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PAUL BOSTAPH: SLAYER Is Honoring JEFF HANNEMAN By Continuing Without Him

Manos Spanos
Earlier this week, Dimitris Kontogeorgakos of Greece's Metal Kaoz conducted an interview with SLAYER drummer Paul Bostaph. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). On how it feels playing with SLAYER again: Bostaph: "It feels phenomenal. It feels really good. It feels like being home. I've always loved playing this music. I grew up on it… Just coming back to this, it's been really good. It's kind of like going back and playing with old friends again. I mean, Kerry [King, guitar] and I were really close and we still are, and I'm close to Tom [Araya, bass/vocals]. And I know Gary [Holt] from EXODUS [who is filling in for late SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman] — I know Gary very well. The only bittersweet part of it, obviously, is that Jeff is not with us anymore. And I was looking forward to that, to playing with him again. But other than that, other than Jeff passing, it's been really good." On his decision in December 2001 to leave SLAYER and how things are different today: Bostaph: "Well, it's funny… I was different back then. The way I looked at things was different — right or wrong. And now I've had the time to kind of… Sometimes they say you don't know what you have until it's gone. And I think over the years, just seeing the guys and playing with different bands [since I left SLAYER], I kind of realized that playing with these guys is that there's a way that they do things that… In terms of… I don't know… It's hard to explain. There's a work ethic that appeals to me within this band. I think there's just a feeling of loving the music. First and foremost, and the primary thing out of everything, I couldn't find a band that could do what this band does. And that's the bottom line, really." On whether he was the first and only name on SLAYER's list of possible replacements for the band's original drummer, Dave Lombardo, when Dave parted ways with SLAYER earlier this year: Bostaph: "Honestly, I don't think so; I don't think I was the first and only [name on the list]. I mean, there's probably some other guys [that were being considered as well]. But I'm the guy that's here now. It made sense [for me to return]. I mean, you can't think anything for granted and think it's just gonna work. You have to try it out and see how things feel. It's been over [ten] years [since I left the band], and I'm sure they wanted to see how it felt playing together again, and being in a room together, you know what I mean?! You just don't make a snap judgment like that and [assume] that it's going to work. And they didn't. And we got together and we felt it out, and it felt really good, and here we are." On how different it feels being in SLAYER without Jeff:
08 min read

SLAYER’s TOM ARAYA: JEFF HANNEMAN’s Death ‘Has Changed Everything’

Manos Spanos
Brian Aberback of New Jersey's Steppin' Out magazine recently conducted an interview with SLAYER bassist/vocalist Tom Araya. An excerpt from the chat follows below. Steppin' Out: You just started doing press for this tour and know that everyone will be asking about [late SLAYER guitarist] Jeff [Hanneman]. How do you feel talking about everything that's gone on in the past six months? Tom Araya: You know you're going to get those questions whether we decide to do press or not. If you don't do interviews, no one is aware that you're doing a tour. It wouldn't bother me if Kerry [King, guitar] did all the interviews. [laughs] But when I do interviews, I enter them with an open mind and try to answer the questions the best I can. Steppin' Out: Did you have any idea that Jeff was seriously ill before he died? Tom: Nobody ever thought about Jeff passing away. I thought about him getting better and getting back onstage. We've been talking about getting back in the studio for the last two years, with Jeff being a part of that. It was something to be continued. Steppin' Out: Have you thought about folding the band following his death? Tom: His death has changed everything. Knowing that Jeff was on the sidelines, I was OK. It was always about, "Jeff is going to come back." Then he passed away and it was more like, "Why am I doing this now?" It changed my attitude about some things. Someone said, "It's really great that you decided to tour and move on," but these tours were scheduled in advance. At the end of this tour, Kerry and I are going to have to sit down and talk as far as how we want to move forward, if we want to move forward. There hasn't been time for me and Kerry to talk. We've been on the road but we haven't really sat down and talked about it. Jeff and I collaborated a lot, and he offered me the opportunity to write or to collaborate with him. Like I said, there are things we have to discuss to either move forward or just to figure something out. Steppin' Out: How tough was it playing the first shows after Jeff's death this summer in Europe?
03 min read

