SLAYER's KERRY KING: If 'Reign In Blood' Came Out Today, No One Would Give A S**t

April 10, 2009

Sam Roudman of Filter magazine recently spoke to the four members of SLAYER for a lengthy interview which appears in its issue #35. An excerpt from the article on the "Reign In Blood" / "South Of Heaven" / "Seasons In The Abyss" years follows below.

"Reign in Blood":

Tom Araya (bass, vocals): On that first album [together], [producer Rick] Rubin made sure that he recorded. He wanted to duplicate what he was hearing.

Kerry King (guitar): It was the first time you actually heard SLAYER in its pure ferocity, and it made a big difference. One funny thing about that album is if it came out today, no one would give a shit. They'd say, "That's cool." But at the time it came out it made such a difference. People still reflect on that as a poignant time, where shit changed.

Jeff Hanneman (guitar): "Angel of Death" was a big problem. I remember getting a phone call after the album was done: Sony wasn't going to release it. I remember being at home, pissed, throwing things. What the fuck? I didn't think anything was wrong with "Angel of Death" or anything else we did, it's a documentary! There's no "Heil Hitler," or "white people rule," it's a documentary; grow up, people. It took months before they picked it up again. Finally, we got signed by a distributor.

"South of Heaven" / "Seasons in the Abyss":

Dave Lombardo (drums): I think "Heaven" is more slowed-down. "Reign in Blood" was played very fast, but that's the picture of that album. "South of Heaven" is just a whole different record; it has more color to it.

Tom Araya: We purposefully didn't want to do another fast album. But there are a lot of people now that say ["South of Heaven" is] an underrated record.

Kerry King: My problem with the record is that I never thought Tom should have sung as much as he did. That's not his fault; we all came to that decision. But looking back, after "South of Heaven", that's what I said going into "Seasons" — "I don't care if you got the melody, but you can't lose that ferocity in your voice…" There wasn't enough anger in the presentation. I think we combined the two with "Seasons"; like, "That's where it needed to be, that is the imprint of SLAYER from now, so it is written, so it is done!" [Laughs]

In the late '80s, with "Reign" and "South", and by the time we had "Seasons" happening, there were tons of bands doing it. It's like a recurring cycle; when something gets popular, record companies sign anything that sounds remotely like 'em, and it kills the genre.