Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years. A Metal Band Biography.

by Ferris, D. X.

  As the band grew older, new songs required more work. The muses simply weren’t visiting Hanneman like they used to.

  “He would never ever say, ‘I need to go and write a song,” Kathryn recalled for Guitar World. “It would just hit him out of nowhere.”42-15

  The record did bring more statistical success. First-week sales of 41,000 landed it at no. 12 on the Billboard album chart.

  The lingering set would score two more Grammy nominations over the next two award seasons. “Hate Worldwide” received a Best Metal Performance nod in 2009. (The band lost, but technically, a Slayer song won: Judas Priest took the award for a live version of “Dissident Aggressor,” which Slayer had covered on 1988’s South of Heaven.) And the title track followed with a nomination a year later, but lost to metal gods Iron Maiden.

  Decibel ranked World Painted Blood the no. 7 album of the year. Slayer was one of three legacy bands in the magazine’s top 40. (Napalm Death’s Time Waits for No Slave ranked at no. 4). The magazine — by then the true metal journal of record — called it “as vital, exhilarating and nasty as anything they’ve done in more than two decades.”42-16

  Blabbermouth scored it the same as its predecessor, Christ Illusion: a 7.5 on a scale of 1-10. And the site’s readers scored it the same as the previous effort, with reviews averaging 7.7 (as of July 2013)42-17.

  “You can have a long fruitful life if you don't piss anybody off,” Araya told The Aquarian. “That's the way the world works, you piss somebody off and they turn their back on you. That's why I think we have such a loyal fanbase. When the record comes out and they put it on, ‘Dude, it's Slayer.’ You don't put it on and go ‘Who's this?’ They don't question the band. The minute they start questioning the band, that's where they lose it. Judas Priest, I was a big Judas Priest fan, somewhere along they line they came out with a record that I was like, ‘Ugh’….You lose your longevity the minute you turn your back on your loyal fanbase.”42-18

  World Painted Blood didn’t exactly revive Slayer’s reputation as vital recording artists. It didn’t hurt, either. If you would go back in time and play Slayer’s post-Seasons albums for a thrash fan in 1988, World Painted Blood is probably the one they’d like best.

  On the road, 2009 was a tame year, with just about 40 shows, most of them with old friends.

  Hanneman’s physical ailments made every show a chore. A decade or more ago, he had been able to hide or downplay his decaying health. Now he had a full-blown arthritic condition that affected not only how he played fast songs, but how he walked. His doctors told him to drop three of his favorite foods from his diet: beer, red meat, and peanut butter. He kept eating them. Medications might have helped, but Hanneman didn’t like taking pills. When the pain was too hard to handle, he would take a single Aleve42-19 (an over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug).

  “His ability to play was slowly deteriorating,” Araya told Jeff Kitts of Guitar World. “But he didn’t let anybody know that. We could just tell that things were going wrong. It was becoming hard to get stuff out of him. He was very proud and didn’t want to make anything worry about anything.”42-20

  Slayer patched things up with Megadeth and staged a quick run across Canada, named the Canadian Carnage tour. Despite the history of tension between the bands, no carnage ensued.

  “Canadian promoters, they called us up and said, ‘We want to put this show together,” Araya told the Aquarian’s Patrick Slevin. “They were the ones that wanted us to do a show with Megadeth. I guess the Canadian promoters thought maybe we wouldn’t do it because I guess there’s supposed to be animosity between the bands, whatever [laughs]…. [Fans] want to see Megadeth and Slayer play.. I know that someone refreshed my memory as far as ‘You said you’d never tour with them again.’ And yeah, I did say that, but I’m also a smart businessman. And I let everybody know, I know I said that, but business is business, and business is good [laughs]. We would be dumb to say no.”42-21

  As always, the package tour brought an abbreviated set, but a good one, usually a playlist like:

  1. “Disciple”

  2. “War Ensemble”

  3. “Jihad”

  4. “Chemical Warfare”

  5. “Ghosts of War”

  6.”Psychopathy Red”

  7. “Live Undead”

  8. “Dead Skin Mask”

  9. “Hell Awaits”

  10. “Mandatory Suicide

  11. “Angel of Death

  Encore:

  12. “South of Heaven”

  13. “Raining Blood”

  Then Slayer staged an encore tour with Marilyn Manson through the summer. The group ended summer with two German Wacken fests.

