Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years. A Metal Band Biography. Read Online Free Page B
Author: D.X. Ferris
less fortunate countries.
It’s Slayer’s world, and we’re living in it.
So step right up and read more about the kings of metal.
It’s a good time to check in.
Click here to Google search “early Slayer photos”
Chapter 3:
Postmortem
or
Hanneman Made the Difference
“If you pass away and you know that you sang your song, you gave your gift… that is the greatest accomplishment that I could ever hope for anybody.… The playing of ferocious music is the healthiest release of anger for the performer of it. It is alchemy. It is a metamorphosis. It is turning something potentially destructive and a source of misery into something beautiful…. It is uplifting, and it brings people together.”
— Flea, speaking about Cliff Burton and metal in general at Metallica’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum induction speech 3-1
Jeff Hanneman died.
Shit.
This is unacceptable.
Slayer as we knew it is over. Even if the group is still playing, Slayer’s classic lineup is now part of rock and roll history, lost irrecoverably in the past.
Drummer Dave Lombardo is no longer in the band, either. He departed and rejoined before. Twice. Still, Slayer soldiered on. Slayer was still Slayer, more or less.
And the band may well be approximately what it used to be: a metal institution with a catalog that is as solid as it gets. Slayer Mk. II (or III or VII, depending how you count it) might even be relatively awesome on its own merits. But Slayer will never be who it used to be. And who it used to be, that is a big part of what made the classic lineup special.
“By all accounts,” singer-bassist Tom Araya told Guitar World reporter Jeff Kitts after Hanneman passed, “he was the band.” 3-2
Hanneman was Slayer’s guitarist and co-founder. He died Thursday, May 2, 2013. Hanneman didn’t have the band’s most writing credits in recent years, but he surely had its best ones. The beginning and end of 1986’s landmark Reign in Blood album demonstrated a new potential for metal that has seldom, if ever, been matched in the many years since.
The Reign in Blood lineup held together for 23 years of a 31-year run, with a big break in the middle. Still, the wonder of that four-man unit is that it represented a continuity. The same four people did a difficult thing better and longer than anybody else.
Opinions are deeply divided on the non-Lombardo years. While fans accept that diminished lineup as legitimate if regrettable, a mere minority rank those albums among Slayer’s better efforts — regardless of whether they prefer Divine Intervention to Diabolus in Musica , or how they feel about Undisputed Attitude .
But now the Lombardo issue is muted. Whether the legendary drummer ever rejoins the band — be it on a ongoing basis or for a farewell tour — Hanneman cannot.
As Rubin, Slayer’s longtime producer, wrote in statement that was read at Hanneman’s public memorial service: “Although he might have been the quietest member of the band personally, Jeff was the heart and soul musically.”
Hanneman named the band. And in the early 80s, “Slayer” was one transgressive title.
Hanneman wasn’t the band’s most skilled musician; he was a helluva player, but unlike King, he wasn’t the kind of guy who could sit down, watch Dave Mustaine play a lead once, and shred it back. As Hanneman put it in Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman’s exhaustive metal oral history, Louder Than Hell : “I used to be totally into Steve Vai and Joe Satriani and other shredders, and I tried to emulate what they did and really grow as a guitarist. Then I said, ‘I don’t think I’m that talented, but more important, I don’t care.’” 3-3
Hanneman also was the band’s second-best singer. No, he never sang on a Slayer album. But plenty of their classic tunes began as demos recorded in his bedroom, on which he
It’s Slayer’s world, and we’re living in it.
So step right up and read more about the kings of metal.
It’s a good time to check in.
Click here to Google search “early Slayer photos”
Chapter 3:
Postmortem
or
Hanneman Made the Difference
“If you pass away and you know that you sang your song, you gave your gift… that is the greatest accomplishment that I could ever hope for anybody.… The playing of ferocious music is the healthiest release of anger for the performer of it. It is alchemy. It is a metamorphosis. It is turning something potentially destructive and a source of misery into something beautiful…. It is uplifting, and it brings people together.”
— Flea, speaking about Cliff Burton and metal in general at Metallica’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum induction speech 3-1
Jeff Hanneman died.
Shit.
This is unacceptable.
Slayer as we knew it is over. Even if the group is still playing, Slayer’s classic lineup is now part of rock and roll history, lost irrecoverably in the past.
Drummer Dave Lombardo is no longer in the band, either. He departed and rejoined before. Twice. Still, Slayer soldiered on. Slayer was still Slayer, more or less.
And the band may well be approximately what it used to be: a metal institution with a catalog that is as solid as it gets. Slayer Mk. II (or III or VII, depending how you count it) might even be relatively awesome on its own merits. But Slayer will never be who it used to be. And who it used to be, that is a big part of what made the classic lineup special.
“By all accounts,” singer-bassist Tom Araya told Guitar World reporter Jeff Kitts after Hanneman passed, “he was the band.” 3-2
Hanneman was Slayer’s guitarist and co-founder. He died Thursday, May 2, 2013. Hanneman didn’t have the band’s most writing credits in recent years, but he surely had its best ones. The beginning and end of 1986’s landmark Reign in Blood album demonstrated a new potential for metal that has seldom, if ever, been matched in the many years since.
The Reign in Blood lineup held together for 23 years of a 31-year run, with a big break in the middle. Still, the wonder of that four-man unit is that it represented a continuity. The same four people did a difficult thing better and longer than anybody else.
Opinions are deeply divided on the non-Lombardo years. While fans accept that diminished lineup as legitimate if regrettable, a mere minority rank those albums among Slayer’s better efforts — regardless of whether they prefer Divine Intervention to Diabolus in Musica , or how they feel about Undisputed Attitude .
But now the Lombardo issue is muted. Whether the legendary drummer ever rejoins the band — be it on a ongoing basis or for a farewell tour — Hanneman cannot.
As Rubin, Slayer’s longtime producer, wrote in statement that was read at Hanneman’s public memorial service: “Although he might have been the quietest member of the band personally, Jeff was the heart and soul musically.”
Hanneman named the band. And in the early 80s, “Slayer” was one transgressive title.
Hanneman wasn’t the band’s most skilled musician; he was a helluva player, but unlike King, he wasn’t the kind of guy who could sit down, watch Dave Mustaine play a lead once, and shred it back. As Hanneman put it in Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman’s exhaustive metal oral history, Louder Than Hell : “I used to be totally into Steve Vai and Joe Satriani and other shredders, and I tried to emulate what they did and really grow as a guitarist. Then I said, ‘I don’t think I’m that talented, but more important, I don’t care.’” 3-3
Hanneman also was the band’s second-best singer. No, he never sang on a Slayer album. But plenty of their classic tunes began as demos recorded in his bedroom, on which he
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