Krgin also noted, “The biggest surprise — and ultimately, disappointment — comes in the shape of the vocal performance of frontman Tom Araya. Once considered to be at the very top of his field — with the kind of vocal power and conviction most of his counterparts could only dream of — Araya has transformed into a hollow shell of his former self, boasting a singing style that is monotonous, devoid of creativity and at times virtually unlistenable.”
The Blabbermouth review scored the album a 6 on a scale of 1-10. But the reader reviews, over a decade later, averaged a 7.9 — the highest possible high C+. Unlike critics and connoisseurs, fans tend to be unburdened by expectations of what a band could do and should do. A new record from their favorite group makes them happy. And if they’re still listening to it a decade later, that’s an added bonus.
A marked minority rank God Hates Us All among their favorite Slayer records. King is one: In 2007, he told me, “I like Reign in Blood, I like Seasons in the Abyss, I like God Hates Us All, and I like Christ Illusion – those are my top four.”
As it turned out, the biggest surprise was the album’s reception among music industry kingmakers.
The album’s first real song, “Disciple” — with the very clearly shouted repeating chorus “GOD HATES US ALL!” — wasn’t a hit single, but it broke big. The song snagged the band their first Grammy nomination, in the Best Metal Performance Category. Tool won. But ever since Jethro Tull beat out Metallica for the first Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental Grammy in 1989, nobody expected the category’s results to be very hardcore.
2001 was another exceptionally busy touring year. The band played around 80 shows. Before the album dropped, Slayer bounded back into arenas, taking a spot on the Extreme Steel tour, a top-heavy affair that starred Pantera, then Slayer, then Morbid Angel, then Static-X, then Skrape. Slayer sets were short but devastating, typically:
1. “Raining Blood”
2. “Chemical Warfare”
3. “Stain of Mind”
4. “Bloodline”
5. “War Ensemble”
6. “Disciple”
7. “Seasons in the Abyss”
8. “Dead Skin Mask”
9. “South of Heaven”
10. “Angel of Death”
The 9/11 terrorist attacks scuttled a European edition of the Pantera package in the fall. Slayer headlined an altered lineup of Cradle of Filth, Biohazard — and, on German dates, Destruction, as the local heroes had in 1985.
The God Hates the World tour hit the US in October. Slayer headlined the same clubs they had before, but with more theaters on the list. The New York City show once again hit the Roseland. In Hollywood, the band staged a hometown show at the 6,000-capacity Universal Amphitheatre. Average setlist:
1. “Darkness of Christ”
2. “Disciple”
3. “War Ensemble”
4. “Stain of Mind”
5. “New Faith”
6. “Postmortem”
7. “Raining Blood”
8. “Hell Awaits”
9. “Die by the Sword”
10. “Dittohead”
11. “Bloodline”
12. “God Send Death”
13. “Dead Skin Mask”
14. “Seasons in the Abyss”
15. “Mandatory Suicide”
16. “Chemical Warfare”
Encore:
17. “South of Heaven”
18. “Angel of Death”
The shows were devastating to the drummer. Early in the tour, he aggravated a pre-existing softball injury to one of his arms when lifting a laptop computer at the airport. (Portable computers weighed more in 2001, and smart phones as we know them didn’t exist.) Bostaph played the whole tour hurt. By December, the band had a mere 35 or so shows notched, most of them played since June. But even with the light schedule, the drummer was run down — and out. Maybe run out.
With just a few dates left in the year, Slayer returned to San Francisco for a December 7 show at the Warfield Theater. The concert was filmed and later released as the Live at the Warfield video. Two weeks after taping that document, the band issued a press release.
“Due to a chronic elbow injury, Paul Bostaph, Slayer drummer for the past several years, is leaving the band,” read the written statement. “Bostaph feels he is unable to continue performing to his fullest potential and greatest intensity.
“Bostaph says, ‘It's been an unbelievable ride with Slayer. Playing with these guys has been an incredible high point in my career, and I am really grateful for the experience.’
“Slayer bandmates Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman and Tom Araya are all indebted for Paul's contributions. Guitarist Kerry King said, ‘Paul has been an incredible part of our band and we will definitely miss his talent. We wish him all the best.’”35-5
As usual, the official explanation came into dispute later.
Shortly after leaving the thrash titans, the drummer joined Systematic, a junior-varsity nü-metal band that signed to Elektra. A year and a half later, immediately following the release of his first album with Systematic, Bostaph opened up with a tantalizing but incomplete explanation for his split with Slayer. Speaking to music magazine Perfect Pitch Online, he said the neither the injury or the opportunity led him to leave.
Slayer’s account was accurate to a degree: An arm injury was real. Bostaph said he was already considering leaving at that point. But the wear and tear twisted his arm.
"I didn't leave Slayer because of an arm problem,” he told Perfect Pitch. “And I certainly didn't leave Slayer to join Systematic. I was ready to go. It was nothing personal towards anybody in the band, it was just my time to leave. Musically, I wanted to do something else…. Slayer took my drumming to a new level, but there are also other levels of drumming that I haven't even touched yet. I want to become a more eclectic drummer."