  In the fall, the band logged more airline miles with a handful of dates in New Zealand and Australia. In October, Slayer was forced to cancel an Adelaide show when Araya was afflicted with a bad case of laryngitis. Megadeth, still on board, played a full show to offset the cancelation.

  In Japan, two headlining concerts and the Loudpark festival closed the light year. But by then, they were set up for a much bigger 2010.

  All in all, Slayer was in fine shape on World Painted Blood. But in 2010, the band stumbled.

  Now 48, Tom Araya became the band’s first physical casualty when his ongoing back and neck pain became unendurable. The singer was living with a series of increasingly frequent spasms and alternating pain and numbness42-22.

  In January 2010, Araya was diagnosed with a pinched nerve — cervical radiculopathy — and underwent anterior cervical discectomy surgery in January 2010. A tour scheduled for January and February was called off.

  The frontman recovered relatively quickly. But the procedure robbed Slayer’s stage show of one of its signature moves: Arya’s 360o helicopter-style head banging. Still, the band continued. The band’s music and mere presence were still enough to whip up a cyclone in the audience.

  Slayer was back on the road by May, headlining in the UK and Europe.

  Click here to Google search “Slayer photos 2009”

  Chapter 43:

  Big Four, Big Year

  By 2010, the world had caught up with Slayer. The phrase “The Big Four” was no longer strictly an underground legend.

  As metal entered the second decade of its 21st century revival, The Big Four now had more currency than ever. The world caught Big Four Fever. And for the first time, all four bands shared a concert stage: Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer, joined by the mighty Metallica.

  In late 2008, a big rumor was in the air: The Big Four would join together and tour the world, in the ultimate metal tour. Initially, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield denied it. So, of course, it happened.

  "I think it was certainly spurred on by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame [induction] and getting all these great, nostalgic feelings, you know,” Hetfield told The Pulse of Radio. “And, you know, the more we thought about — 'Hey, you know what? We should celebrate the Bay Area thrash scene. Why don't we make a reunion of that or something?' And it basically morphed into, you know, the Big Four doing a gig together, and how cool that would be…. I think it would be a great celebration of the past and where we are now in our lives.”43-1

  The bands all had common roots. They had hung out as pimply teenagers during visits to the New York Tri-State area. Most had been continuously active since the metal heydays that abruptly ended in the early 1990s.

  A small but vocal contingent of metal fans go into conniptions at the mention of the phrase “Big Four.” They argue the term excludes some worthy bands who all kicked ass on a comparable level. Groups like Overkill, Testament, Exodus, Kreator, Celtic Frost, _________________________ [insert your favorite here so you feel included], etc. — they all deserve consideration in any discussion of the era’s great metal bands.

  But consider the word “big” and its applicable metrics: The Big Four sold more albums, headlined larger venues, and were more visible. Add hall-of-fame acts Exodus, Overkill, and Testament, a
nd the group becomes The Significant Seven. But “big” doesn’t mean “awesome outfit that kicked ass and they’re my favorite.” The Big Four are…

  The Most Fun Big Four Band: Anthrax

  Anthrax simply couldn’t be stopped, and they kept going, passing up every opportunity to quit.

  The other Big Four bands dealt in the murderous, macabre and mythic. Anthrax’s well-rounded subject matter included Native American rights, Stephen King stories, and comic books.

  The band’s 1987 Among the Living was late in the batch of circa-’86 Big Four masterpieces. By then, guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Charlie Benante had already done more than their share to spark the crossover movement, with the 1985 self-titled debut of their great and infamous side project, Stormtroopers of Death/S.O.D.

