound simple.

Tom Araya: I don’t really think that we changed that much. Musicially alot of our songs are still similar to the ones of "Hell Awaits" and my voice hasn’t changed that much either. People accusing us of having lost some of our brutality make the mistake of comparing everything everything to "Reign in Blood". We wanted to to record a fast lp and that’s what "Reign in Blood" is – but we don’t want to sound like that all the time. We’re more into slower tracks on this album, which is why they sound the way they do.

METAL HAMMER: "South Of Heaven" got a fairly mixed reception in Europe, alot of people like the record because it sounds so different others can’t come to terms with the changes.

Jeff Hanneman: I don’t understand why. I think alot of the old energy is still there. "South Of Heaven" isn’t exactly soft either; we’ve just stopped bashing about on our instruments. Some tracks are even unusual. We had to get used to some of the ideas while we were in the studio but we’re happy with the result as a whole. People shouldn’t jugde the record too quickly, but have a good listen first.

METAL HAMMER: Did you record any other extra tracks as b-sides for singles or anything?

Tom Araya: We didn’t actually record anything, but Kerry’s got a track left over. The music’s more or less complicated, but the lyrics still needs working on, because we weren’t going to use the track on the album anyway. Maybe we’ll record the whole lot one day.

METAL HAMMER: Tom you contributed the lyrics to 6 tracks on this album, but your name’s nowhere to be seen on "Reign in Blood"

Tom Araya: Jeff and Kerry already had plenty of material when we recorded it, so I didn’t have to worry about the lyrics. I wrote some of the lyrics this time because we only had the music on it’s own. Kerry normally writes the lyrics, but he hadn’t really got anything together recently, whereas I had quite a few ideas stored away. Kerry wasn’t too keen at first, but Jeff liked my lyrics so we used them in the end.

LYRICAL REIGN

METAL HAMMER: What are the lyrical differences between this album and "Reign in Blood"?

Tom Araya: Very different in places. Kerry and I both have a completely different style; I normally write about what’s happening around me, whereas Kerry invents little stories. ”Silent Scream” is about abortions for example, a subject that’s pretty much ignored here in the States. "South Of Heaven" is how I imagine Hell On Earth, and the decline of mankind.

Jeff Hanneman: Have you read Nostradamus? It looks as though the man had it sussed. Even if the whole world doesn’t end, at least life as we know it will.

Tom Araya: Another example for a song that isn’t typical Slayer is the track ”Mandatory Suicide”. I ws influenced by all of the anti-war films around at the moment like ”Platoon” and ”Full Metal Jacket”. I can really imagine what the poor sods had to put up with in Vietnam – sacrificed for a load of filth and lies.

METAL HAMMER: Talking about Vietnam: In the track ”Ghosts Of War”, that was written by Kerry, there’s a lyric that goes ”Fallen mercenary, dormancy is done, not content with wars we never won.”. Is that about Vietnam too?

Jeff Hanneman: No – I don’t think that Kerry was thinking about Vietnam when he wrote that. Kerry’s into horror – not politics. Tom’s the politician.

Tom Araya: ”Mandatory Suicide” is a political track really, and it’s about Vietnam. I think that Vietnam was a black spot in American history, and that should be made clear – sending kids to Vietnam was just pure murder. If you go to war on your own accord, that’s fine, but if you’re forced to, then it is a crime. So ”Mandatory Suicide” is basically an anti-war song.

METAL HAMMER: You also covered the Priest song ”Dissident Aggressor”. Was that an emergency measure, because Kerry hadn’t finished the other track yet?

Jeff Hanneman: No – we were going to use the ”Dissident Aggressor” on the lp anyway. We were planning to use ”Cleanse the Soul” at a later stage on a single or an EP. We originally wanted to cover ”Dissident Aggressor” alot earlier, the idea originated in the "Hell Awaits" phase.

METAL HAMMER: Are there any songs on "South Of Heaven" that you recorded in one take? It’s a well-known fact that you don’t spend ages in the studio.

Jeff Hanneman: You can say that again. We spent 3 weeks in the studio this time – and that’s a long time for us. The songs that were recorded fastest are ”Silent Scream” and ”Mandatory Suicide”. We often record a song 2 or 3 times, and still decide to use the first take in the end.

METAL HAMMER: How about the solo’s? The ones that I’ve heard sound a bit basic, and somehow don’t fit. Are they improvised, or do you practice them beforehand?