With dates already scheduled for January, Slayer needed a new drummer, fast. They didn’t call Dette, who had replaced briefly Bostaph in 1996.
The press release that announced Bostaph’s departure also broke the news of his replacement. It was a familiar face. Team Slayer had drafted a surprising and inspired choice.
Click here to Google search “Slayer photos 2001”
Chapter 36:
Drums in the Deep: Lombardo’s Interim
It took years, but after his split with Slayer, the discarded Lombardo would bounce back.
Outside Slayer, he would never be in such a prominent public position. But his reputation and skills would carry him through the rest of a respectable career.
As 1992 gave way to ’93, however, he was down and out. He would recall the year after he left Slayer as a low point in his life.
As far as he knew, his skills had permanently faded. It was a reasonable assumption. He was 27 — by the day’s standards, very old for a speed-metal drummer.
Unemployed, powerless, and aimless, Lombardo reached a classic stage in the archetypal hero’s journey: He had to regroup and rediscover his inner fire. Closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead, he recalled his fruitful years in the wilderness.
His diminishing athletic-artistic prowess turned on a mundane mechanical issue.
“I lost touch,” Lomardo says. “It was affecting my drum playing… having my drum throne too high made me just not able to do what I was known to do – until I left Slayer.”
Idling at home, Lombardo took his drum kit apart. And he rebuilt it, from the bottom up, piece by piece. Normally, after a layoff, Lombardo was weak and fatigued easily. But now, sitting at the kit, he felt better than he had for years. Suddenly, playing was effortless. He could barely believe it.
He walked into the family room and found Teresa.
“It’s back,” he said, bewildered. “It’s the weirdest thing.”
Now Lombardo was ready to get back in the game. He just wasn’t sure what he wanted to play. He wanted to branch out and make a different kind of music. But metal had its hoo
ks in him.
While he pondered where to park his kit, the family grew. Lombardo made the most of his time at home, enjoying life as a husband and dad. The family welcomed a second son. And then it was time to get back to work.
In 1994, Lombardo joined international all-star metal band Voodoocult, led by frontman Phillip Boa, also featuring Death guitarist Chuck Schuldiner, Kreator guitarist Mille Petrozza, and other players including guitarist Waldemar Sorychta. The band toured in 1994. And by then, the family was old enough to take the show on the road.
“That was fun,” recalled Lombardo. “We had a blast. [The kids were] 1 and 3. They learned how to walk at truck stops in Germany.”
Eventually, the malaise went away. Lombardo was back in the groove, and more challenging work would follow. And for once, nobody gave him grief about having his family in tow. The bad time transitioned into a good time.
“I felt very free,” said Lombardo. “I was able to try new things and work with all these different bands and projects. It was a great time… we experienced it together, as a relationship.”
Voodoocult guitarist Waldemar Sorychta and Lombardo collaborated in his next longrunning project, Grip Inc.
Lombardo is at his finest in Grip Inc. The underrecognized metal band is often categorized as “groove metal” — once thrash was out of vogue, the term became popular to describe the kind of hook-dominated, rhythmic metal Pantera was playing. Later, Grip was described as industrial metal, due to increasing experimental elements. At its heart, though, the first incarnation of Grip Inc. was a great thrash band.
It might have been even greater. Lombardo briefly recruited former Overkill guitarist Bobby Gustafson, who would claim credit for the “Grip” part of the name. Gustafson said he thought the union had potential, but he, like Slayer, couldn’t deal with Mrs. Lombardo.
“To this day though, I don’t regret that one bit,” he told Metal Rules’ EvilG in 2003. “I probably wouldn’t have lasted [too] long. Just trying to deal with him and his wife, it wouldn’t have worked out.”36-1
Jason Viebrooks, a future guitarist for Bay Area metal band Heathen, rounded out the lineup on bass. Lombardo still wasn’t writing songs, but the drummer did finally notch four music-composition credits on the group’s first albums. His credited contributions trailed off in the later two.
Released on German-based metalworks SPV, Grip’s 1995 album Power of Inner Strength is ripe for rediscovery, a true must-listen for thrash fans.
The Grip discography is, at very least, as engaging as later Slayer records. Inner Strength, in particular, sounds like the records Metallica should have made instead of their neutered 1990s rock-y releases. Gus Chambers is a dead ringer for James Hetfield in mid-period Metallica, from his staccato delivery and growly voice, down to occasional awful lyrics.
“Guilty of Innocence” and “Monster Among Us” are good songs to skip. But “Heretic War Chant” and “Hostage to Heaven” are master’s classes in metal drumming.
Offers Gene Hoglan, one of the genre’s all-time great percussionists: “‘Hostage to Heaven’ is the most slamming thrash metal drumming ever done on record.”
Grip’s debut is where Lombardo fully comes into his own as a drummer. “Hostage” is the kind of warhorse gallop that represents the full fruition of the rolling play Lombardo pioneered on “Raining Blood” and “Angel of Death.”