  In 1991, Anthrax collaborated with Public Enemy on a cover of the Def Jam group’s classic “Bring the Noise.” The single sparked rap metal, one of the bigger hard rock movements of the subsequent decade. Wearing T-shirts and colorful shorts, they played arenas with Public Enemy in tow.

  “To me, Anthrax was always a quirky band,” King said in 2003, talking thrash for an interview about classic metal. “They were always two steps away from goofy, but they had heavy tracks, as well. They were always like your little brother’s band.”

  Before long, Anthrax rebooted with former Armored Saint singer John Bush — another Metal Blade alumnus — for 1993’s The Sound of White Noise. The excellent album found the band drifting back toward its hard rock roots, but with crushing metallic intent.

  By the end of the ‘90s, Anthrax was back in clubs, too. King mocked the band when it adopted a pentagram logo for 2003’s We’ve Come for You All, another rock-y album that was well-received by fans, but failed to find a crossover audience.

  (That album’s star-crossed fortunes were partially due to an odd PR strategy: Fearing the ubiquitous threat of illegal downloads, the Sanctuary label declined to mass-issue the full album. Instead, they sent out a sampler of a few songs. Critics were left without ready access to the alleged good record they were hearing about.)

  The band eventually took back its old singer, Joey Belladonna, and reunited its classic 80s lineup. The tour didn’t do gangbusters business, but it brought in some badly needed dough.

  “The [reunion] touring got this band out of a huge financial hole,” guitarist Scott Ian said in an online chat with the band’s fan club in 200743-2.

  More schisms followed. Anthrax reunited with former singer Bush. Then they found a new singer (Dan Nelson) and weathered more lineup changes. Then they reunited with Belladonna and returned to acclaim in the world of metal — but that is another story.

  Playing to bouncy mosh beats, Anthrax was the most fun Big Four band. The group wrote songs that were anti-drug, pro-Native American, and often based in sci-fi/fantasy/horror. 1993’s “Black Lodge” is a ballad with some balls. The Belladonna reunion album lacks the spark from the band’s early days, but the band convincingly rock out on it; Blabbermouth and its readers both rate it an 8.5 out of a possible 10 43-3.

  Between its first album and 2013, Anthrax has had 14 different members. As of June 20, 2013 — shortly before the website launched a new format that doesn’t count articles — Blabbermouth’s archive contained 4,880 references to the group.

  The Most Technical Big Four Band: Megadeth

  Megadeth — the band Kerry King had played with briefly in its infancy — had died and been reanimated.

  To King, Mustaine’s decision to front the band was an act of hubris that damned the group from its inception. I asked him who would have been a better choice as a vocalist.

  “I don’t know,” King said. “There’s a thousand singers. I’ve just never been a fan of his voice.”

  The group peaked with 1990’s Rust in Peace, one of the gnarliest guitar albums in history. In the 1990s, the band might have overtaken Metallica as a leading metal force, but mainman Dave Mustaine instead tried to chase his old band’s commercial success, by making tame, lackluster records.

  “He saw the greenbacks,” said King, who has a special contempt for musicians who start worrying about success instead of art. “That’s a hard demon to keep off your shoulder. The sucker’s knocking every record: ‘Hey, wanna sell out, make some money?’ We never even thought about it.”

  The 1990s commercial period wasn’t the end of Megadeth. At their peak, Megadeth were metalhead musos, the Big Four’s most technical players, standing tall as the apex of the jazz-blues hybrid that Black Sabbath pioneered. On early albums, Mustaine penned bloody narratives and sociopolitical screeds.

  Then, as journalist Jason Bracelin observed in Blender, "Mustaine found God and lost his mind on increasingly silly albums (Youthanasia, Cryptic Writings) with inadvertently self-parodying songs (‘She-Wolf,’ anyone?)."43-4

  Megadeth limped on into the new century.