Jeff Hanneman (Laughing) : I normally work out my solos in advance, but I just didn’t have the time on this album. We only completed the last 2 songs just before we went into production, so we had to improvise to solo parts. Kerry hardly ever practised his solos in advance.

CROOKED CROSS

METAL HAMMER: ”Behind the Crooked Cross” is about the German Nazi-Regime. There’s a negative jugdement in this, in contrast to ”Angel of Death”. It almost sounds like an apology…

Jeff Hanneman: I try to explain how people were influenced mentally then, but it’s not an apology. I’m really interested in the history of the second world war; I collect iron crossews, flags and things. I’ve gods loads of memorobilla like that in my flat.

METAL HAMMER: You wear them on your jacket too, but what fascinates you so much about nazi memorobilla?

Jeff Hanneman: God knows. I’ve been interested for years in the things that went on then. I only seriously started collecting memorobilla 1 or 2 years ago. I wrote ”Behind the Crooked Cross” after reading about the German troops. I’m not just interested in the historical facts, but also the psychology behind it.

METAL HAMMER: Would you walk around in Germany wearing swastikas on your jacket too?

Jeff Hanneman: Sure – why not? The things fascinate me, so I wear them. That doesn’t mean I’m a nazi or anything.

METAL HAMMER: Are you aware that soms fans might not see things that way? After all, it wouldn’t be the first time that Slayer fans raised their arms in a nazi salute – and that could be really dangerous.

Jeff Hanneman: There are always people that takes life too seriously. I don’t think it’s worse than watching horror films though. We’ve always been controversial and have caused a reaction – we didn’t think that a song like ”Angel of Death” would be so provocative. And it wasn’t just Germany that reacted that way.

POLITICAL POINTS

Where else did you run into problems?

Tom Araya: In America and England, where some sections accused us of being fascists. All I can say to that is, that we never wanted to influence anyone politically. We make it obvious on ”Behind the Crooked Cross” that we’re not nazis. We’re not very involved in politics, even though we occasionally include statements in our songs.

METAL HAMMER: I got the impression that Kerry and Jeff were politically interested…

Tom Araya: No – I’m the only one seriously interested in politics. Jeff has his opinions, but he doesn’t necessarily express them in his songs.

METAL HAMMER: Are you prepared to talk more openly about your polical opinions?

Tom Araya: No. I don’t want to talk about politics too much, because I don’t want to be categorised. I’ve written a few polical lyrics, that’s enough.

Jeff Hanneman: I can only agree with that. I don’t like talking about politics.

METAL HAMMER: Does it upset you if people accuse Slayer of being a fascist band?

Jeff Hanneman: No – I don’t give a toss. We write about things that we find interesting – wheather people them offensive or not.. We’ve always been like that, and we’re not going to change.

Tom Araya: I don’t like people of accusing of being right-wing. 2 of us are not even American – how could we be fascists?

Jeff Hanneman: A big American magazine asked me recently wheather I was racist. I answered
”One of my best friends is black. Yeah – I must be a racist.” Geddit? (Laughing). Lets change the subject: We’re getting too political and Slayer aren’t a political band.

GERMAN ANGEL

METAL HAMMER: I think it’s an important subject because during your last tour of Germany, there was alot of trouble in some German towns because of your lyrics, espicially the track ”Angel of Death”.

Tom Araya: I’m really sorry to hear that. We never wanted to encourage our fans to fight or anything really. Anyway, we love Germany; I’m looking forward to going back there and I really want to avoid serious trouble.

METAL HAMMER: Ok, lets finish off with one final question: Would you ever change your lyrics to avoid trouble?

Jeff Hanneman: I can’t imagine that at present, because we enjoy writing about controversial subjects. I don’t want to promise anything though. Who knows, maybe we’ll change our lyrics one day – when we want to, and not because particular people want us to. We’ve changed in the past as well. We were a black metal band 3 years ago, satanic lyrics bore us these days.

Tom Araya: We won’t be doing exactly the same thing in the years to come – lyrically or musically. Bands has to develope to survive. Each of our albums is different to the last, and that’s the way it will stay in the future, regardsless of current trends. After all, our name is not Poison, who just hang themselves onto all the current trends.

METAL HAMMER: You asked Malice to suport you on your last European tour, don’t you think that that was a bad idea?

