Slayer

johnglen said:
Yeah this is the curse that pantera brought in metal, this american style of stupid "bro" lyrics with an influence from the southern U.S combined with a downtuned guitar sound that has no melody whatsoever . Fortunately this movement died around 2000 and most traditional metal bands abandoned this sound . This cancer had plagued even bands like Judas Priest (jugulator ) . Thank God that Harris is stubborn , I'd take the blaze era albums over crap like "jugulator" every time .
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The best thing I've read this week. :notworthy::notworthy:
 
I have a bit of a funny story about Slayer from last year. I saw Whitesnake with Tommy Aldridge on drums four nights before seeing Slayer at the last Mayhem Festival. I felt pain on my left side and my mother kept insisting it was gas and I demanded that she took me to the hospital and I ended up having a kidney stone. The next night I had to stay in the hospital because I couldn't hold anything in because I was in excrutiating pain. My parents insisted that I sold my ticket on Facebook but I don't usually take no for an answer. I was feeling much better the next day and I asked the doctor about his impression about me going to the show and he instructed me to drink a lot of water and eat the right foods. I drove to the show the following night and I was at the pit and close to the stage. King Diamond opened for them. I made it back okay without any pain. Now that's living metal!
 
Gotta love Gary for these statements:
Speaking to Artisan News, Holt said (see video below): "I think it's kind of scary… frightening. Donald Trump's the likely Republican nominee. You can't believe anything he says, 'cause he's a serial liar. But, you know, what are we gonna do? I mean, the Republican party doesn't want him to win the nomination, 'cause it's gonna be the death knell for the Republicans in the House and the Congress and everywhere for years to come. People might think some of the things he says, but you can't have a president calling Rosie O'Donnell a 'fat bitch.' [Laughs] It's, like, dude, do you even hear yourself? He won't even condemn David Duke's support. He pretended he doesn't know who he is. I'm a fucking headbanger who's done more drugs before getting sober than most people have ever seen on TV, and I've been drinking since I was 17, although in recent years much less, and I know who the fuck he is. Donald Trump is running for president and he [doesn't] know who the former grandmaster of the KKK is. That was your moment, Donald Trump, to say… you know, to condemn the man, basically, but you pretended you were just ignorant of who he was, 'cause you don't wanna fuck with that vote. There are some fucking hillbillies out there who you want voting for you."
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MFC said:
What does others here think about Slayer?
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I can't understand why they are popular.
There was a time when I liked a couple of Slayer songs. Dead skin mask, Dissodent aggressor (yeah, I know that's a JP song), Die by the sword, south of heaven.
I even bought their live double album "Decade of Aggression". First time I listened to it, I thought, holy shit this band is terrible. I gave it another couple of chances, then put the album away on the shelf and didn't listen to it since.
First time I ever heard Slayer, it was at a time I was just getting into Maiden and Megadeth (and metal in general), two very melodic metal bands (admittedly Mustain is not a great singer, but he has his style and does attempt melodies). I guy at some seasonal work I was doing, loaned me his Reign in Blood cassette, I loaned him some Maiden.
I really wasn't impressed at all by Reign in Blood. Very little in the way of melody or structure, very little in the way of guitar harmonies, the guitar solos were just frantic, directionless, lots of whammy. The singer (if you can call him that), just screams all the time. His full on scream is interesting, but it is a shame that he doesn't bother carrying a tune, just screams words out. Anyway, I really didn't like it that much.
I think later someone gave me South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss, and Show no Mercy.
And there were about 15% of songs that I liked.

