Ex-SLAYER Drummer JON DETTE Shares Drum Cover Of 'Postmortem' As Part Of 'Big Four' Series

Drummer Jon Dette (TESTAMENT, SLAYER, ANTHRAX) has uploaded the latest in his "Big Four" drum-cover series: SLAYER's "Postmortem". The clip, which can be seen below, follows his previously released videos for METALLICA's "Damage, Inc.", SLAYER's "Killing Fields", METALLICA's "Blackened", ANTHRAX's "A.I.R." and MEGADETH's "Wake Up Dead".

Says Jon: "As I said in the last video, the 80's produced some of the greatest Metal bands on the planet! And 1986 produced some of the greatest records on the planet!

"'Reign In Blood' dropped October 1986. Just like 'Master Of Puppets', it completely changed my life on the drums! And in my opinion, completely moved the needle for heavy metal music overall. Dave Lombardo took heavy metal drumming to a completely new level and quickly became my biggest influence through the rest of the 80's.

"Five years later in 1991, I was trying to land a gig with a band. So I decided to make a demo tape (Yes, we had actual cassette tapes back then) of myself playing drums. I went into a small recording studio in Montebello, CA and tracked the entire 'Reign In Blood' album, in one take from memory without any playback. I appropriately named my audition tape.... 'Lombardo's 5th Overture!' I had business cards printed as labels to go in the cassette cases which read: 'Lombardo's 5th Overture! The Entire Reign In Blood Album Performed In One Take On Drums From Memory! For Best Results, Hum Guitars & Vocals!' That tape circulated around the Los Angeles area, it even found it's way to the east coast and got into the hands of Johnny and Marsha Zazula! (RIP)

"4 years later in 1995, that tape somehow found it's way to Rick Sale's office and in the hands of the late great Nick John (RIP) The rest is history!

"'Post Mortem' was one of my favorite tracks on the record! 36 years later, I enjoy playing it as much now as I did in 1986.

"As you know, none of these songs were tracked with a click so there's also NO quantizing, putting tracks on a grid, etc. My take is the take. Flubs, clams and all! Playing along to these older tracks is all feel and at times, being like Luke Skywaker and, 'Using the force!' lol."

The 52-year-old Dette played as a full-time member of SLAYER from 1996 to 1997 and as a touring member in 2013.

In a 2013 interview with Metal Rules, Dette revealed that he collaborated with SLAYER guitarist Kerry King on some of the early ideas for what became the band's final studio album, 2015's "Repentless", before he was replaced by a returning Paul Bostaph. "I actually started working with SLAYER after we had gotten back from Australia [in early 2013]," he said. "We started working for demo and music for their new record. And then obviously what happened with Jeff [Hanneman, guitar] passing away, that changed some things. But it was definitely moving in that direction for me to be working with SLAYER [again]. But as I said there are just some things that changed with that once Jeff passed away, and I think, ultimately, they felt more comfortable with ‎Paul Bostaph, just because Paul had been in the band for longer. I think it was not going to be as much of a shock to their fans, because first Dave is gone, and now Jeff is gone, the band, it's now down to two original members. So if Paul makes them feel more comfortable and at home, then more respect to him and I wish them the best with that."

King confirmed that he worked with Dette early on in the songwriting process for "Repentless" before deciding to re-hire Bostaph instead. "We pursued it," Kerry said in a 2015 interview. "We got back from Australia. I did demos with Jon Dette, I did demos with Paul — the same two songs, under the same circumstances; they each had, like, 24 to 36 hours to learn 'em — and just see where it went. And Tom [Araya, SLAYER bassist/vocalist] and Jeff [Hanneman, SLAYER guitarist] both decided Paul, and in hindsight, that was the right choice."

Dette originally joined SLAYER in 1996 when Paul Bostaph left to work on his side project THE TRUTH ABOUT SEAFOOD. Dette performed with SLAYER at the 1996 Ozzfest to promote the band's covers album, "Undisputed Attitude".

Prior to joining SLAYER, Dette appeared on TESTAMENT's "Live At The Fillmore" album, which came out in 1995.

In recent years, Dette had played sporadic shows with ANTHRAX as a temporary replacement for Charlie Benante, who had been undergoing physical therapy in his battle with carpal tunnel syndrome.