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SLAYER’S TOM ARAYA On Next Album: It ‘Sounds Real F**kin’ Heavy’

Manos Spanos
SLAYER has returned to the studio to resume recording its new album for a tentative early 2015 release. Helming the sessions is Terry Date, who previously worked with the band on the song "Implode", which was made available as a free download as a "thank you" to the band's fans for their continued support following SLAYER's surprise performance at this past April's Revolver Golden Gods awards in Los Angeles. Joining guitarist Kerry King and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya in the studio for SLAYER's new album are returning drummer Paul Bostaph, who replaced Dave Lombardo last year, and guitarist Gary Holt (also of EXODUS), who has been filling in for Jeff Hanneman on tour for the past four and a half years. Speaking to Jose Mangin, SiriusXM director of programming and on-air host (Liquid Metal, Ozzy's Boneyard, Octane), Araya stated about the progress of the recording sessions for the new CD: "We're just getting started, man. We're laying down drum tracks at the moment, but yeah, we're just getting started. I'd say we're two weeks into doing stuff." Regarding the direction of the new SLAYER material, Araya said: "There's stuff that Kerry has been working on for the past almost two years, two and a half years. "We started this whole process of writing a new album several years ago — three or four years ago — so it's been a long process; it's something that we've been doing for a while. So a lot of these songs have been around for a bit and now we're just trying to figure them out and make them good." Araya also talked about SLAYER's collaboration with Date, saying, "He's awesome, dude. He's really, really good. "We actually finished up a song that we're doing for somebody and we put that together in five days, and we went in and recorded it, we did all our parts, and then Terry mixed it and we presented it and it fuckin' sounds really heavy, man. [It] sounds awesome, sounds real fuckin' heavy." SLAYER's next CD will be released on Nuclear Blast Records through the band's own label imprint, closing out a 28-year relationship with Rick Rubin and American Recordings. It will also be SLAYER's first album without the group's co-founding guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who passed away in May 2013 from alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver. He is credited for writing many of SLAYER's classic songs, including "Angel Of Death" and "South Of Heaven". "I never go online and see what people are talking about because people are ten foot tall behind a computer screen, you know?!" King told ARTE Concert at last month's Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany. "But, you know, a lot of [the reaction to 'Implode'] was positive, a lot of people said, 'For anybody that was worried about what SLAYER was gonna sound like post-Hanneman, don't worry about it.'" He continued: "I know people are gonna think that [we can't make another quality album], people are gonna expect us to fail because it's the first record without Jeff; I get it. But I'm also very proud of what of we've done so far towards new material. It's fast, the slow stuff's heavy. I mean, it's… Everything that people liked SLAYER for in the past is on this record." Bostaph was SLAYER's drummer from 1992 until 2001 and recorded four albums with the band — the gold-certified "Divine Intervention" (1994), the 1996 punk covers album "Undisputed Attitude", "Diabolus In Musica" (1998), "God Hates Us All" (2001) that received a Grammy nomination for "Best Metal Performance", as well as the DVD "War At The Warfield" (2001), also certified gold. In addition to SLAYER, Bostaph has been a member of FORBIDDEN, EXODUS, SYSTEMATIC and TESTAMENT. Original SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo was effectively fired from SLAYER after sitting out the band's Australian tour in February/March 2013 due to a contract dispute with the other members of the group. Filling in for him was Jon Dette (TESTAMENT, ANTHRAX).
04 min read