Decades later The Big Four movie came out. I thought Anthrax were awesome (was great to see Beladona back), Megadeth were also fantastic, then Slayer came on. I was like, OK I've been into metal for a very long time now, perhaps there stuff may have grown on me. The first song was screaming, droning chugging guitars, frantic whammy solos, drumming going a million miles an hour. I was thinking, um, yeah, whatever, perhaps next song is better. The next song came on and I couldn't tell the difference between that song and the last one. Rather than skip onto the Metallica section, I figured I'd bear with it and give these guys a chance. So half an hour or so later of listing to the same screaming, the same beat, the same whammy solos not really being able to tell one song from the next, I'm like, Urggh that wasn't very enjoyable. I think since, I only sat through the slayer section of the DVD once more and again thought it was a waste of my time. I test of my endurance and patience really. I just kept thinking to myself, do these guys actually know how to play their instruments? I mean, I'm sure I could get a guy to learn guitar for the first time a month and they could play this rythm, or something that sounds not too different. Get some hyper guy on drum just to hit it as fast as they can boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom (without the fills of course) and it would sound pretty similar. (of course I've just offended anyone that respects and likes Slayer, but this is how I feel when I watch the band play live).

Anyway, again, I thought, maybe I'm just not used to the songs, maybe I haven't listened enough to it. I still keep hearing many people claim that Reign in Blood is the BEST Thrash album of ALL TIME. So I put it on my mp3 player, and listened to it for a week. After that, I removed it from my player and decided, well I gave it a try, I can't understand at all why anyone likes this band.

One strange consequence of all this is that I have a much greater appreciation for Pantera, especially the Vulgar Display of Power album. I'm not a fan of the singer, but the songs are great, the guitar and drumming are great. The singer is much, much, much better than Araya, but still I like vocals melodies, I think my one exception is Max Cavalera, that guy is awesome, especially in early Sepultura.

Listened to a couple of songs from the latest Slayer, and just though, oh, more of the same, frantic guitar solo, chugging riffs, fast drumming, screaming vocals. It's not for me.
 
I know that Slayer is considered a pivotal/important band in the development of metal, but they don't do anything for me. The songs are monotonous, their live shows are boring (I've seen them open up twice...and it looked like statues headbanging in sync to the same basic song for 40 mins) and the whole tough guy/evil image is really juvenile IMHO. Plus, the fact that King is an arrogant dick most of the time doesn't help things. The only good thing about them was Lombardo's chops...

But... they were pretty different for their time, which is why they achieved popularity and became a 'foundation' band. If they came out today, they would probably never make it out of the club circuit. There are simply too many bands that are better at the fast/aggressive thing today.
 
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Just saw Slayer for the ninth time. I was more excited to see the opening bands Death Angel and Anthrax,, but I somehow forgot how BRUTAL Slayer is live! They averaged four songs in a row without stopping and played PERFECT! Gary Holt is THE man! I drove four hours to see this show in Dallas and the first four songs alone were worth the drive. Deep cuts throughout the setlist. Very long set as well!

Saw them at a place in Dallas called Gas Monkey Live. Was my first time there. About five times the size of any other club I have been to. Plenty of space, more than one restroom, you can order food from the bar (although the burger sucked). The merch tables are off to the side near some video games and the large club leaves room for a LONG line for the merch.

Go to the Anthrax and thrash metal threads for my reviews of Anthrax and Death Angel

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/slayer/2016/gas-monkey-live-dallas-tx-23fd24eb.html
 
I remember back in the 90s i read an interview with Kerry where he said Gary Holt was the most unappreciated guitarist in metal.
 
I lost enthusiasm for Slayer after that shitty last album. I listened to them on daily basis, even got over Lombardo leaving but "let's get high" managed to do it.
 
I don't even know that album. I guess live Slayer and recent album Slayer are two different interests of mine. Although I should downplay the first. I never go to their gigs. But I do not miss them on festivals either if they play and if I am there for another reason. Which doesn't happen often. ;)
 
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I saw Slayer live for the first time last year in Toronto.

Over time, I had multiple chances to see them with Jeff but it regrettably never happened for whatever reason.

I had reservations, but Gary Holt played his ass off and he blew Kerry King off the stage.

Some of the new stuff isn't bad, it's very hit and miss. Still a decent live band even without Dave.
 
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