Tom Araya: No – we don’t like playing with other thrash bands, because the fans has to put of with more or less the same kind of music all evening. I think the reason that Malice didn’t go down too well, was more because of the quality of their live performance than their style. We’d ideally like to tour with someone like Joe Satriani, but maybe that would be too extreme (Tom’s wearing a Satriani shirt – ED.). We know that we’ve got some very fanatic followers, that don’t always go for other bands much, but that’s one of the things that we are proud of.

METAL HAMMER: You are starting your world tour on August 7th. in the States. Europe is planned after that. What can we expect?

Tom Araya: We’ll be starting here in America headlining the larger clubs; M.O.D. and Nucklear Assault have been mentioned as possible supports. We’ll be playing on the larger halls when we get to your part of the world too – we don’t know with whom though yet. Fates Warning would be interesting or even Joe Satriani… We want a support band that sounds different to us, but will still go down well with the fans.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT

METAL HAMMER: In the States thrash bands like Slayer are starting to be taken seriously by the media. Is this just a fad, or are people actually changing their attitude?

Jeff Hanneman: I think that peoples attitudes to music have changed. Thrash and speed metal are really porpular here at the moment, and I can see it becoming even bigger. Look at Metallica; They’re playing the biggest venues you can imagine at the moment.

METAL HAMMER: Could you imagine a similar development happening with Slayer?

Tom Araya: Basically yes. Hopefully one day we’ll get the chance to play the really massive halls. We’ve got some really faithful fans, it’s great! People keep on predicting our death, be we just become more successfull. Even the major radio stations have started playing our records, because they’re requested so often. The most extreme tracks are still avoided, but maybe that will change.

METAL HAMMER: Metallica got a big kick – at least in the States – by supporting Ozzy. Have you had similar offers from other major acts?
 

Tom Araya: Not yet really. Someone like Ozzy would be ideal for us, and we’d pounce at an opportunity like that. When we’ve completed the European dates, we want to carry on touring smaller towns in the States – maybe supporting someone really mega.

METAL HAMMER: Any dreams?

Tom Araya: I’d choose Ozzy.

Jeff Hanneman: I’d ideally like to go on tour with Maiden – but I can’t imagine them wanting to tour with us! Alot of bands don’t want someone like us supporting them, because we drain the kids of all their energy. Not all musicians can get the fans going as much as we can. Maybe Ozzy would be the only realistic possibility. He’s brave and is good to his fans.

VIDEO KIDS

METAL HAMMER: When will there be a live Slayer video?

Jeff Hanneman: We’ve thought about doing somthing like Metallica’s ”Cliff’em all” – just better. Maybe  we’ll record some of the shows on the coming tour, and release a video next year. We’ve already got enough private material; Tom and I both have video cameras, and have recorded snippets during the lp-production and on tour. There is bound to be some worthwhile viewing amongst it.

Tom Araya: I think that would be interesting, because people would understand our attitudes better. We’re basically just silly kids that wanna have a good time.

METAL HAMMER: What kind of relationship have you got amongst yourselves. Dave seems to be the odd one out in the band.

Jeff Hanneman: Yeah – you’re right. We normally only see Dave during rehearsals; He prefers hanging out with his wife which is fair enough. We don’t see much of Kerry either. Tom and I are the only ones here that occasionally meet up socially – and that’s fairly seldom.

METAL HAMMER: So you would necessairily call yourselves good friends?

Tom Araya: No, definitely not. We’re together so much touring and in the studio, we don’t get the urge to see eachother every day on top of that. Can you imagine having to stare at this stupid face for 3 months at a time?

Jeff Hanneman (laughing): Same here, this madman comes into my hotel room at 8 in the morning wanting to do a sight-seeing tour – unreal! I’ve only been in bed an hour or 2, and have better things on my mind than churches! But Tom can’t sleep, and waked me up. I really don’t want to have to look at his ugly mug 24 hours a day.

Tom Araya: Seriously though; We’re best friends on tour. We know when to avoid each other, so problems don’t crop up too often.

METAL HAMMER: Can you imagine the band ever splitting up because you just don’t get on any more?

Tom Araya: No, of course not! We went through this whole thing with Dave, but that only bound us together more. We know that Slayer wouldn’t be Slayer if one of us quit – on stage we’ve got such a strong bond that we could never be seperated that easily.