Slayer 3
And it’s the way Slayer will be heard later this summer, finally. It has been five years since the group’s last record, God Hates Us All, a long time for a band who generally release something every two or three years. Before this the longest they had ever taken were the four years between 1990’s Seasons In The Abyss (the last album with the original lineup) and Divine Intervention.
The fact their longtime label, the Rick Rubin-owned American, negotiated new distribution (moved from Island/Def Jam to Warner Bros.) delayed the recording of the as-yet-untitled album — “We get bumped because we had to wait for all the dust to settle,” King says — Araya and King admit it was mostly their own doing. Slayer receive even more tour opportunities now than 10 years ago, and it’s hard to make a new record when you’re always on the road.
“What generally happens is, we always gear up to make new music, and nine times out of 10, another tour will come up,” King explains, “and once we start focusing on a tour we don’t focus on new music. We come back, and we’re all burned out again and we don’t rehearse for two or three months, then we start working on new songs again — another tour pops up. It’s just shifting priorities.”
“When we finally finished the last European tour we did, and we got home, it was like, ‘O.K. We’ve got to get this record done. We can’t let it sit while we do another tour,'” Araya says. “We were pretty antsy.”
Because they had been preparing to record for more than a year, Slayer already had well-defined ideas for 11 songs before they stepped into the studio with producer Josh Abraham (Velvet Revolver, Soulfly, Atreyu). “We thought and rethought these songs, some of them off and on for, shit, me and Dave had a demo from March ’04 that had nine of these songs on it,” King says. “And they haven’t changed a whole hell of a lot since then. So it’s just been polishing off and on.”
“This one was very prepared, to the point we did various demos and critiqued the demos: Sit down and go ‘You need to play like this one that part and like that on this part.’ Once we did it, we recorded it that way and [saw] if we liked it,” Araya says about the new effort, which is scheduled for a late-summer release. “We were actually so prepared when we got into the studio that the drum tracks were done in less than a week.”
The results? King won’t divulge any surprises about the record (due out July 25th), but, going back to his earlier comments, it’s only because there are few surprises to divulge.
“In a nutshell it’s Slayer ’06,” he says without hesitation. “There’s war songs; there’s anti-religious songs; there’s Satanic songs, your typical barrage of Slayer banter.”
The band will play at least one tune, and maybe two King says, on this summer’s Unholy Alliance Tour (Eternal Pyre, an EP featuring the new song “Cult” will be released in Hot Topic stores the same day). Slayer headline a monster bill that includes acclaimed thrashers Lamb Of God, prog-metal goliaths Mastodon, Scandinavian favorites Children Of Bodom, and metalcore outfit Thine Eyes Bleed, which feature Araya’s kid brother Johnny on bass. Both Araya and King consider this to be one of the strongest touring packages they’ve ever taken part (King even draws parallels to the heralded early-’90s Clash Of The Titans — Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax — tour) because it brings together the best of old and new school.
And while nobody is saying or even insinuating it, it’s easy to view Unholy Alliance as the passing of the torch. Slayer are as popular now as they ever have been in their decades-old year career, and — discounting a drastic letdown on the new record — are still on top of their game musically. Lamb Of God and Mastodon, along with bands like Shadows Fall, represent the future of the genre in many people’s minds, though, and King understands it isn’t realistic for Slayer to play thrash metal until they start collecting social security.
“It’s definitely sooner than later anymore,” Kings says, surprisingly honest about the band’s future. “Even though Angus [Young] can fuckin’ go up there and rock his ass off at 60, I don’t wanna do that. Because I think it would be harder to translate in our music; it’s not just a one-man show. There’s a few things involved. Until it’s physically, we’re not into it or it just becomes not fun,” he rethinks his thought, “I can’t imagine it not being fun, though, because it’s been fun the whole ride. It’s probably going to be when it’s not sellable, you know? When it’s ‘Man, am I really doing a good job?’ kind of thing.
“I don’t plan on being another five years away from recording, so maybe we can get one done three years later,” he continues. “I would say at least another record, maybe two, it just depends on how cycles go.”
Bands generally shy away from “the end” talk. Maybe because they struggle to identify the end; look at the countless acts tarnishing their histories by continuing to release mediocre music or, worse yet, limping through endless comeback or farewell tours. Slayer fans will never suffer through such bullshit, King says.
“The other thing I don’t want to be is that band that comes back for 20 fuckin’ reunion tours,” King insists. “When it’s done it’s done. Leave your legacy there, and let the kids run with it.”
And let opening bands everywhere breathe a sigh of relief.
— Trevor Fisher
Only one thng that can be said:
SLAYERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.