Slayer: Lyrics, History, Ideology.

The history of Slayer dates back to 1982, when 16 year-old guitarist Kerry King began to perform in his teacher's band "Quits", which played mostly cover versions of other bands. Then the band dispersed, but Kerry King did not want to finish his music career. He felt, he would devote his life to it. He felt a desire to gather his own band, which he immediately started realizing. Without hesitation, he got in touch with his former partner Tom Araya. By that time, Tom had already worked as a therapist in the hospital and believed medicine was his life occupation. However having thought everything over thoroughly, he decided to use this chance, despite the hazy prospects. At the same time, Kerry met Jeff Hanneman who immediately agreed to join the yet non-existing band "Slayer". The only thing left was to find a good drummer, and soon Dave Lombardo joined them. All the members of Slayer were surprised by Dave's fanaticism that he demonstrated at every rehearsal. They appreciated it, and the line-up was finally complete. Then almost at once the name "Slayer" appeared, it is still unknown, whether it was the idea of one person or of the whole band. The point was that everybody liked the name "Slayer", and they chose it without further thinking.

The first concert of "Slayer" was their school performance on March, 1982. "Slayer" started out by playing cover versions of such bands as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Black Sabbath in clubs. It was during one of such performances in the club "Woodstock" when Brian Slagel, the owner and founder of Metal Blade Records spotted "Slayer".Brian Slagel offered "Slayer" to record the song, "Aggressive Perfector" for "Metal Massacre III" compilation. "Slayer" agreed if Brian would help them to release their debut album. In autumn 1983 entered the studio to work at their first album Show No Mercy, which has become the classics of thrash metal. Though the greatest songs of "Slayer" appeared later, the album had its own beauty, and nobody could call it a failure. Many bands would only dream of detestation, aggression and speed, which were present in the album of Slayer. Moreover, this album became a starting point for Black Metal; the history of this scandalous style began with this album.

In order to understand, why this album became a model of extreme, energy and chaos atmosphere, it is necessary to have a closer look at it. The music represents high-speed thrash metal with very curious rhythm changes and many guitar solos. The tandem of "Slayer" guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman was generally one of the most interesting thrash tandems. Very few musicians complemented each other so impeccably, at the same time each of the members contributed to the originality of Slayer music. The drums parts composed and performed by Dave Lombardo, who showed how the debut album was to be made, aroused envy of the majority of beginners. The lyrics of each Slayer's album deserve a separate talk. All the members of Slayer took part in writing the lyrics. The lyrics of Show No Mercy are penetrated with rage and hatred towards our world. The topic of hell prevails in the lyrics of Slayer's album. The lyrics are mostly written in the name of all different servants of the main Evil - the Satan.

Evil Has No Boundaries - the lyrics of Slayer represents the essence of evil and hatred, by order of the Satan himself, knights of hell spread death and chaos on their way.

The Antichrist - the lyrics are written in the name of Antichrist, who could easily turn our world full of sufferings and destructions into hell.

The lyrics of the Final Command make us return to the times of World War II. The lyrics of Slayer show the reasons of this massacre in a different light; it was the Devil himself who gave that horrible order. And he achieved his object - tremendous destructions and rivers of blood, the consequences of which are still felt.

The lyrics of Metal Storm (Face the Slayer) are written in the name of a ritual killer, who is time and again looking for his next victim at night.

Black Magic - the lyrics tell about a person obsessed with demons that keep up life in him, but the source of his strength eventually exhausts and he dies.

Soon after the release, Slayer began their tour to promote Show No Mercy. The members of Slayer hoped, their producer Brian Slagel would help them with its organization, as they were inexperienced in such questions. However, Brian just informed them about the dates of performances, and "Slayer" was responsible for the rest. Thus, the members of Slayer were simply traveling in a van from town to town; very often, they had to stay in shabby motels or just in strange houses. They were barely making enough to buy food and other necessities. Therefore, the first tour of "Slayer" turned out to the hard school of life for the members, there was nobody to help them, and they had to cope with difficulties on their own. In spite of the tour having been an organizational failure, it was a success in terms of exposure - Slayer became popular among heavy metal fans. Besides, while touring the members of Slayer composed three new songs Chemical Warfare, Captor of Sin, Haunting the Chapel for their next release "Haunting the Chapel" EP.

In 1985 together with Brian Slagel Slayer started recording their second studio album Hell Awaits. Due to the previous tour, the album was a financially success in comparison to Show No Mercy; more than 100000 copies were sold out in a couple of months. The album proved to be even darker than the first one, the lyrics of Slayer still explored the topic of Hell, but the lyrics of that album was more satanic. The album contained diverse compositions; along with high-speed riffs, slower parties were presented. Such hits as Hell Awaits, At Dawn They Sheep, Kill Again, Necrophilliac became the classics of thrash metal.

Hell Awaits - the lyrics represent some kind of a key to The Seven Gates of Hell, which are reflected in the seven songs of Slayer!

Kill Again - the lyrics again tell about a serial killer, whose bloodthirstiness and cruelty have no limits. He is looking for the next victim again and again.

At Dawn They Sheep - the lyrics tell about those who wake up only at night - vampires.

Crypts of Eternity - the lyrics of this song also deal with night evil spirits, by order of their Master they suck life and soul out of their victims.

After the release of Hell Awaits, the members of Slayer for the first time set off for Europe, where they performed at clubs and took part in the music festival Dynamo. It was a great progress for Slayer. Slayer became popular not only in the U.S., but also in Europe, moreover, due to their live performances they eventually acquired a reputation of professional musicians. However, the financial position left much to be desired. They often had to use Tom Araya's car for transporting their concert equipment. But finally Slayer's luck improved. A famous musical producer Rick Rubin appreciated their work. Rick had already worked with world famous bands, but he had no experience of dealing with such an extreme metal band. That was why many skeptics would often talk about his coming failure.

