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Text File
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1994-10-02
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3KB
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54 lines
SLAYER
line up: Tom Araya (vocals/bass)
Kerry King (guitar)
Jeff Hanneman (guitar)
Dave Lombardo (drums)
In 1982 four friends are rehearsing in a garage in Huntington Park, a L.A.
suburb. They're playing songs from Judas Priest and other metal favorites. When
they get bored with this they decide to exceed Venom. It means the volume on 11
,
an overheated metronome and hell and devil in the texts. This has immediate
success, and with their debut "Show no Mercy" they get worldwide fans. The band
does a lot of concerts, in America and Europe, and develops in a musical and
technical way. "Hell Awaits" shows already a bit better compositions, but the
top is reached with the next album. The songs are by then mostly written by
guitarplayers King and Hanneman (previous Tom Araya wrote too). In 1986 Slayer
moves from Metal Blade to Def Jam Records, a label from CBS with mostly rap
acts. "Reign in Blood", very hard and produced by Def Jam's own producer and
director Rick Rubin, however contains some texts which can't be released, in th
e
eyes of CBS. Discussion is merely about the song "Angel of Death", which is
about nazi-doctor Josef Mengele. Slayer denies each attitude: 'to us, Angel of
Death is just another song'. They are lucky: Geffen Records is looking for a
band to fill the speed/thrash-gap they have. The already existing contacts
between Slayer and Geffen are renewed and a few weeks later they have already
100,000 copies sold. In Europe, especcially England, WEA (the company that
distributes Gefffen) has troubles with the texts too. It will last till summer
1987 before it's released in England. Meanwhile there have been rumours that
drummer Dave Lombardo has left the band, due to family obligations. He should
have been replaced by (in order) T.J. Scaglione (Whiplash) and Gregg Hall
(Sacred Reich). The information is correct, but when Slayer starts touring
again in '87, it's the old line up that's on stage. Again they are more tight
and got more impact. A live album is now released, "Live Undead", with
recordings of the Haunting North America Tour of 1984. Initiated by Rick Rubin,
Slayer covers the Iron Butterfly-song "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (only without drum
solo) for the soundtrack of the film "Less Than Zero". In the meantime
snake-collector Kerry King also plays guitar on Beasty Boys hit "No Sleep till
Hammersmith". There's big news again in 1988, when "South of Heaven" is
released. The album shows, besides Lombardo speeding up, that Hanneman composes
now the main part of the songs and that a slightly better production (again
Rubin and Slayer) is good for the songs.
albums: Show No Mercy (Metal Blade/Roadrunner '83)
Hell Awaits (Metal Blade/Roadrunner '85)
Reign in Blood (Def Jam/Geffen '86)
Live Undead (Metal Blade/Roadrunner '87)
South of Heaven (Def Jam/Geffen '88)
video: Combat Tour: The Ultimate Revenge (with Exodus and Venom)
.