Slayer: The Interview
Archived
Back in the early ’80s, if you wanted to find the best new metal bands, checking out the rosters of labels such as Metal Blade or Combat Records was always a sure bet. Many of the bands from those formative years of metal are long gone, some are LOADing this or RELOADing that, but few still play with as much intensity as they once did. One band still following its original, fiendishly crafted recipe is the band Slayer. Diabolus In Musica, Slayer’s ninth recording output, will be released on June 9th, with a full-scale tour in support of the album just getting under way, I spoke with Jeff Hanneman, guitarist for Slayer, and this is what he had to say about the band, the new album and the tour:
SLUG: Hey Jeff, just to let you know this interview will be for the coveted and highly prized front cover of SLUG Magazine. So be prepared, this is going to do a lot for you guys. Slayer will get real big and you’ll be able to quit your day jobs.
JH: You mean our night jobs. Thanks, I’ll let the guys know.
SLUG: Where are you calling from?
JH: I’m at my home in Los Angeles.
SLUG: Are you one of the unfortunate Lakers fans?
JH: Hell no! I hate basketball, but I heard they lost in four.
SLUG: So was it ’81 that Slayer was formed?
JH: Somewhere around that time. I graduated from high school in ’82 and we formed the band the last year that I was in school. So ’81 or ’82 and it’s been the same lineup except for the drummer since then.
SLUG: After Forbidden broke up, Paul Bostaph (drums) played on Divine Intervention and then left to form his own band, Truth About Seafood. Did you know that he would be coming back to Slayer for the recording of Diabolus In Musica and tour with you?
JH: We had no idea he would be back in the band. When he was with us for Divine Intervention, he made it perfectly clear that he was going to fulfill his commitment to the band, but would then be going on to do his own thing. We were playing with another drummer but when our manager told us that Paul was interested in coming back I immediately said yes. Things just weren’t clicking with the other guy. He wasn’t bringing the creativity to the table that we needed like Paul does. Paul is a great drummer.
SLUG: How does his style compare with Dave Lombardo‘s?
JH: Paul is a more controlled drummer. He plays with as much explosiveness as Lombardo but instead of exploding then going all over the place he really keeps it together. He’s a real technical drummer.
SLUG: I understood that the original title for the new release was supposed to be Violent By Design? Why did you change it? Didn’t you think it was fitting?
JH: It was the best title at the time but then someone came up with Diabolus In Musica. The original meaning of that comes from way back when composers would use a certain tritone group of notes that I guess sounded eerie and strange at the time. The church thought it sounded like “devil music” and they outlawed the use of those notes. As it happens, we found out that we use a lot of those same notes in our songs. We thought that was cool and would fit even better as a title.
SLUG: Why did you wait four years in between Divine Intervention and Diabolus In Musica?
JH: We just spent so much time on the road and I can only write once I’m on the machine that I use at home once we’re back and I can get focused on writing again. We also needed to take some time off after the tour.
SLUG: What is your new label situation and will it benefit Slayer?
JH: It will definitely benefit us. Columbia, which is a part of Sony, bought American. The band System Of A Down went over also. We’re real happy about it. Columbia is actually putting money into the promotion of the album. In the past we’ve always gotten, “Slayer is going to sell what it sells and that’s it.” Columbia looks at it like we will automatically sell a certain amount of albums, then they try to double that amount. They have been real cool to us and haven’t been breathing down our necks.
SLUG: Sounds like you are getting the freedom of an independent label with the push of a major label.
JH: Exactly.
SLUG: Tell me about some of the lyrics of the album. Are any of the songs current-events-related?
JH: Death, murder, psychos, violence, suicide, war, etc. I don’t think we have anything related to current events. Tom usually comes up with that stuff.
SLUG: One of my favorite songs on the new album is “Love To Hate.” It’s not a complete departure from the Slayer sound, but it is different. Tell me about that song. Is that a backwards guitar chord in the beginning?
JH: Yes, we used a backwards guitar chord in the beginning but then it’s just us the rest of the time in the place of that part. I don’t even think we knew what we were trying to say with that song. It’s something like being an outsider that people love to hate. That’s definitely one of the more bizarre sounding songs on the album.
SLUG: What do you think of playing areas like Salt Lake, where religion is such a big issue in people’s everyday lives?
JH: We like it. If religion is such a big deal, they are the ones that need our music. We like to play Salt Lake.
SLUG: Have you had much trouble with violence at shows?
JH: Considering the type of music we play and the crowd we draw, not really. There’s always going to be a few dicks in every crowd, but violence hasn’t really ever been a problem. I do remember hearing about something happening the last time we were in Salt Lake.
SLUG: I heard about it also, but I didn’t see anything at the show. One last thing I was wondering about. (I always save the hardest hitting questions for the end.) Did the Beavis And Butthead show have to pay you for using Slayer on Beavis’s t-shirt?
JH: No, we never saw any money out of that. I guess I never really thought about it. I suppose if we pursued it maybe, but I don’t know how much money there would be in it.
SLUG: Any last words before I let you go?
JH: Just that we are really excited about getting out on the road. We start the tour tomorrow in Arizona and we will be out in Salt Lake on June 3rd. Then we are going to do a tour of Europe and Australia, and head back to the States for more shows. See you on the 3rd.
So there you have it, Salt Lake — SLAYER!!! Remember, the new album Diabolus In Musica will be in stores on June 9th. The Heavy Metal Shop in Salt Lake will be fully stocked with the new album and will be having a midnight sale to celebrate the release on June 9th — so that means be there at 11:59 on June 8th. AND since the show in Salt Lake will already be over by the time this issue hits the streets, hopefully you remembered that the title track of Slayer’s second album is “Haunting The Chapel,” if Tom Araya happened to ask again. —John Forgach
Read more interviews from the SLUG archives:
Clutch
Pete Droge Screenplay
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