EXODUS: ‘Blood In Blood Out’ Special Guests, Bonus Tracks Revealed

Manos Spanos
San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal veterans EXODUS will release their tenth studio album, "Blood In Blood Out", in North America on October 14 via Nuclear Blast. The album art was illustrated by Swedish artist Pär Olofsson, known worldwide for his incredible renderings that have graced the covers of countless heavy metal albums, including EXODUS' "Let There Be Blood". Crafting an industrial sound bed on the intro to the album opener "Black 13" is electronic music producer Dan the Automator (GORILLAZ, MIKE PATTON, DELTRON 3030). "[Dan and I] ran into each other a couple times," shares EXODUS guitarist and songwriter Gary Holt. "I knew what I wanted to hear and I knew he could do it, and could do it that day. So we sent him a file with the drums and guitars we already had there and just told him to go crazy with it." TESTAMENT frontman Chuck Billy lends his signature roar to the track "BTK", one of the first songs recorded by returning vocalist Steve "Zetro" Souza, who recently said: "Chuck and I have known each other forever. We work really well together; we know each other really well. So if I'm doing my vocals and he's there, I can trust him to go, 'No way, Zet, [it] doesn't sound good like that. Do it like this,' or, 'Yeah, that's killer.' If he says it sounds killer, I know it is." Original EXODUS guitarist Kirk Hammett, who has been a member of METALLICA for the past 31 years, contributed a solo to "Salt The Wound". "This was actually the first time Kirk got to play on an official EXODUS release," states Holt. "He did the early demo, and then joined METALLICA and didn't do anything with us after that. So he was totally gung-ho about it. He came down and ripped out a bunch of takes and we picked the best one and then had a barbecue and drank beer." "It felt really casual, really cool — just like it did back in 1980 when we were all just hanging out back in the day," Hammett told RollingStone.com. "Me, recording a solo on their album was a huge thing for me. Other than the EXODUS demo that's been heard by a lot of people, it's the only time I ever recorded with EXODUS. It was a huge thing for me." He added: "I play a pretty cool solo, and then Gary comes in and plays another solo, and you know what? I listened to that and thought, 'Wow, it's 1982 all over again and here we are, Gary and I are trying to cut each other's heads off with our guitar solos.' Nothing has changed much in the last 30 years. I love it. I love those guys. I've only known them for most of my life, so I'm really happy that I finally got to record with them." "Blood In Blood Out" track listing: 01. Black 13 (featuring Dan the Automator) 02. Blood In Blood Out 03. Collateral Damage 04. Salt The Wound (featuring Kirk Hammett) 05. Body Harvest 06. BTK (featuring Chuck Billy) 07. Wrapped In The Arms Of Rage 08. My Last Nerve 09. Numb 10. Honor Killings 11. Food For The Worms Bonus DVD includes: * "Blood Upon The Goat" making-of footage * Behind-the-scenes tour footage * Footage from Kirk Hammett's Fear FestEVIL After-Party at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con The digital version of "Blood In Blood Out" will include the digital bonus track "Angel Of Death" (ANGEL WITCH cover). The album’s Japanese edition includes the "Protect Not Dissect" bonus track featuring Rat from THE VARUKERS/DISCHARGE. "When I was working on the record, I was sitting around watching TV series like 'Gangland' and all these locked-up prison reality shows," said Holt. "And I thought, 'Yeah, that's like EXODUS.' It's a brotherhood. You bleed to get in, you bleed to get out. "I've been doing this kind of music since I was a teenager, and I'll be doing it 'till I can't physically do it anymore." The concept for the art was impressively envisaged by Olofsson based on the album title alone, as Gary Holt explained: "The concept came from Pär Olofsson. I fed him the title and he immediately came up with the final concept, and it's perfect! One of my favorite covers we've ever done and it fits the title and theme to a T!" "Blood In Blood Out" is EXODUS' first album since the departure of the band's lead singer of the past nine years, Rob Dukes, and the return of his predecessor, Steve "Zetro" Souza, who previously fronted EXODUS from 1986 to 1993 and from 2002 to 2004. Asked what EXODUS is doing differently on "Blood In Blood Out" compared to the band's previous efforts, Souza said: "I just think it's way more brutal now. I think if you look at the production value in the albums, from 'Bonded By Blood' [1985] and even 'Impact Is Imminent' [1990] and now you look at them, from 'Tempo Of The Damned' [2004] and then 'Shovel Headed Kill Machine' [2005] and 'The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A' [2007] and 'Exhibit B: The Human Condition' [2010] and now to 'Blood In, Blood Out', I just think the maturity level and knowing what you wanna sound like and knowing what you're going for and knowing what you do well. Not trying to second-guess yourself and go, 'Oh, we've gotta do this because of this.' It's not like that anymore. Now it's all about, 'Hey, we're EXODUS. We've been EXODUS for 30 years. And let's just be EXODUS.'" The album can be pre-ordered from the Nuclear Blast USA webshop in CD, digipak, and 2-LP exclusive yellow vinyl formats. Bundles include a t-shirt with exclusive artwork for North America + a poster (while supplies last). EXODUS will head out to South America in October before returning for a supporting run in November with fellow metal titans SLAYER and SUICIDAL TENDENCIES. The Scion-sponsored leg of this U.S. tour launches on November 11 with two shows at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California. The 26-show trek includes nine headlining off-dates with additional performances to be announced soon. Tickets are on sale now via the links on the official EXODUS Facebook page. Due to the overwhelmingly demand, EXODUS is making their VIP Experience packages available for the entire tour via SLOtix.com. Fans are encouraged to get them as soon as possible, as VIP package sales will close seven days prior to each show day. For fans who have already purchased their show ticket and would like to be part of the EXODUS VIP Experience, contact SLO Customer Service at 888-756-4849 or customerservice@slotix.com. Hammett was a member of EXODUS' original lineup before replacing Dave Mustaine in METALLICA in 1983. In fact, Hammett was not only the person who came up with the EXODUS name, but also the first from the band to meet original EXODUS singer Paul Baloff and brought him into the group. Dukes joined EXODUS in January 2005 and appeared on four of the band's studio albums — "Shovel Headed Kill Machine" (2005), "The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A" (2007), "Let There Be Blood" (2008, a re-recording of EXODUS' classic 1985 LP, "Bonded By Blood") and "Exhibit B: The Human Condition" (2010).
08 min read

