...reckons guitarist Kerry King.

SLAYER, on the other hand, have done something which will not guarantee them chart success –recorded an album of punk covers. Ian Winwood joins Jeff Hanneman and the opinionated Kerry King in Los Angeles to hear about run-ins with Kirk Hammett at Donington, Slayer’s new drummer, and their new album ‘Selected And Exhumed’

We’re driving down the Hollywood freeway on the way to talk to Slayer. The group’s manager, Rick Sales, is driving, an American Recordings representative is sitting in the front seat, and I’m in the back trying to stay cool.

But it’s a big day. Not only (for once) have Slayer deigned not to come to Europe for the press - so, what’s to do? The press has to head over to LA - but in my walkman there sits an advance copy of the band’s new album, ‘Selected And Exhumed’. Essentially a punk covers record (featuring versions of tunes by such bands as Minor Threat, Verbal Abuse, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, Suicidal Tendencies, DI and lggy Pop, as well two old Jeff  Hanneman-penned  punk slammers, and ‘Gemini’, a new Kerry King song), this is the filthiest, most subversive and - by some margin – most extreme Slayer disc to emerge since, you guessed it, ‘Reign In Blood’ a decade ago.

It sounds like an album recorded by highly aggrieved 20-year-olds rather than the comfortable thirtysomethings Slayer now are.

In fact, as ‘Selected...’ slams into opener ‘Verbal Abuse’, the velocity and energy is at such at a peak that all you can really do is shake your head and smile at the wonder of it all...

SLAYER REHEARSE IN THE LA SUBURBl OF ANAHEIM,

a 40-minute drive from the city. Situated in what appears to be a business park, the band’s practice headquarters are a large three-room property consisting of an office, TV room (holding the world’s best-stocked fridge, by the way), and a large rehearsal room. Spread-legged centrefolds from Hustler magazine adorn the walls everywhere you look. It’s in here - a space filled with Marshalls, pedal boards, drums and home-made banners from tours dating back to 1985 - that I’m granted an audience as Slayer (minus Tom Araya, whose wife is about to give birth) practice with new drummer John Dette. It’s at such close range that one realises - as if realisation were needed -just how good Slayer are. The band, by the way, play ‘Postmortem’,‘Killing Fields’, ‘Spirit In Black’, ‘Altar Of Sacrifice’, ‘South Of Heaven’, ‘Black Magic’, ‘Jesus Saves’, ‘Chemical Warfare’, ‘Reign In Blood’... They even take a request from your reporter for ‘Dittohead’.

But first there’s the interview, here conducted with Jeff Hanneman and the irrepressible Kerry King. Covering topics ranging from the recent departure of drummer Paul Bostaph, to the state of punk rock, to what keeps the pair angry, to their good friendships with Metallica and Sepultura (joke), it’s nice to see that Slayer are as indiscreet and noisy in conversation as they are in their music. No Platinum-status tact here. After the interview, with a smile I ask Kerry King if he’s ever heard of the phrase ‘Off the record.’ “No,” he says, “that doesn’t work. You journalists can’t be trusted.”

‘...Exhumed’ strikes me as the most extreme album ever released on a major label.
Your thoughts?

Kerry King: “I don’t know if it is in this day and age. I mean, shit, ‘Reign In Blood’ [19861 was about as hardcore as you could get at the time without being classified as punk. But I don’t know what’s extreme any more; fucking music sucks. Music sucks bad. I mean, anybody that used to have half a clue, or any body that used to be angry, fucking ain’t angry any more. Except us. Music is definitely panty waste right now.”

So how come Slayer are still angry and other bands aren’t?

King: “I don’t know if it’s just being angry, but we like this shit. I mean, I wish 20 stations would play this on the radio, cos I love it. But radio just sucks a big dick now. It’s horrible. I don’t know where it’s going.”

Bands always used to bang on about radio getting radio play. Is it worse now than it used to be?

King: “I think so. It’s designed to attract the wuss crowd, for want of a better term. There used to be one heavy station [in Los Angeles, KNACI, and that’s now a Spanish station. I mean, what’s up with that? In the fucking United States! Your only fucking heavy metal station, and you’ve got to put a Mexican station on when there’s probably 50 other ones. That makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?”