Following Lombardo’s lead, other drummers played more intricate rapid-fire double-bass rolls in coming years. But with Grip, his performance feels organic, every part of his body working together, all four limbs moving together in syncopated , deafening heartbeats. Lombardo rides the toms for days. And unlike much modern metal drumming, he plays actual rhythms, not just percussion patterns.
In Grip, Lombardo’s drums are also front-and-center in the mix, as they should be. Even when he returned to Slayer, he drums were never as prominently placed, obscuring even his best contemporary contributions.
Grip Inc. released three more albums over the next nine years. After the 2008 death of frontman Chambers, the band would still continue after more shakeups in the Slayer organization.
In 1998, Lombardo joined Fantômas, allying himself with two hard rock icons: Mike Patton, best known as a Faith No More frontman, and since then a wildly creative and prolific force in hard-rock’s avant garde. Also in Fantômas was guitarist Buzz Osbourne, leader of the longrunning, influential heavy band the Melvins. The all-star band has recorded four albums, with another in the works.
In 1999, Lombardo collaborated on Vivaldi: The Meeting, an improvisational, added-percussion adaption of the composer’s music, with Italian classical musician Lorenzo Arruga.
Over the next two years, Lombardo explored jazz. He recorded with acclaimed composer-player-producer John Zorn. Live, they played improv sets that brought crowds to their feet. Lombardo counted them among the best show of his career.
Lombardo’s expanding body of work even verged on the professorial: In 2000, he authored a book-video combo tutorial, Dave Lombardo: Power Grooves.
The drummer returned to strings, repeatedly recording with Apocalyptica, a gothic chamber quartet from hell, which achieved renown covering Metallica before moving on to original compositions.
Even after rejoining Slayer, he continued working on the side, recording an album-length collaboration with DJ Spooky (Drums of Death) and a straightforward-but-powerful cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” with Motörhead icon Lemmy.
Through it all, Lombardo was never far from the most demanding proving ground.
In 1999, he collaborated with Matthew Barney in an installment of the filmmaker’s Cremaster cycle. Cremaster 2 features a score and live performance of sorts by Lombardo and Morbid Angel singer Steve Tucker. Growling and pulsing, the duo perform a metal song over the sound of buzzing bees, in a sequence that represents a death-row call from singer Johnny Cash to killer Gary Gilmore.
The Cremaster narrative isn’t linear or even apparent, but the piece is a remarkable, from the music to its context. Just as Slayer's "Raining Blood" demonstrates new potential for metal within the genre's traditional framework, Lombardo and Tucker's collaboration stands as a high-water mark for metal as art — and metal in the larger world of art.
In 1998, Lombardo joined the top-seven thrash band Testament and recorded The Gathering as part of a short-lived, stellar, yet star-crossed supergroup lineup. (Testament’s distinction as a thrash band was that they were the only band to become significantly heavier as the years went on.)
Testament’s Lombardo record is the band’s hookiest album since their debut, 1987’s The Legacy. Compared to that predecessor, it’s more head-down, straight-ahead thrash — but with plenty of Lombardo’s power crashing and relentless rolls.
“Lombardo did one of our best records, The Gathering,” offers Testament guitarist Eric Peterson. “That record really seemed like Testament getting more modern and evolving into more of the thrash-death-melodic style.”
By the YouTube era, Lombardo occupied the spotlight like few other percussionists. The Lombardo Drum Cam because a popular feature, capturing footage of entire shows centered on nothing but the drummer.
Years later, in 2009, to fill the unprecedented void in his adult life, Dave put new emphasis on his arty metal project Philm. In the metal/rock/hardcore hybrid, he plays a simple four-piece kit with a single bass drum. (In his later years with Slayer, he played a simple nine-piece set, having dropped two toms late in the band’s history.) On the band’s 2012 debut album, Harmonic, the band simply split all writing credits, musical and lyrical.
After all that time in — and out — of metal, Lombardo remained the plainest member of the Slayer crew, going about his day in jeans, with medium-length hair and simple tattoo of blue and red overlapping zig-zags around his right bicep.
But no matter how nuanced, diverse, or heavy Lombardo’s projects were, they weren’t Slayer.
“Bands like Led Zeppelin, human beings like Jimi Hendrix, wi
thout those integral people in the band, it’s almost like, yeah, you could make a phony attempt to try to replicate what you had,” reflects Lombardo when we talked about Reign in Blood. “But it doesn’t have the chemistry – there is chemistry – people, two human beings are soul mates; something brings them together.
“There’s something chemically, there’s something internally, spiritually, Zen, whatever your karma – not karma, but there’s something that brings people together,” he continues. “In bands, like any kind of relationship, there is chemistry. And in Slayer, there’s a chemistry, whether we want to believe it or not. Whether I want to believe I can move on and do something else, it will never be the same as what it is with Slayer.”
Chapter 37:
Return of the Drum King
December 2001. Christmas break. Midpoint for the God Hates Us All tour cycle. Slayer have a 30-date run slated to start in less than a month. And the group doesn’t have a drummer.
The band need a ringer, and they need one quick.
Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years. A Metal Band Biography. Page 26
