On the T.V screen above Kerry King,an MTV VJ gushes excitedly at the prospect of the Sex Pistols and Stooges reunions. Thrashers extraordinaire Slayer may have appropriately just released Undisputed Attitude, a hardcore punk covers album, but the axe minister behind Reign In Blood and Divine Intervention sits unimpressed. Taking a sip of water slowly,he reflects "The Pistols were all angry 20-something years ago, and then they took a big break. So what are they going to be now?Are they going to be all angry and rebellious? Are they going to be like Deep Purple when they get back together?" Giving King's scorn,it's no surprise that Undisputed Attitude doesn't feature any Pistols choons. "Anyway", explains King, "Megadeth did one years ago and I don't want to do anything they did". The man who can do more with an ESP than Uri Geller has nothing against the Brits. Far from it. More trad metal merchants like Priest and Maiden were on his playlist long before the likes of U.S acolytes Minor Threat and he even reveals the original concept of ...Attitude wasn't punk but a document of influences that made Slayer what they are today. "We were doing Rainbow and Deep Purple,but playing it in the context of some of the punk songs didn't sound right," argues King,reasonably. "So we cut all that stuff and made a punk record". Produced by Dave Sardy(of Barkmarket and also Frank Black's knob-twiddler) on Rick Rubin's American Recordings,Undisputed Attitude throbs with U.S punk classics such as the Adolescents' Richard Hung Himself. Slayer's intention was to recreate the punk attitude and aggression-easy,given the intensity of their own material-whilst ensuring that the production qualities their fans were used to were maintained. "Punk records sound like shit just because the mixing sucks and they probably spent about ten bucks recording it.... but that's what made punk cool. If you like the way Slayer have done it though, you probably won't like the way it sounded originally." Most of Slayer's arrangements are faithful to the original recordings. However,King and fellow guitarist Jeff Hanneman couldn't resist some trademark ballistic soloing on a few of the tracks,"just to add ourselves to it. And if our fans hadn't of read anything and just bought it,they'd probably think it was just a new Slayer record." Indeed,three of the tracks on Undisputed Attitude are Slayer originals; Can't Stand You and D.d.a.m.m, written by Hanneman and Gemini,penned by King and singer/bassist Tom Araya. Slayer hope to tour the album,if only to mark the public debut of new drummer John Dette,and are considering doing a couple of festivals this summer. However,any new Slayer record is strictly at an embryonic stage. "Jeff's written three songs," King states flatly. "I've written nothing". Oh well. For now, Slayer are just content to let the world know that the likes of Green Day and Offspring are mere punk pretenders. "This album is a wake-up call to people that think that is punk,more than anything", declares Kerry. "I don't know whether they think of themselves as that, or they're just labelled that. But when people hear this, they're going to have to relabel that!"