Slayer
Tom Araya
Vocals, Bass
Kerry King
Guitar
Jeff Hanneman
Guitar
Dave Lombardo
Drums
Location: Huntington Park, California, USA
Genre: Metal, Thrash Metal
Years Active: 1981 - 2019; 2024 -
Meaning of the Name:
Way of Working: Led by Hanneman and King
Essential Releases
Hell Awaits (1985)
Demonic. Progressive songs at length.
Reign in Blood (1986)
Brutal precision play. Extreme.
South of
Heaven (1988)
Slower. Sinister sounds of beckoning dread.
Seasons in
the Abyss (1990)
The culmination of their previous albums. Breakneck speed, doom, and Satanism.
When it comes to Slayer, the truly important thing is the music, but the fascistic and satanic symbolism is impossible to ignore. For over four decades, the California quartet existed at the dangerous crossroads of precision and provocation. While their notorious aesthetic guaranteed headlines, the true, lasting success of the band lies in their ability to translate the depraved depths of humanity into a clinical and brutal form of music.
Slayer’s controversies were the defining feature of their image, and nowhere are they better exemplified than on 'Angel of Death', the opening track of their auditory equivalent to armageddon, otherwise known as Reign in Blood (1986).
The lyrics, penned by guitarist Jeff Hanneman, detail the vile experiments conducted by the Nazi war doctor Josef Mengele, who operated on prisoners without anesthesia at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War, removing organs and castrating his victims while they were alive. Adopting Mengele’s first-person perspective, lines like "destroying without mercy to benefit the Aryan race" drew condemnation from prominent Jewish figures, including the head of Slayer's parent label Columbia Records, Walter Yetkinoff, who refused to release the project. The album was eventually distributed by Geffen Records.
While the band, which included two Latino members (vocalist Tom Araya and drummer Dave Lombardo), consistently denied advocating for white supremacy, their calculated use of despicable symbols lent credence to these claims. Hanneman was later revealed as an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia.
Despite such glaring similarities, it should be remembered that depiction does not equal glorification. It would be foolish to brand the German director Wolfgang Petersen a fascist for helming the film Das Boot (1981). Slayer's intent behind using such symbols was multi-faceted, encompassing shock value, marketing techniques, historical warning, and visual extremism.
The furore surrounding the track 'Altar of Sacrifice', which is saturated in satanic imagery, reached a fever pitch in 2001 following an unsuccessful lawsuit brought by the family of Elyse Pahler, a 15-year-old girl murdered by teenagers who ludicrously believed a virgin sacrifice would improve their guitar playing. The case was eventually thrown out of court, setting a vital precedent that protected the legal basis for freedom of expression by implying that murderous imbecility exists regardless of musical preference.
Unquestionably, Slayer’s lyrical preoccupation is with nihilism and transgression, covering topics like the Third Reich, serial killers, and genocide. But this fascination is also deeply embedded in Western culture as a psychological coping mechanism that sees millions of people regularly drawn to the macabre entertainment of true crime and horror films. Slayer's unflinching gaze into the grotesque and the profane acknowledges the existence of such evils, because by averting our eyes, we risk allowing them to grow unchecked.
To understand why Slayer deployed such extreme imagery, we must first consider the environment of 1980s Los Angeles. The scene was dominated by glam metal: radio-friendly rock performed by spandex-clad groups with perms. Slayer and the burgeoning thrash metal movement sought a decisive, stylistic separation. Their shocking imagery was not merely for its own sake; it was the ultimate, aggressive counterpoint to the commercialised, accessible aesthetic of their peers, solidifying their identity as the voice of pure, unadulterated musical menace.
However, image alone couldn't sustain such a blitzkrieg of the senses; it operated in tandem with the music. As a technical masterclass in precision play and structural efficiency, albums like Reign in Blood and Seasons in the Abyss (1990), brazenly differentiated thrash from earlier, tamer forms of metal with their relentless ferocity.
The dual guitars of Hanneman and Kerry King created a cacophony of dissonant, razor-sharp down-picking, driven by the foundational power of Dave Lombardo's drumming. Lombardo’s revolutionary double-bass work is not merely fast; it sounds like a percussive engine of pure devastation, cementing a template for all extreme metal drummers who followed.
Slayer did not just sing about horror; they sounded like it. The chaotic, non-melodic shrieks and frantic whammy-bar abuse of their solos are not designed to be melodic; they sound like tortured, screaming chaos, live from the pits of perdition. Playing such controlled aggression at blistering speed proved that technical mastery could be wielded not only for showmanship, but for the articulation of utter nihilism.
Skills
*This is a work in progress. Values are subjective.Emotional Impact
90
Mental Impact
55
Originality
90
Artistry
85
Authenticity
35
Live
90
Production
80
Musicianship
90
Screaming
85
Songwriting
70
Danceability
70
Fun
25
Consistency
75
Range
45
Cool
25
Charisma
70
Commercial & Critical Success
Awards >>>
- Grammy Award WINNER! x2
- Grammy Award Nominee x3
Certifications >>>
- Reign in Blood - Gold in the US; Silver in the UK
- South of Heaven - Gold in the US & Canada; Silver in the UK
- Seasons in the Abyss - Gold in the US & Canada
- Divine Intervention - Gold in the US & Canada
Charts >>>
- Divine Intervention - Number 8 in the US
- Christ Illusion - Number 2 in Germany; Number 5 in the US
- Repentless - Number 1 in Germany; Number 2 in Holland; Number 4 in the US
Critics >>>
- Kerrang! - Reign in Blood - 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time (2006): 27th
- Rolling Stone - Reign in Blood - 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time (2017): 6th
- Rolling Stone - Seasons in the Abyss - 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time (2017): 31st