Did KNAC used to play you?

King: “Occasionally. But they’d play heavy enough stt~ff that I’d want to listen to it. All the rock stattons now just play all this new fucking pansy music like Bush and fucking wussy little bastards. It just irritates me.”

Hanneman: “I wouldn’t even fucking know I don’t listen to it. I haven’t listened to the radio since KNAC. I don’t watch MTV either.”

Was ‘Selected And Exhumed’ in any way informed by the new wave of punk bands. Was it a reaction against that?

King: “Well I really dislike the new punk movement. If that’s what you want to call it.

That fucklng irritates me too. Like said, music in general just irritates me. There’s enough shit going onright now to keep me playing forever I’m sure it’s been in the back of our minds now for a while, I’ve wanted to do ‘Spiritual Law’ for ever. He [Hanneman] wanted to do some of the other ones forever. When the record started out it was just going to be what made Slayer Slayer: early Deep Purple, early Rainbow... But when we tried to learn those we couldn’t make them not sound seventies. So they kind of fell by the wayside and we made a punk record.”

Do any of the original artists appear as guests?

King: “No. We didn’t even fucking ask them. For a long time I think [Rick] Rubin wanted us to do a Black Flag song so Henry Rollins come and sing. And I’m like, ‘For what? Shit!’ Tom [Araya] did an excellent job. I didn’t think he was going to do nearly as good a jab as he did, and he came in and just kicked ass. He did a really good job.”

Hanneman: “He went totally balls-out. I couldn’t believe he had it in him. Fucking amazing.”

King: ‘Me and Jeff were talking about this before he did the song, and we’re like, ‘Man. I don’t know if Tom’s going to be able to do this!’ But he came in and just fucking crushed.”

Hanneman: “And wasn’t it refreshing to hear that? In this day and age?”

Yeah. And it made me wonder: If Green Day are a punk band, then what is this?

King: “Green Day is not a punk band. I mean go back chronologically and look at what’s punk. It has nothing to do with Green Day... I can see where somebody would like that stuff, just because they like different kinds of music, and that’s fine. But all that labellmg that irritates me. I don’t know ii that’s anybody’s fault at all, but you can’t call those bands punk. It sounds like pop to me.”

Hanneman: “I think the media calls it punk, that’s all. It’s weak and it’s not what I would consider punk from when I was a kid.”

You said earlier. Kerry. that music sucks so much now that you are angry enough to keep playing this stuff for 20 years. Does that mean that if the music scene were better then Slayer wwdd be worse?

King: “Whoa! Don’t fuck with my head, man! NO, I’d find something else to be angry about.”

Like what?

King: “l’d turn on the TV and find something. For example, I started realizing how taxes affected me, and that pissed me off. Taxes are the most unfair thing in the world. Why do I pay more money to for the same piece of road as somebody that’s driving a Volkswagen? Why? The way you do it here is that you get the registration for your car. And the more expensive your car. the more money you have to pay to use the same piece of road as somebody paying ten bucks to drive a Volkswagen. My reglstratlon is 900 to 1,000 dollars.

“There’s tons of examples like that. We’re at the top of the spectrum because we learned how to make money. Why do we get punished? If we paid the same percentage as everyone else, then we would still pay more but at least it would be far. But its not. You’re penalizing me for learning how to succeed. Thats bullshit.”

You have a new drummer, John Dette, last in Testament. You’re probably going to get asked this countless times over the following months, but what was the story behind Paul Bostaph leaving?

King: [laughingI “I can show you a picture of his new band [The Trouble With Seafoodl! It’s comedy, the poor guy. I don’t understand it, but I guess in a nutshell he just wanted to play other stuff.

King: “I love Paul to death. Its just I don’t agree with his business mind If he has one. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. He left Slayer to be nothing. Maybe in his mind  he won’t be nothing, but you just don’t jump in Slayer for one record and then have the recognition that we’ve achieved in ten years. You’re still just Paul Bostaph. Obwously that doesn‘t matter to him. But I’ve heard the band. I mean, it’s like Cllili Peppers, Primus. Infectious [Grooves].... That stuff’s over with.

