bioslayer

 

Slayer was formed by Kerry King and Dave Lombardo in 1981 and Jeff Hanneman and Tom Araya would soon join, in the beginning they played songs by Maiden and Priest before adopting a more thrash oriented sound. The band signed to Metal Blade Records and they released two albums on the label Show No Mercy (1983) and Hell Awaits (1985) before moving on to Rick Rubin's Def Jam label. In 1986 they released Reign in Blood, which was a landmark in thrash history. The band kept going and released South of Heaven (1988) and Seasons in the Abyss (1990) before the thrash wave slowly died off. But Slayer didn't stop, they plowed through the 90's with 1994's Divine Intervention and the cover album Undisputed Attitude from 1996.

In 1998 Slayer released Diabolus in Musica which got a lot of negative reviews for being too inspired by the NU-Metal trends of te 90's. The same can be said about 2001's God Hates Us All. In more recent years, Slayer has slowly tuned down the Nu-Metal flirtations and slowly returned to their thrash roots. By bringing back Dave Lombardo, the red logo and Larry Carroll who made their legendary artwork back in the day. Slayer released Christ Illusion (2006) and World Painted Blood (2009). In 2013 Jeff Hanneman died after a spider bite and Gary Holt of Exodus came in to fill the slot. Dave Lombardo also had enough and left and in came Paul Bostaph who was a known face since he was a part in the bands earlier days. In 2015 Slayer released Repentless. This is the biography of Slayer.

THE METAL BLADE YEARS (1981-1985)

Slayer also formed in 1981 when guitarist Kerry King met drummer Dave Lombardo in Huntington Park, Los Angeles. They soon found Jeff Hanneman and Tom Araya and in the beginning they rehearsed a lot of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest tunes. Slayer adopted a more evil approach compared to Metallica, they used spikes, pentagrams, leather and black make-up around the eyes. Similar to what Venom and Mercyful Fate were doing at the time. Slayer opened up for female fronted heavy metal band Bitch in California when Brian Slagel spotted them. He offered them a track on his Metal Massacre compilation series. The song they chose was Aggressive Perfector and it was released on Metal Massacre III, The song created an underground buzz, Enough so that Brian Slagel decided to sign Slayer. They worked close with Metal Blade over the next couple of years. Their in-house producer Bill Metoyer produced Slayer's early work.

The band didn't get a budget to record their debut album Show no Mercy, they had to finance it themselves. Just six months after Metallica debuted it was time for Slayer to enter the arena. The album was recorded in November and released in December of 1983. It had classic Slayer tracks such as Chrionics, The Antichrist, Evil has no Boundaries and Black Magic amongst others. Slayer then went on a tour traveling in Tom Araya's Camaro to support the album. After a gig at the Keystone slayer was told that the makeup around their eyes wouldn't be fitting in the hardcore environment at Ruthies Inn, where they were going to play a gig with Exodus, so Slayer took of the makeup and never looked back.

In August of 1984 Slayer released a three song EP called Haunting the Chapel. It was a little darker and thrashier than their debut LP. Slayer has played the song Chemical Warfare ever since the release of this EP. After some extensive touring Slayer's guitarist Kerry King started playing live with recently formed Megadeth. But after a few gigs with them Kerry King left and returned to Slayer. In late 1984 the band went on the Combat Tour with Venom and Exodus. Slayer released the live album Live Undead after those gigs. That Combat tour also resulted in Slayer's first home video: Combat Tour: The Ultimate Revenge.

After the bands early commercial succes the band once again entered the studio for the recording of Hell Awaits. It featured longer and more progressive song writing. It was another success and it broadened Slayer's fanbase. The album was chosen as the best metal album of 1985 in the British Magazine Metal Forces.

REIGN IN BLOOD (1986)

Def Jam co-founder Rick Rubin took a liking to the band and signed Slayer to his newly founded label. Def Jam was at the time more known as a hip hop label. On Def Jam Records Slayer's sound was reshaped and the band started writing shorter and faster songs. The production became clearer and the band sounded more professional than ever before. In October of 1986 Slayer released their third studio album titled Reign in Blood and it was an instant classic and a game changer. But everyone wasn't happy about Slayer's aggressive style and confrontational lyrics. The band had some trouble with the publisher Columbia Records for the song Angel of Death for how it detailed the concentration camps of the holocaust. With virtually no radio airplay Slayer managed to enter the Billboard's top 200 at 94th place.

