KERRY KING: 'If I Had My Choice In How Things Play Out, This Is Definitely The Last Version Of SLAYER Anyone Will See'

SLAYER's eleventh studio album, "Repentless", will be released on September 11 via Nuclear Blast. The follow-up to 2009's critically acclaimed, Grammy-nominated "World Painted Blood" marks the band's first release since the 2013 departure of drummer Dave Lombardo and the death of SLAYER's co-founding guitarist Jeff Hanneman. Gary Holt (also of EXODUS) stepped in for Hanneman after Jeff became ill four and a half years ago, while Lombardo was replaced by Paul Bostaph, who was previously SLAYER's drummer from 1992 until 2001 and recorded four albums with the band.

Regarding SLAYER's current lineup, the band's guitarist Kerry King told the Detroit Free Press: "I have no desire to change things up. If I had my choice in how things play out, yeah, this is definitely the last version of SLAYER anyone will see."

King recently told the OC Weekly that he "definitely" wanted to address Holt's status in SLAYER by offering the EXODUS axeman a deal that would make him a permanent member of the Tom Araya-fronted outfit. "We just got recording ['Repentless'] out of the way and we still had to get Paul situated. Not as if this issue wasn't important to us, we just had other things on our mind. I know we got Paul's deal in — and I don't even know if that's even gotten finalized yet, but I know we got the paperwork through and it's in the process. To us, we had to do that first, because Paul was in the band for ten years prior to this. The next thing to do is make a legit offer to Gary if he's going to stay on board. And that's okay if he's not interested in staying. I certainly wouldn't ask him to quit EXODUS; that's not part of it at all."

Holt did not contribute to the songwriting process on "Repentless", although he did lay down guitar solos on most of the album's twelve tracks.

"I would have loved for Gary to have been more involved with writing," King explained to LA Weekly. "I thought a long time about this, but I didn't think SLAYER fans were ready for that yet. Even though Gary's a household name in thrash, I didn't feel that the first SLAYER record without Jeff should have Gary Holt contributing as a writer."

Hanneman died 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".

Hanneman's last appearance with SLAYER was in April 2011, when he played an encore with the band at the "Big Four" concert in Indio, California.

Photo by Andrew Stuart