Hanneman: (Sarcastcally) “Great lyrics, though.”

King “And I could do that fucking drum gig!”

Interesting you should say that, because one of the reasons Paul Bostaph gave for leaving Slayer was that although he enjoyed being in the band, be found the music you made too restrictive for him.

King: “Well if you listen to the stuff he did on ‘Divine [Intervention]’ from Paul’s perspective, he was just fucking psycho on that record. If you listen to his new record, me and Jeff could play it. It’s nothing. So how can that be restrictive? The only way I can look at it is that he thought himself restricted style-wise. But then - so what, You’re regarded as one of the best drummers in the world. Because of that one record. And now you’re playing something that noone’s gonna give two shits about.

In terms of a personality, Paul Bostaph seemed to fit the Stayer mould perfectly. Is he going to be difficult to replace in that aspect?

King: “I was worried about that in the beginning. I didn’t give a shit ahout Dave, because I didn’t like him. I mean. back at the time of ‘South Of Heaven’ I think Dave made me a real prick. I grew out of that, but I could be a real prick. When Paul said he was leaving it was like, ‘Fuck’ We actually like this guy!“

There was a pretty heavy rumour during the rounds that you were going to invite Dave Lombardback to the drum stool. Is there any truth to this?

King: “That was pure rumour. I heard it in one of the magazines. They were saying that we were holding audltions, and since nobody’s called Lomhardo that’s obviously a rumour. No chance. We didn’t even think about it even as a joke. I mean, I thought about it, but only because I knew evewone would he speculating ”

What would be the reasons for not having Lombardback? Is it too far gone for that?

King: “We never got along, me and Dave, we’d always fight. Dave fought with  everybody actually. He just didn’t agree with anythlng. He’s a hard-headed son of a bitch.”

There were a romour saying that you were going to invite ex-Machine drummer, Chris Kontos to play in Slayer. What about that??

King: “No. I would never do that because I like Machine Head too much. And that’s a weird story. The Kontos thing I mean. he leave Machine Head for whatever reason and I don’t think anybody knows what the real reason is and then he gets in Testament, which is a fucking nothing gig. There’s no drum demand there.

One of the things I noticed on ‘Divine Intervention’ was a lack of creative input from Jeff. What was the story there?

Hanneman: “I was out to lunch, basically. I just didn’t have the focus, wasn’t into It... Well I was into it, but didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was out to lunch and he [King] basically stepped in.”

King: “For a long time we just sat idle. Jeff was threatening that he was gonna come in with songs. I’m like, Okay, I’ll wait for Jeff And it just never happened. So one day I just sad: ‘Fuck, we gotta get this record done.So I got  three songs kicked out in about one month and we just kicked things off.”

Hanneman: “Which is why for this (yet to be recorded), album I’ve alredy written three songs. We want to get that one done within the end of the year.”

I understand that Tom Araya’s wife is just about to have a baby. Last time a member of Slayer fathered a child (Dave Lombard) it caused all manner of problems. Is that gonna happen again?

King: “No, I’ve had a kid since then and it caused no problems No, last time it was Dave, it was how he handled things I had a baby - well. not personally and the things I did wrong were family-wise, nothing to do with Slayer When it was born I was out doing press in Europe To me, that’s a priority thing – She was going to have that baby whether I was there or not. It didn’t earn me any brownie points at home, but I was doing my job ”

I suppose that’s one of the things involved in growing older as a band. At the start it’s just four guys against the world, but then things in your life become more important than that.

King: I don’t know if it comes ahead of it. We have different interests now Shit, me and him [Hanneman] collect sports cards like they’re going out of style. But this (Slayer) comes first.

If I had to do something for the band. I’d do it and put evetythlng else on hold”

I did an interww with Kerry in Metal Hammer,(Septemember ‘95 issue) prior to last year’s Donmgton festival where you said: “Kirk Hammett is the most overrated player ever to grace the pages of a guitar magazine.” Did you get any feedback from that?