In October of '86 Slayer embarked on the Reign in Pain tour with Overkill in the US and Malice in Europe. They also got an opening slot on WASP's upcoming US tour but Dave Lombardo had enough of the band and decided to leave the band because he felt he couldn't support  himself and his wife on the salary he received.

SOUTH OF HEAVEN AND SEASONS IN THE ABYSS (1987-1991)

After the major success with Reign in Blood, Slayer decided to slow down a bit on their fourth studio album South of Heaven (1988) through Def Jam. The album debuted as 57th on the Billboard top 200. But the reviews wan't always favourable for Slayer's more melodic fourth album. So the band decided to pick up the pace a bit on their fifth studio album Seasons in the Abyss, which was released in 1990 on Def American, Rick Rubin's new label. The album debuted on 44th place on the Bllboard list. Slayer recorded a music video for the song Seasons in the abyss. In 1990 Slayer embarked on the Clash of the Titans tour through Europe together with Megadeth and Suicidal Tendencies. The tour continued in the United States with Anthrax and Alice in Chains in 1991. Slayer recorded and released a titled Decade of Aggression in 1991.

THE NINETIES (1992-2000)

After Seasons in the Abyss the grunge wave came and Slayer had a hard time to find a place for their aggressive style of music. In 1994 the band released Divine Intervention, which was one of the last thrash metal albums from any American band for a long, long time. The reviews wasn't exciting but still it was true enough to Slayer's thrash metal roots to be accepted by most fans. In 1996 Slayer released a cover album called Undisputed Attitude, which featured a lot of punk songs the band was inspired by. In 1998 the band released Diabolus in Musica, which got a lot of bad reviews and the fans was angry that Slayer took their sound into a more modern direction, bordering on Nu-Metal, with much more simplistic groove metal riffs. 

GOD HATES US ALL (2001-2005)

Slayer started the new decade by releasing God Hates Us All on the same day as the attacks on World Trade Center. Maybe not the best timing for the struggling Slayer, sure they had some mainstream success in the 2000's but their old school fans were very divided about Slayer's more recent years. After the release of God Hates Us All, Paul Bostaph left the band and Dave Lombardo stepped in once again.

LOOKING BACK (2006-2010)

With Dave Lombardo back in the band, Slayer figured out that their past was their most popular era so they brought back Larry Carroll whom painted some of their legendary album covers including the Reign in Blood coverart, for their new album 2006's Christ Illusion. The same goes for their red Slayer-logo which they havent used for many years. Christ Illusion wasn't the success the band needed but still quite a popular album amongst fans of more modern metal genres. In 2009 Slayer released yet another album, World Painted Blood which became the last Slayer album with the original lineup of Hanneman, King, Araya and Lombardo. Slayer also left American Recordings after the release of Christ Illusion. In 2010 Slayer toured with Megadeth, Metallica and Anthrax as a part of the Big Four of thrash.

LIFE AFTER DEATH (2011-2017)

In 2013, Slayer's guitarist and main song-writer Jeff Hanneman died after being ill for some time, and when one of the most iconic names in the genre dies, it changes everything. Jeff Hanneman was an original member of Slayer and he has played on every Slayer album up until his death and he wrote the majority of the best songs Slayer ever created. He suffered from a spider bite and deteriorating health, he died in the spring of 2013 from liver failure and the thrash metal scene had suffered another huge loss. Since then Gary Holt of Exodus has filled in and he is one of the few guys with a similar iconic status that could help Slayer in the best possible way to regroup after the death of Jeff Hanneman.

In 2013 Dave Lombardo had enough of the band once again and left, this time for good it seems. Today Dave Lombardo has joined crossover giants Suicidal Tendencies. Paul Bostaph was once again chosen as a replacement for Dave Lombardo.

In 2015 Slayer released their first studio album without songwriter and guitarist Jeff Hanneman, the album was titled Repentless and the band recorded a music video for the track with the same name. The album was their first through Nuclear Blast Record. 


THE END (2018-)

2018 Slayer announced their farewell tour. Machine Head's Phil Demmel filled in on the tour when Gary Holt took a break from the band to be with his dying father. The tour has now ended and Slayer disbanded after it. There has been some mixed signals wheter they would ever return but it seems like Tom Araya has no plans of returning to Slayer.