SLAYER Hopes To Include JEFF HANNEMAN-Penned Material On Next Album

Manos Spanos
Earlier today (Monday, October 7), SLAYER bassist/vocalist Tom Araya spoke to Loudwire about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's next studio album — the group's first since the passing of guitarist Jeff Hanneman this past May. "We have two songs," said Araya. He added: "I haven't had the privilege of going through [Jeff's] audio files at the moment, but that's something I plan to do. Once we get some business squared away, that's something I plan to do; to go through his music and see what he has. "I know that he had several ideas together that he had presented to us in the course of the past year. Before he passed away, there was one complete song that he had managed to send to everybody that I listened to and that I thought was really, really good and communicated that to him. There's stuff that I thought would be great to listen to just to see what's there and how we can possibly use what he had done. That's something I have every intension of doing." Araya offered more information about the material that Jeff left behind that may end up on the next SLAYER record. "One song was a song we didn't finish for [2009's] 'World Painted Blood'," he said. "That song is actually complete. Me and Jeff were working on melody and lyric ideas for that song. We weren't really happy with what we were doing or what was becoming of that song, so it didn't make it on the album. It was just something we were working on and we couldn't find anything we were happy with that would work well lyrically and melody-wise, so that's one reason why that one didn't make it on the album, but that song is complete, it's done, it's ready to go." He continued: "I don't want to use the term 'typical' [laughs] but it's Jeff, it's obvious who put the song together. It's Jeff music. He created a certain way and he put music together a certain way; it's signature Jeff. It's new, it doesn't sound like anything else that we've done, in my opinion. Jeff usually just wrote songs and a lot of his stuff had certain signature things he would do to songs. That stuff is in there, but I would consider it new."
03 min read

CARCASS Frontman: ‘We’re Not Trying To Compete With Any Bands That Are Influenced By Us’

Manos Spanos
David E. Gehlke of DeadRhetoric.com recently conducted an interview with bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker of reactivated British extreme-metal pioneers CARCASS. A few excerpts from the chat follow below. DeadRhetoric.com: With the new album ["Surgical Steel"], what was your "Hey, this is going to work" moment? Walker: In the rehearsal room; it's that simple. Bill [Steer, guitar] actually was like, "Okay, let's try this out and if it works, great, if not, we haven't lost anything." My attitude was that it will work, like, "Don't worry, Bill." I have enough confidence in myself and him as a guitar player, and Daniel [Wilding] is a fantastic drummer and I was never under any illusion that we couldn't pull something great off. I mean, we're hungry and we have something to prove after 17 years and we don't want to disappoint people. We don't want to be one of these bands who come back after a long period of time with an album that people are like, "That album sucks!" We already made that album — it's called "Swansong". It's important we don't shit on our legacy. This is almost like making our first album. We've done this off our own volition, with our own time, and our own money. No one was dangling a carrot in front of us. We could have easily found a record deal, then made this album. But I think it was out of pride — especially from my side that it was more important we put our money where our mouth is. We kept it secret, and we didn't want to be accused of doing it for the money. DeadRhetoric.com: There's no money in metal anyway. Walker: I disagree. [laughs] Joking aside, it's easy to deal with those kind of snipes, but I don't want to give people ammunition.
04 min read

CARCASS Frontman Says MICHAEL AMOTT Was ‘Too Busy’ To Continue Playing With The Band

Manos Spanos
Raymond Westland of Ghost Cult magazine recently conducted an interview with bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker of reactivated British extreme metal pioneers CARCASS. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. Ghost Cult: Can you talk us through the point CARCASS reformed to the moment you actually started to work on the new album? Walker: We got together in 2007 when Bill [Steer; guitar] finally agreed on doing a couple of gigs. We didn't play any gigs that year, because I walked away from the whole thing, due to certain business arrangements I wasn't happy about. In 2008, the whole reunion thing came about. It was never meant as a long-term thing. Then 2009 came about and we got more and better offers coming in. Same thing in 2010, including a couple of events and venues we hadn't played before. Last gig we did as CARCASSwas in August 2010 with Michael Amott and Daniel Erlandsson of ARCH ENEMY. That was the closure on the whole reunion thing, becauseMichael made it explicitly clear he'd be too busy with his own bands to even consider doing anything in the future with CARCASS. At that point, we hadn't discussed doing anything beyond the whole reunion thing, so that was quite a relief. At some point, Bill contacted me about whether I'd fancy doing anything with Dan Wilding, who was a member ofABORTED when they toured the U.S. Bill has a thing with drummers and he wanted to do something musically with Dan. As for me, I was really prepared and willing to do more music with CARCASS back in 2009. When you're in a band with Bill Steer, Michael Amott and Daniel Erlandsson, it would be wasting a great opportunity not to. Daniel would have made himself available if we would continue doing music with CARCASS, but when push came to shove, he had to make a decision and he decided to stay with ARCH ENEMY. It wasn't really a matter of choosing for him. If he stuck around for longer, a CARCASS album would have been around sooner perhaps.
05 min read