King: ‘Oh, that was the interview that got me in trouble’ After the gig we were at the aftershow and Kirk comes up to me all drunk off his ass and starts giving me shit I’m like, ‘Listen, man, It doesn’t mean you suck because I think you’re overrated. It was silly, man He comes up to me ‘Hey, you wanna do a solo record” ‘Not particularly. He wanted to piss me off. He has in print so he had something to come at me with. I just said: ‘I think you’re overrated, I don’t think you’re that great, but that doesn’t mean you suck. That’s just what I think.“’

Don’t you think ‘Unforgiven’ has a great solo?

King: I think the song Unforgiven’ sucks There’s like two songs on that record I like, Maybe. But that doesn’t mean they’re bad songs ,that means they’re not my style. But I’ve got to bitch about it because it’s not what Metallica are. Metallica have changed to be popular wth the masses. Whether they want to or not, that’s not what got Metallica big and that’s what irritates me.”

Hanneman: “I don’t listen to them any more. I think thev just totally lost the edge. Thev just don’t seem to want to write the heavy stuff anymore, for whatever reason. Maybe that’s not what they like to write about any more ”

King “It was funny though, because everyone at Donnington came up to me and gave me shit because the article had just come out. Lars was cool about it though Lars knows. Lars ain’t the greatest drummer in the world but he does his job. Jason had nothing to say. And nobody said anythmg about what I said about James - ‘“I said James is probably the best metal frontman there is.

He had nothing to say. He was probably happy as hell. Not that he gives a shit anyway”.

Do you think that James Hetfiefd is a better frontman than Tom Araya?

King: “Oh definitely - just in terms of relating to the crowd ”

I think that’s the weakest point of Slayer’s live-set. It seems that Tom doesn’t know what to say between songs.

King: “He has no cheerleader in him, which is good”.

Hanneman: “That’s one of the things I like about Tom, because it’s so different. He could control that whole crowd, and instead he’s like, (Looking around) ‘What’s the next song” He’s got all that power right there but he just doesn’t know how to yield it, I guess”.

Going back to the Kirk Hammett quote, you upset so many of our readers there, I just can’t begin to tell you.

King: “And they’re all probably saying about how lousy I am and about how great   Kirk Hammett is. It’s all popularity, man. It’s got nothing to do wth how good you are. Technically, he can probably play circles around me, but I don’t give a shit because I write way better leads than he does ”

So how is your relationship with Metallica? When asked to respond to your outburst last year, Lars Ulnch tactfully declined to comment, putting it down to “private Slayer business”.

King: “I just think he didn’t want it to erupt into a big media thing, like the Slayer/Sepultura thing. The only reason I fuel that thing is because it’s so stupid. It’s the dumbest thing ever ”

On the subject of Sepultura. Max Cavalera recently cast doubts on whether you’d still be around in five years. Anything to say?

King: ‘What, and they will? Wait till we make a video in the mud, then let’s talk. Five years!!?? Fucking retard”.

Following last year’s Donnington festival, there was a quote in a magazine that claimed Slayer - unlike Machine Head and White Zombie – sounded old and tired. Is it possible to always remain on the cutting edge?

King “I think it’s possible to stay on the edge. But what’s the edge, you know? Why do Zombie have the edge and we don’t, you know? It’s an opinion. I don’t think White Zombie’s on the edge. I think they’re doing rock’n’roll with voice synthizers, that’s what I think”.

It’s like a Motley Crüe for the ’90s.

King “They ain’t gonna be around in five years time ”

By the way, please say what you think. Don’t hold back.

King: [laughing] “I’ve never had a problem with that!”

Hanneman: “Go Kerry, go Kerry...”

King: “You know, we make the kind of music we hke to hear. That’s what made us who we are. We put out songs that we like, we don’t put out songs because we thought someone else was ganna like them. I think that’s why we’ve stayed credible, and I think that’s why we’ve had the fan loyalty we’ve had – because we’re fans ourselves. If we like it, then generally the people who are ganna by our records will.”

And are Slayer fans still as loyal’

King: “They were last time we played ”