Slayer and Anthrax may have their differences, as guitarist Slayer guitarist Kerry King points out in a new interview, but they go way back together as members of The Big Four thrash bands (along with Metallica and Megadeth), and they are currently on tour together for their 35th anniversaries.
Slayer has done it with some turmoil the past few years, suffering the death of founding guitarist and lyricist Jeff Hanneman and the awkward release of on-again-off-again drummer Dave Lombardo. They replaced them with Gary Holt and Paul Bostaph, respectively, and moved on, releasing its 12th studio album, โRepentless,โ last year. Regardless of whoโs in, whoโs out, frontman Tom Araya, guitarist Kerry King and the bandโs burly fans make sure that Slayer shows are loud and brutal.
You formed in 1981. What steered you in the musical direction you went?
Guessing, probably hair metal more than anything. Poison wasnโt out yet, but Motley Crue, Ratt, bands like that, I canโt take anything away from them; itโs great music and it sold a lot of records, but it wasnโt for me and I wanted to be the anti of that. We knew what we didnโt want to be, and we went on from there.
How did you react to the LA hardcore scene at the time?
Jeff got into that, and I didnโt understand it. Then it grew on me. At the very beginning, no. I was all about and still am a big fan of Priest, anything Ronnie James Dio did, the big strong metal singers. Punk, it was not difficult for one thing, but once you get it, yeah. I remember punk fans coming to our shows and metalheads, of course, and back then, they didnโt get along, and there were fights at all the shows. It took them a while to realize that metal and punk, we liked the same thing, and that was the birth of thrash if you ask me.
You were OK with the label?
Yeah. I might be upset if I were in a band and someone started calling me screamo. It worked for me.
What is your history with Anthrax?
We played with them a lot in the last 10 years, and before that we didnโt, aside from Clash of the Titans [1990-91]. I donโt even know why. Maybe because there were more bands to play with then, and there doesnโt seem to be an infusion of new bands that are relevant enough to have an opening slot for Slayer. What Anthrax has done the last couple records, it seems to me it has revitalized them.
How did you feel about Anthraxโs collaboration with Public Enemy on โBring the Noiseโ?
Oh, I hated it. And they know it. Itโs not a secret, or I wouldnโt tell you. They donโt play it a lot when we play together. Maybe itโs cycled out of their set. We did something with Ice T back in the โ90s, but it wasnโt a crossover song. It was still a thrash song because Ice T loves thrash. When that was brought up initially for us to do, I was like, โNah, man, I donโt want to be part of some rap song.โ Nothing against rap, I like rap. I just didnโt want Slayer to do that. And then the idea of Ice T came up, I said, โYeah, we can do that.โ
You mentioned there being a shortage of younger bands that are right for Slayer โฆ
Seems to me, there arenโt a lot of guitar heroes. Yeah, Alexi from Children of Bodom can play his ass off, but thereโs not that larger-than-life guitar hero that there was when I was a kid. You can point at Ted Nugent. Yeah, heโs [expletive] nuts, but heโs a guitar hero. And we had Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Ritchie Blackmore. They were everywhere. Once you get past the time of the Big Four, you have Dimebag, you have Zakk Wylde, Slash, but itโs not as abundant. When I grew up there were 20 of those guys.
โRepentlessโ was your highest charting album. Were you surprised by the reaction?
Completely unexpected. We just did this for us and werenโt looking to break any new ground with it, but the fans came out and embraced the [expletive] out of it. When we were first playing it, it was amazing how many fans were shouting back the chorus of โRepentlessโ to us. It always fires me up when theyโre shouting the lyrics back at you louder than you can play it, and I play pretty [expletive] loud.
Is there a new album in the works?
In that [โRepentlessโ] session, thereโs probably seven or eight songs completely recorded: drums, guitar and bass. If the vocals donโt change the arrangement, we donโt have to change that. Theyโre done. Thereโs over half a record sitting there waiting to be finished, and thatโs incredibly rare for Slayer. Weโve been pretty busy this year, but weโre way far ahead of the game.
Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com; 412-263-2576; Twitter: @scottmervis_pg.
First Published: September 15, 2016, 4:00 a.m.
