When planning children's parties, brunches with your parents or business dinners for the boss, you do not choose Slayer as the soundtrack. If you're in need of some visceral aural therapy, a sonically extreme and violent empathetic vent or just something to instantly get your middle finger good 'n' hard, then you pick Slayer. Since their Southern Californian beginnings during the early '80s, Slayer have flown a flag not just for thrash or speed metal, but for extreme music in general. Witness the Beastie Boys' using guitarist Kerry King on their 1986 debut album License To Ill. Witness Public Enemy's sampling a Slayer riff on 1988's It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. This is the band who wrote the greatest extreme metal record in history, Reign In Blood, 12 years ago, the band who after 17 years are able to challenge hearing thresholds the world over with their imminent new release, Diabolus In Musica . The title means, appropriately enough, "The Devil's Music." And if Old Lucifer's got himself a stereo, Slayer are undoubtedly his dinner and dance soundtrack (alongside Miles Davis and Ministry). Slayer remain the extreme band that never got away.

"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."