AURA NOIR Pays Tribute To SLAYER’s JEFF HANNEMAN At France’s HELLFEST (Video)

Manos Spanos
Fan-filmed video footage of Norwegian black/thrash butchers AURA NOIRperforming a cover version of the SLAYER classic "Fight 'Till Death" as a tribute to late SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman at this year's Hellfest, which was held June 21-23 in Clisson, France, can be seen below. AURA NOIR's fifth full-length album, "Out To Die", was released in March 2012 via Norway's Indie Recordings. "Out To Die" marked the return of guitarist Rune Eriksen (a.k.a. ex-MAYHEM guitarist/songwriter Blasphemer), who resides in Portugal and previously led his own band AVA INFERI. Eriksen made several trips back to Norway to work on the new AURA NOIR songs with Aggressorand Apollyon (guitar, bass, vocals, drums; also bassist in IMMORTAL). Members of SLAYER released a statement on May 9 saying thatHanneman died of alcohol-related cirrhosis. He is credited for writing many of the band's classic songs, including "Angel Of Death" and "South
01 min read

AT THE GATES Pays Tribute To SLAYER’s JEFF HANNEMAN At France’s HELLFEST (Video)

Manos Spanos
Fan-filmed video footage of Swedish melodic death metal pioneers AT THE GATES performing a cover version of the SLAYER classic "Captor Of Sin"on June 21 at this year's Hellfest in Clisson, France can be seen below. When introducing the track, AT THE GATES vocalist Tomas Lindbergsaid: "This next song is not an AT THE GATES song, it's a cover. Without this band, the music that we love so much would not exist in this world as we know it. We wanna send this one out to one of the greatest songwriters of modern days. This one goes out to Mr. Jeff Hanneman. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you 'Captor Of Sin'." A studio recording of AT THE GATES' version of "Captor Of Sin" was included on the reissue of the band's classic 1995 album "Slaughter Of The Soul". Members of SLAYER released a statement on May 9 saying thatHanneman died of alcohol-related cirrhosis. He is credited for writing many of the band's classic songs, including "Angel Of Death" and "South Of Heaven".
01 min read

SLAYER’s JEFF HANNEMAN: ARTISAN NEWS Video Report On Public Memorial Celebration

Manos Spanos
A five-minute video report from Artisan News on the May 23 public memorial celebration for SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, California can be seen below. Check out photos of the event: * Stephanie Cabral * Kevin Estrada * DirtJunior.com Members of SLAYER released a statement on May 9 saying thatHanneman died of alcohol-related cirrhosis. He is credited for writing many of the band's classic songs, including "Angel Of Death" and "South Of Heaven".
03 min read

JEFF HANNEMAN Was Working On New Music Before He Died, Says TOM ARAYA

Manos Spanos
On May 2, the sudden news took the metal community by storm: SLAYERguitarist Jeff Hanneman had died. In the August 2013 issue of Guitar World magazine, the band's bassist/vocalist Tom Araya recalls his final communications with his longtime friend and bandmate: "I had been texting with him, and he even sent me a song that he had been working on. So it seemed like he was doing okay. But when I got the call that he was back in intensive care, I became concerned. Eventually he stopped responding to my texts. It was like a one-sided conversation. "I was home with my family when I found out he had died. The phone rang and my wife answered it, and she had this look of dread on her face. She handed me the phone and didn't say anything, and it was our manager,Rick [Sales], and he told me. I hung up the phone and went to my room and I cried. "It hit my family hard, because they really liked Jeff. My mother was really upset, my sisters loved Jeff, and my brother too — he was Jeff's tech for a long time."
03 min read

SLAYER’s KING: ‘I Don’t Think We Should Throw In The Towel Just Because JEFF’s Not Here’

Manos Spanos
The surviving members of California thrash titans SLAYER have opened up to Guitar World magazine about the passing of the band's founding guitarist Jeff Hanneman, who died on May 2 from alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver, a result of a lifetime of drinking. "Jeff was always a drinker," former SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo tells the publication for its August 2013 issue. "He always had a Coors Light tall can in his hand. Always." "Jeff and I always drank," SLAYER guitarist Kerry King adds. "They called Steven Tyler and Joe Perry the Toxic Twins. We were the Drunk Brothers." He laughs. "The difference being that I don't wake up in the morning and need a beer. Jeff didn't know how not to drink."
07 min read