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Thrash icons Slayer have given their ninth studio album a typically Pollyanna title. God Hates Us All will drop June 26th. The band is deep into the mixing stage of the record with producer Matt Hyde (Monster Magnet , Porno for Pyros) in Vancouver, British Columbia.
"It's got a lot of fast stuff, but it's got a lot of chunky heavy stuff too," says guitarist/lyricist Kerry King. "It's got a lot of stuff that, if we weren't in such a P.C. world, would be on the radio. But the name 'Slayer' is just blackballed at radio stations. People say, 'Oh, it's Slayer -- we can't play it,' without even listening to it."
The album is the band's first since 1998's Diabolus In Musica and the first in over fifteen years to not be produced by Rick Rubin. The band hooked up with Hyde last year, recording the song "Bloodline" for the soundtrack to the box office bomb Dracula 2000.
As always, Slayer divvied up the writing duties for God Hates, with King and fellow shredder Jeff Hanneman crafting the bulk of the material, while singer/bassist Tom Araya and drummer Paul Bostaph contributed to a lesser degree. As a rule the darkest wordsmith in a band of doomsayers, King opted for a more introspective approach to this record. "I'm usually the Dungeons & Dragons, spooky dude," he says. "On this record I made a conscious effort to not do that, to keep our dark themes but also write stuff that people can relate to. I tried to think about what pisses me off and why and how people could relate to that rather than just saying, 'The devil's over there fucking your mother,' or something."
The album's title is in fact a line from the leadoff track, "Disciple." King details how the notion first hit him. "I'm sure I was watchin' some TV show and someone said something that triggered me to think, 'God hates us all,'" he says. "In a nutshell, nobody has a perfect life, and sometimes you think, 'What the fuck did I do to deserve this? God really fucking hates me!' On another level, how can you look at the world and think God doesn't hate us? Wars, disease . . . if we're so perfect, why are we so fucked?"
Of course penning the line "God hates us all" would seem to imply the perennial occultist at least believes in God? "No I don't," King says. "I just live here."
Just yesterday, Slayer finished tracking their contribution to a forthcoming World Wrestling Federation compilation. The WWF has enlisted the baddest mofos in metal to craft "theme songs" for their superstar wrestlers. The songs will presumably blare through the arena as the acrobatic hulks make their way to the ring. With Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin already spoken for (by Motorhead and Disturbed , respectively), Slayer opted for Test. "It was either him or Kurt Angle and we just couldn't do Kurt," Kings says. "He's too much of a good guy. We needed somebody with some 'tude, who could have a mean streak."
And don't plan on lunching with Slayer anytime in the immediate future -- their 2001 appointment book is already full up. Once Got Hates Us All is officially in the can, they'll be heading out on the month-long "Extreme Steel Tour" with close pals Pantera, Static-X, Skrape and Morbid Angel. Immediately following the conclusion of that mobile metal-fest, Slayer will be launching a tour of their own, sometime in late July/early August.
Somehow, they'll be finding the time to finally complete the oft-discussed audio/visual Slayer box set, which King says they'll probably be calling "Soundtracks of the Apocalypse." Exact contents of the set are still being sorted out but it will surely contain vault gems, live goodies and every music video the band has made to this point. They're hoping to re-record a bevy of Hell Awaits-era (1985) numbers as well, a process they began last year while tracking their rendition of "Hand of Doom" for Nativity in Black, Vol. 2: A Tribute to Black Sabbath.
Eyeing a December release, the set will be available in two different versions -- one modestly priced and the other the "be-all, end-all, extremely limited, stupid-expensive-'cause-it-has-to-be version." King says the band is hoping to pack the CD/VHS version of "Soundtracks" in a customized ammo box and the CD/DVD bundle in a big bombshell casing.
At least one Slayerian has been tabbed for a side project this year as well. Tom Araya is among those Foo Fighter Dave Grohl has invited in to sing on his Probot side-project, a collective "death metal" one-off for which he's also hoping to lure Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister and Gothic moshman King Diamond. No official release date has surfaced for the album. King's heard Grohl's music, sans vocals, and says of it, "I thought it was pretty generic. It's definitely not speed metal. It could be called metal in the loosest form of that word."
As far as rumors of his own supergroup, with drummer Joey Jordison of Slipknot and guitarist Dimebag Darrell of Pantera, King says that's something "Joey babbled about on the [2000] Tattoo the Earth tour. Darrell has said to me, 'Dude, we should play something.' That's about as far as it's gone."
One venue Slayer are really hoping to skip this year is the courthouse in San Luis Obispo, California. There, the parents of fifteen-year old murder victim, Elyse Pahler, have re-filed suit against Slayer (the original complaint was tossed out), citing the band and its label for "intentionally marketing and distributing 'death metal' to minors." The Pahlers claim that Slayer's songs served as instructional manuals for the three teenage boys who brutally murdered and performed necrophilic acts on their daughter.
King is understandably hesitant to discuss the still-pending case but says, "A lot of bands have been in this same spot in the past [Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, among them]. It's unfortunate what happened, but to say we're sorry puts blame on us, and I don't think that's appropriate."
Songs so far confirmed for God Hates Us All: "Disciple," "Threshold," "Addict," "Exile," "Payback," "Seven Faces," "Godsend Death," "New Faith," "Cast Down," "War Zone," "Scarstruck," "Here Comes the Pain."
Extreme Steel 2001 dates with Pantera, Slayer, Static-X, Skrape and Morbid Angel:
6/20: New Haven, CT, New Haven Coliseum
6/21: Uniondale, NY, Nassau Coliseum
6/22: Philadelphia, First Union Center
6/23: Worcester, MA, The Centrum
6/25: Hamilton, ON, Copps Coliseum
6/27: Huntington, WV, Huntington Civic Arena
6/29: Grand Rapids, MI, Van Andel Arena
6/30: Detroit, Cobo Arena
7/01: Clevland, CSU Convocation Center
7/03: Rosemont, IL, Allstate Arena
7/05: St. Paul, MN, Xcel Energy Center
7/06: Fargo, ND, Fargodome
7/08: Cedar Rapids, IA, U.S. Cellular Center
7/09: Kansas City, MO, Municipal Auditorium
7/11: Denver, Denver Coliseum
7/14: Dallas, Smirnoff Music Centre
7/17: Phoenix, America West Arena
7/18: Las Vegas, Thomas & Mack Center
7/19: Long Beach, CA, Long Beach Arena
7/21: San Diego, Cox Arena
7/22: Bakersfield, CA, Centennial Garden
7/23: San Jose, CA, Compaq Center at San Jose
7/25: Tacoma, WA, Tacoma Dome
7/26: Vancouver, BC, Pacific Coliseum
GREG HELLER
(April 21, 2001)