Slayer Consider Retirement As Record Deal Nears End

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With nine albums in the tank and a tenth set to be recorded next year, thrash metal forefathers Slayer are considering life after their contract with Rick Rubin expires, says singer/bassist Tom Araya. "Let's put it this way, this is the final record of our commitment with Rick Rubin. When we first signed a deal with him back in 1986, we never sat down and said, 'How long do you guys want to keep this together?'" Araya tells Thrash Hits. The band still has another album to record, which they'll begin after their Unholy Alliance tour ends. After that, the future is unclear. "Once we've put together new material, we can get together and discuss our future plans," Araya said. Retirement is an option, as the band is "maybe" financially secure enough to pack it in. Plus, "Seeing a 50-year-old man headbanging on stage would make me cringe. If I was watching that, I'd think, 'Dude, you're a little too old for that, aren't you? You're gonna fall off!'"

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Song Stories

“The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie”

The Joy Formidable | 2011

The opener off the Welsh group’s The Big Roar album was an epic one, but the band was worried that track had polarized fans. “The first song is eight minutes long,” Rhydian Dafydd, the Joy Formidable bassist, said. “If you did that in the Seventies people would be, ‘Whatever.’ You do it now, people think, ‘Holy s---!’ Some people think it’s the f---ing greatest track on the entire album, and some people think it’s f---ing boring. It’s that element of needing to challenge people.” The band concluded through the song’s lyrics that love was the “everchanging spectrum of a lie.”

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