SLAYER Returns To Studio To Record New Album

Manos Spanos
SLAYER has returned to the studio to resume recording its new album for a tentative early 2015 release. The effort will make SLAYER history as it will be released on Nuclear Blast Records through the band's own label imprint, closing out a 28-year relationship with Rick Rubin and American Recordings. It will also be SLAYER's first album without the group's co-founding guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who passed away in May 2013 from alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver. He is credited for writing many of SLAYER's classic songs, including "Angel Of Death" and "South Of Heaven". A photo from the latest studio sessions can be seen below. SLAYER's follow-up to 2009's "World Painted Blood" will include the song "Implode", which was made available as a free download as a "thank you" to the band's fans for their continued support following SLAYER's surprise performance at this past April's Revolver Golden Gods awards in Los Angeles. The track was recorded in April at Henson Studios in Los Angeles and produced by Terry Date and co-produced by Greg Fidelman. "I never go online and see what people are talking about because people are ten foot tall behind a computer screen, you know?!" SLAYER guitarist Kerry King told ARTE Concert at this month's Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany. "But, you know, a lot of [the reaction to 'Implode'] was positive, a lot of people said, 'For anybody that was worried about what SLAYER was gonna sound like post-Hanneman, don't worry about it.'" He continued: "I know people are gonna think that [we can't make another quality album], people are gonna expect us to fail because it's the first record without Jeff; I get it. But I'm also very proud of what of we've done so far towards new material. It's fast, the slow stuff's heavy. I mean, it's… Everything that people liked SLAYER for in the past is on this record." In the February 2014 issue of U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine, Kerry was asked if he has found himself tempted to write the kind of songs that Jeff might have contributed to an album, Kerry said: "I think that would be shooting myself in the foot. I can't pretend to be Jeff. We both learned from each other in 30 years of writing together. As far as going out of my way to write something that Jeff might've done? I won't do that. If it happens to end up sounding that way, good for me!" At the time of the Metal Hammer interview, it was still undecided as to whether any of Hanneman's previously unused ideas would make it to the next SLAYER album. "There was a song we finished on the last record, but I know for a fact [Jeff] wanted to rewrite the lyrics on, so that one got to deconstruct and make better," Kerry said. "I've said, and I'll continue to say, that if we use any of Jeff's songs, I don't want it to come out just because Jeff wrote it. I want it to come out because it's awesome," he added. "We've just got to put out something that I think Jeff would be proud of." Regarding what fans can expect from the new SLAYER material, King told Metal Hammer: "I've got a surprising amount of heavy stuff for me. I do tend to lean on the fast side, but I have some exceptionally heavy tunes, Like, 'Wow, man, where did that come from?' I expect my stuff to be angry and fast, but it's all over the map. I'm stoked. We'll have enough so we can pick great stuff whether we use any of Jeff's material or not. It should add up to as good a record as we can hope for with one of our original songwriters being gone." Joining King and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya during the sessions for SLAYER's new album are returning drummer Paul Bostaph, who replaced Dave Lombardo last year, and guitarist Gary Holt (also of EXODUS), who has been filling in for Hanneman on tour for the past four and a half years. Asked if Holt will play on the new SLAYER album, Kerry told Canada's Metro in an October 2013 interview: "I've told Gary that I'd like him to play some leads, just to keep it interesting. "We've always been a two-guitar attack, so if you're looking to have a segment like the 'Angel Of Death' lead trade-off, you can't do that with one guitar. "As far as Gary being a contributing writer, number one, fans aren't ready for it, and number two, that's like throwing somebody to the wolves. "I think if there's another record after this one and Gary is still with us at that point, I think that will be a time where I say, ‘Hey dude, feel free to throw any riffs my way if you're interested'." King told Metal Hammer about SLAYER's current touring lineup: "Not to toot my own horn, but we sound fucking great right now. It's a juggernaut. Paul's a machine. He always has been. Also he's been here before, so that made this transition as easy as it could be as well as for the fans because I think they always felt he was part of the band, even though he wasn't for many years." Bostaph was SLAYER's drummer from 1992 until 2001 and recorded four albums with the band — the gold-certified "Divine Intervention" (1994), the 1996 punk covers album "Undisputed Attitude", "Diabolus In Musica" (1998), "God Hates Us All" (2001) that received a Grammy nomination for "Best Metal Performance", as well as the DVD "War At The Warfield" (2001), also certified gold. In addition to SLAYER, Bostaph has been a member of FORBIDDEN, EXODUS, SYSTEMATIC and TESTAMENT. Original SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo was effectively fired from SLAYER after sitting out the band's Australian tour in February/March 2013 due to a contract dispute with the other members of the group. Filling in for him was Jon Dette (TESTAMENT, ANTHRAX).
07 min read

