Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years. A Metal Band Biography. Read Online Free Page A
Author: D.X. Ferris
Slayer aren’t just icons. They’re role models.
“Slayer’s definitely an inspiration to all metal bands,” says Testament guitarist Eric Peterson. “For us, we look up to them: ‘How do they do it?’”
But Slayer now isn’t what Slayer was then. And it never will be again. Sadly, it can’t. Slayer isn’t who it used to be anymore.
Still, Slayer remains the all-time quintessential heavy metal band. And metal, more than ever, is significant. The genre has established itself as a permanent part of popular culture. And Slayer are metal’s pre-eminent prophets of rage.
Once maligned and marginalized, metal was assaulted by the United States government itself. It not only survived. Metal won.
Metal is in there . Maybe the music itself won’t ever penetrate the collective consciousness of this fractured and niched-out age. But heavy metal has taken root. True metal. Not the party-rock/hair metal/hipster-approved bastardizations of the genre. We’re talking about the true heavy metal aesthetic.
The Walking Dead is the most popular TV show, especially with the coveted 18-49 demographic. It’s a weekly drama set after a zombie apocalypse. On average, over 12 million people watch its first broadcast run alone. That’s like a Slayer album selling as many copies as the Eagles’ Hotel California .
One of TV’s more beloved prestige dramas is the epic, medieval-style fantasy Game of Thrones . It’s about people who are slaves to power — some of them leatherclad, steel-wielding warriors. Pure metal. Star Trek: Into Darkness ? Pierced people in gnarly outfits slugging it out all over the universe. Rather metal, I’d say.
Take the CBS drama Under the Dome . In its first minutes, a cow is cut in half by an unseen, inexplicable force. Cattle mutilation. On TV. Metal .
Television hosts four prime-time vampire shows. The phenomenal Twilight series — a saga about warring vampire and werewolf clans, which is plenty popular with teenage girls — was created by a Mormon woman. These horror tropes existed long before metal. But in decades past, they stalked the underground far from cheerleaders’ bedrooms, relegated to scary movies, gothic literature, and metal artwork. Metal subject matter has penetrated the national consciousness like never before.
It’s true for the grownups. And it’s true for the kids. And it’s true for the geeks (please don’t read a negative connotation into the term “geeks”). As Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman put it: If the blockbuster Superman reboot Man of Steel were a piece of music, it would be a Metallica song 1-3 . We live in an age where technology and imagination have combined to give us 40 straight minutes of big American Superpunching. That is metal .
Prime-slot TV features no fewer than four shows with plots centered on serial killers — not to mention overachiever criminals for whom killing is a business, not a hobby. Most Slayer albums don’t have that much content about mass-murderers. During season one of Hannibal , NBC censors objected to visible butt cracks, but not bloody butt cracks 1-4 . Standards & practices aren’t what they used to be.
This creeping metal invasion is not just an aesthetic trend.
If you don’t watch TV and you don’t spend double-digital dollars to see superhero flicks on the big screen, maybe you follow the news. America has been at war over a decade. World War I and II combined didn’t last this long.
In 2012, military suicides outnumbered the number of troops killed in combat, with an average of one self-inflicted death every 17 hours, according to the Department of Defense 1-5 . Slayer wrote a Grammy-winning song about the depressing phenomenon on the Christ Illusion album, which was released in 2006, years before the count reached that all-time high.
Large-scale carnage has become a reality of American life. In that regard, we’re just catching up to Europe and other
“Slayer’s definitely an inspiration to all metal bands,” says Testament guitarist Eric Peterson. “For us, we look up to them: ‘How do they do it?’”
But Slayer now isn’t what Slayer was then. And it never will be again. Sadly, it can’t. Slayer isn’t who it used to be anymore.
Still, Slayer remains the all-time quintessential heavy metal band. And metal, more than ever, is significant. The genre has established itself as a permanent part of popular culture. And Slayer are metal’s pre-eminent prophets of rage.
Once maligned and marginalized, metal was assaulted by the United States government itself. It not only survived. Metal won.
Metal is in there . Maybe the music itself won’t ever penetrate the collective consciousness of this fractured and niched-out age. But heavy metal has taken root. True metal. Not the party-rock/hair metal/hipster-approved bastardizations of the genre. We’re talking about the true heavy metal aesthetic.
The Walking Dead is the most popular TV show, especially with the coveted 18-49 demographic. It’s a weekly drama set after a zombie apocalypse. On average, over 12 million people watch its first broadcast run alone. That’s like a Slayer album selling as many copies as the Eagles’ Hotel California .
One of TV’s more beloved prestige dramas is the epic, medieval-style fantasy Game of Thrones . It’s about people who are slaves to power — some of them leatherclad, steel-wielding warriors. Pure metal. Star Trek: Into Darkness ? Pierced people in gnarly outfits slugging it out all over the universe. Rather metal, I’d say.
Take the CBS drama Under the Dome . In its first minutes, a cow is cut in half by an unseen, inexplicable force. Cattle mutilation. On TV. Metal .
Television hosts four prime-time vampire shows. The phenomenal Twilight series — a saga about warring vampire and werewolf clans, which is plenty popular with teenage girls — was created by a Mormon woman. These horror tropes existed long before metal. But in decades past, they stalked the underground far from cheerleaders’ bedrooms, relegated to scary movies, gothic literature, and metal artwork. Metal subject matter has penetrated the national consciousness like never before.
It’s true for the grownups. And it’s true for the kids. And it’s true for the geeks (please don’t read a negative connotation into the term “geeks”). As Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman put it: If the blockbuster Superman reboot Man of Steel were a piece of music, it would be a Metallica song 1-3 . We live in an age where technology and imagination have combined to give us 40 straight minutes of big American Superpunching. That is metal .
Prime-slot TV features no fewer than four shows with plots centered on serial killers — not to mention overachiever criminals for whom killing is a business, not a hobby. Most Slayer albums don’t have that much content about mass-murderers. During season one of Hannibal , NBC censors objected to visible butt cracks, but not bloody butt cracks 1-4 . Standards & practices aren’t what they used to be.
This creeping metal invasion is not just an aesthetic trend.
If you don’t watch TV and you don’t spend double-digital dollars to see superhero flicks on the big screen, maybe you follow the news. America has been at war over a decade. World War I and II combined didn’t last this long.
In 2012, military suicides outnumbered the number of troops killed in combat, with an average of one self-inflicted death every 17 hours, according to the Department of Defense 1-5 . Slayer wrote a Grammy-winning song about the depressing phenomenon on the Christ Illusion album, which was released in 2006, years before the count reached that all-time high.
Large-scale carnage has become a reality of American life. In that regard, we’re just catching up to Europe and other
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