  In 2002, Mustaine was in rehab again. There, he injured his left arm, leaving him unable to play his intricate material. He disbanded the group, but it didn’t take. A new solo project turned into a Megadeth album, and the brand was back in business in 2004.

  With Mustaine leading the outfit and playing rhythm guitar, Megadeth continued recording albums that invoked a curious phenomenon that’s common in arts criticism: The discs were always received well — then immediately discounted and retroactively dismissed. Despite a constantly rotating lineup, Megadeth emerged as the most prolific Big Four band, with 14 original studio albums (as of this writing).

  Between its first album and 2013, Megadeth has had 14 new members. Blabbermouth references, as of June 20, 2013: 7,932 — more than Slayer, but Dave Mustaine says more remarkably inane stuff than anybody in Slayer.

  The Most Pure Big Four Band: Slayer

  “Reign in Blood is the thrashiest thrash ever.” — Joe Gross, Spin magazine, 2007 43-5

  Blabbermouth references as of June 20, 2013: 6,745.

  New members since their first album: 4.

  The Biggest Big Four Band: Metallica

  “Metallica, in the early days, they couldn’t be touched,” King said. “Hetfield could relate to anybody in the crowd, and they couldn’t be touched.”

  And it stayed that way. By 2010, the first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee had long been a mainstream phenomenon, not just the most popular band in the history of metal, but one of the most popular rock groups in history, period.

  As of December 2012, 1991’s self-titled “Black Album” had sold 16 million copies, placing the thrash pioneers in the elite company of the Eagles, Hootie & the Blowfish, Alanis Morissette, and Elton John — and just above Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, but slightly behind Boston, Guns N’ Roses, and The Bodyguard Soundtrack. Only 10 albums have moved more copies43-6. It still routinely outsells first-week new releases by major hard-rock acts.

  In 1991, Metallica played one of the largest concerts in history, taking the stage in front of 500,000 fans at Russia’s Monsters of Rock festival. (The show’s total crowd is estimated at over 1.6 million fans, for a bill that included AC/DC and Pantera.) The group’s level of stardom remained high, but as is often the case, their currency remained rooted in past glories. The band’s much-maligned WTF? period during the 1990s saw the band flailing ineptly at a raw rock style. Then they recorded the 1999 live album S&M with a symphony. (King slagged it as “masturbation.”43-7)

  Metallica gradually returned to form, as documented in the prescient reality movie Some Kind of Monster. That inside-job documentary chronicled the making of 2004’s St. Anger, an album that played like demos for a promising record. In that period, longtime bassist Jason Newsted quit the band. Metallica replaced him with Rob Trujillo, who had some hardcore cred, having joined Suicidal Tendencies in the late ’90s.

  Then Metallica tapped Rick Rubin to produce 2008’s Death Magnetic, a self-imitating pastiche that satisfied more old-school diehards than anything the band had done in nearly 20 years. This return to basics would yield a massive world tour deco
rated with black beach balls. And the band ultimately filmed a theatrical-release movie with concert foot intercut with a conceptual narrative, Through the Never. The $18 million big-screen project signified the band’s status on a tier with Led Zeppelin. Not to mention its considerably longer career: 30+ continuous years to Zeppelin’s 12.

  That period did put Metallica back in touch with thrash. Through their career as megastars, the group has been one of the few arena acts to continuously rethink and refine the experience of an arena concert. But over the years, the songs — oooof, the songs — have not improved.

  Between their 1983 debut — with the then-outrageous title Kill ‘Em All — and Death Magnetic leftovers, Metallica’s lyrics steadily devolved. The band’s second album featured their first ballad, but balanced it with the mytho-historical, movie-based song “Creeping Death” — its “Die/Die/Die” refrain is the greatest concert singalong ever. Master of Puppets is arguably a perfect album. But by the fourth record, …And Justice for All, the references to bloody parts of The Ten Commandments have given way to The Wizard of Oz (in “The Frayed Ends of Sanity”).