SLIPKNOT To Release ‘.5: The Gray Chapter’ In October

Manos Spanos
SLIPKNOT's fifth album, ".5: The Gray Chapter", will be made available on October 21 via Roadrunner. The CD will include 14 songs, plus two bonus tracks for the deluxe edition. ".5: The Gray Chapter" track listing: 01. XIX 02. Sarcastrophe 03. Aov 04. The Devil In I 05. Killpop 06. Skeptic 07. Lech 08. Goodbye 09. Nomadic 10. The One That Kills The Least 11. Custer 12. Be Prepared For Hell 13. The Negative One 14. If Rain Is What You Want 15. Override (bonus track) 16. The Burden (bonus track) The official ".5: The Gray Chapter" pre-order can be found at this location. You can see the cover artwork below. "The Devil In I", the official first single from ".5: The Gray Chapter", can be streamed below. The disc follows up 2008's "All Hope Is Gone" and is the band's first without founding bassist Paul Gray, who died in 2010, and drummer Joey Jordison, who was let go late last year. "The Devil In I" is more melodic and features cleaner vocals from frontman Corey Taylor, who told The Pulse Of Radio what the song is about. "'The Devil In I' is really about the war inside yourself," he said. "Trying not to give into defeatism, trying not to give into negativity, trying not to give up basically. It's a struggle. It's one of the hardest thing you can do, is to give in to that side of yourself." SLIPKNOT issued and quickly fulfilled a casting call earlier in the month for fans — also known as "maggots" — to appear in the new video for "The Devil In I". The call for extras to appear as "human maggots," requiring that applicants be between 20 and 35 years old and "comfortable to be shooting in barefoot," was issued the weekend of August 16-17 and was no longer accepting submissions by August 18. The shoot was scheduled to take place on either Friday (August 22) or Saturday (August 23) in the Los Angeles area. Taylor told The Pulse Of Radio that the band's remaining members pulled closer together in the studio following Gray's passing. "It was almost like getting to know each other again," he said. "We were all kind of grieving in our own way and dealing with things in our own way, and knowing that we had to be healthy to go in, we had to be creative to go in, and knowing that we were gonna have to fill this huge void, we just kind of took it upon ourselves to make up for that emptiness by being a little bit of Paul. Like we were all a little bit of Paul in our own way." Asked what has been most fulfilling about working on new SLIPKNOT music that he never experienced before, Corey told Full Metal Jackie: "This one, it just feels, there's something weird about this one. Obviously this is the first album we're making without Paul. "After everything we went through, there's a catharsis that comes with this, being able to throw all the emotion and aggression out that we've been holding onto. At the same time, getting to be creative again. Feeling that juice coming back into us. It's been a real positive experience just from an artistic standpoint, a lyrical standpoint. "We're making an album that's not just a reflection. Let's just get new music out there. There's something very vital with what we're trying to do. There's something very visceral with the emotion we're playing with and trying to tell the story of a band that's gone through hell, and yet we're back. It's been really fulfilling." Corey recently described the musical direction of the new SLIPKNOT material as "a great mesh of [2001's] 'Iowa' and [2004's] 'Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)'." He explained: "You've got the gorgeous melodies and the artistic direction of 'Vol. 3' and then you've got the absolute brutality of 'Iowa'. And I think people are gonna lose their minds when they hear it." Reports have suggested that SLIPKNOT has recruited drummer Jay Weinberg to play on the new album and tour. Weinberg is the son of Max Weinberg, longtime Bruce Springsteen and the E STREET BAND drummer. There are also rumors that SLIPKNOT is no longer working with Donnie Steele, the group's original guitar player who has been playing bass for SLIPKNOT since the band resumed touring in 2011. SLIPKNOT announced in December 2013 that it had parted ways with Jordison. The band has not disclosed the reasons for Jordison's exit, although the drummer issued a statement in January saying that he did not quit the group. The video for "The Negative One", w
06 min read