The thrash band Slayer originally formed in 1981 under the name Dragon Slayer with Tom Araya, Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, and Dave Lombardo, covering Iron Maiden and Judas Preist songs. They signed onto Metal Blade records and pushed out Show No Mercy in 1983. The album was a hit and they released their second full length album, Hell Awaits in 1985. After the success of these two albums, Slayer signed onto American records, who cleaned up their sound. In 1986, Slayer released their claim to fame, Reign in Blood. After the huge success of Reign in Blood, Rick Ruben cleaned up Slayer's sound and had them slown down a bit. This was seen on their fourth album, South of Heaven. This time, the lyrics aren't the typical "I wanna kill everyone, Satan is good, Satan is our pal," but more politically toned. The band's next release, which was also produced with Rick Ruben, was Seasons in the Abyss. Again, the tempo isn't as thrashy as usual, but the album was a success. In 1991, Slayer commemorated their 10 year anniversary by releasing Decade of Aggression, their first real live contemplation (Live Undead was actually recorded in a studio and the crowd was synthesised in). This turned to out to be Dave Lombardo's last contemplation with the band, as he left onto Grip Inc. In 1994, Slayer released Divine Intervention, with Paul Bostaph on the drums. Bostaph was a huge success for the band, as Divine Intervention attracted more of their old fans back. Their next release was Diabolus in Musica, and we see Slayer take their thrash sound and walk a fine line with death metal. As Slayer came into the new millenium, they released God Hates Us All in 2001, going towards that death metal sound even more. Recently, Slayer commemorated thier 20 years of thrashing it up with War at the Warfield (which was significantly better than Decade of Aggression). During all of Slayer's 20 year existence, they've accumulated a wide variety of fans throughout the world.
Bio written by: bunkum |
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