Guitarist JEFF HANNEMAN Talks About His Favorite SLAYER Album

August 5, 2004

In a recent interview with KNAC.com, SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman was asked to name his favorite SLAYER album. "I hate to say it, but probably 'Reign In Blood'," Jeff replied. "Not just because of what other people think of it — it's more like at that time that album was stamped into my memory because things were really starting to change for us and things were starting to get professional and serious, and that's the first time we had a tour bus and a real record label. And we put that album down… I don't know how long it took us, but everything was done, everything was fast, everything was good. In fact, you've probably heard this, but our biggest scare on that record is that once we got finished with it we checked the time and it was like 28 minutes. We were like, 'Holy shit. Too short!' [Laughs] So we sat there with [producer Rick] Rubin and thought, 'Does it sound great? Yes. Do we all like it? Yes. Fuck it!' [Laughs]"

With regards to the songwriting process in SLAYER, Hanneman said, "We just basically — we always start with music. So I'll come up with something at home, or Kerry [King] will come up with something. And eventually — you know, because I can do my stuff at home because I have a new 24-track and a drum machine, so if I get an idea, I can run with it as far as I can get it. Then I'll bring it to these guys and play it, see what they think, and Kerry will add a riff or Dave [Lombardo] will say something about 'Change it here' or 'Change it there' and Kerry does the same thing. And then when we get together we try to get the basic structure of the song done, and then we kinda know where the lyrics go and where the leads go. That's when the lyrics start falling into place, and the song will change here and there; but it's all done spontaneously, it's not like — we don’t sit down around a table before the album comes out and have a meeting on what the album is going to sound like. It's whatever we're into."

Read Jeff Hanneman's entire interview with KNAC.com at this location.

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