However, the album Reign in Blood released in 1986 made them shut up immediately. Rick surprised everyone with his desire to see Slayer as extreme and non-format band as it had been before, there were no attempts of censoring from his side. It was the apogee of Slayer's work, and many people consider it to be the apogee of thrash. Anyway, it is one of the best thrash metal albums, which inspired hundreds of extreme bands. The gold letters of Reign in Blood went down in a history of trash metal. All the ten tracks included into the album became absolute thrash hits. This record was full of lightning speed riffing, inexhaustible energy and terrifying atmosphere of hatred and evil. The lyrics of Slayer reached the bounds and even went beyond them. Due to the lyrics Slayer was often accused of fascism and Nazism. It happened mostly because of the song Angel of Death, the lyrics of which deal with the horrible experiments, which a crazy doctor Joseph Mengel carried out on Jews during the World War II. Though the lyrics itself had nothing to do with fascist or Nazi propaganda, it was just to establish the fact.

Angel of Death is one of the best Slayer songs. Very impressive intro to the album. The lyrics of Slayer deal with disgusting experiments, which a crazy doctor Joseph Mengel carried out on Jews in Oswiecim during the World War II.

Piece By Piece - the lyrics again deal with a maniac specializing in dismembering his victims.

Necrophobic - the lyrics tell about a person who is afraid of death, he is constantly thinking about it and cannot put up with it.

Altar of Sacrifice - this time the lyrics of Slayer describe in detail the ceremony of sacrificing to the Satan.

Reborn - the lyrics move us to the times of medieval inquisition. The lyrics are written in the name of a witch waiting for her death hour. But death is only the beginning for her.

It were not only Slayer's lyrics that provoke accusations of fascism. Jeff Hanneman, one of the members of Slayer, collected different war medals and other military insignia of the World War II. Moreover, Slayer chose an eagle for their symbol. Naturally, it provoked new accusations. Despite numerous obstacles posed by some distributors and various accusations, Reign in Blood managed to quickly sell over 500000 copies and became gold. Besides constant accusations of critics, the band faced a more serious problem. It is well known, that Kerry King, Tom Araya and Jeff Hanneman were great friends and there were no serious conflicts between them, while Dave Lombardo had always stood apart. On the eve of the Reign in Blood tour, the conflict between Dave and the rest of the band reached its culmination; as a result, Dave Lombardo left the band. Slayer had to find a new drummer, which was not an easy task as one could hardly meet a drummer who would stand comparison with Dave. As a result, the newly enlisted Toni Scaglione could not hold that position. Fortunately, soon Dave Lombardo calmed down and rejoined Slayer to spend almost the whole year 1987 intensively touring.

In 1988, the new album of Slayer South Of Heaven was released. It is worth mentioning, that after the release of Reign in Blood, with its speed and intensity, most of the fans had expected something of this kind, however, the new album presented a contrast to the previous one. At first Slayer's fans and heavy music lovers were disappointed, but then acknowledged, that the new album was not bad at all, it was simply different. Thereby Slayer proved they were going to move on. Besides, one cannot forget that it was exactly the time when classical thrash metal had already reached its apogee and even started transforming into other extreme styles such as black and death metal. Right at that time South of Heaven appeared. First, the songs of the new Slayer's album were structurally different. It showed the new level of Slayer's professionalism. All the tracks got more complicated, and the melodic of the new album became even more diverse. Thus, all the songs differed from each other. The lyrics of Slayer also underwent changes. Overall, the lyrics became more down to earth. The main topic of Slayer's lyrics had always been Hell, but the lyrics of the new album represented various aspects of our world, mostly referring to destruction and other corrupting processes, initiated by the man. But the most important thing about these changes was that Slayer did not lose the fury and chaotic atmosphere typical of all their previous works. Undoubtedly, the new album was a new stage of Slayer's creative work.

South Of Heaven - the lyrics of Slayer serve as a marvelous introduction to the album. The lyrics represent a certain prognosis of the future for the humanity. The lyrics depict various misdeeds of humanity and the reasons for us being unworthy of bright future. Overall, the main idea is the forthcoming Doomsday with all the consequences!

Silent Scream - the lyrics deal with one more innovation of the 20th century - abortion. The lyrics of Slayer are written in the name of the one, whose fate is to remain unborn.

Live Undead - this time the lyrics of Slayer make us look at the world through the eyes of the dead.

Mandatory Suicide - the lyrics describe all the horrors of war. One more terrible innovation of humanity.

Read Between The Lies - the lyrics of Slayer deal with the most secrete and long lie that has ever been invented by humanity - religion. The lyrics present a dialogue with a preacher, an attempt to open the eyes of "the blind".

After the release of the album, Slayer embarked on the World Sacrifice Tour, one of their biggest tours around Europe and America.

In 1990, Slayer released their fifth full-length album Seasons in the Abyss. The album, together with classical thrash metal riffs and sounding, contained some new elements. However, it was the same speed thrash metal, to the last guitar riff. Tom Araya had not only composed and performed vocal parts, but also made his debut as the lyrics author. In particular, the lyrics of the song Dead Skin Mask were written only by him. A very successful beginning, one should mention. Overall, the topic of serial killers had always interested Tom Araya, that was why he decided to write about it in the lyrics for Slayer. Right after the release the album Season in the Abyss was highly praised by critics, and some even predicted the brighter future for it, than for Reign in Blood. Anyway, the album was a great success and became Slayer's most commercially successful release. Sales of the album quickly reached more than 1000000 copies and it was certified as platinum. After the release, Slayer embarked on a big tour Clash of the Titans. In Europe Slayer performed together with Megadeath, Suicidal Tendencies and Testament. In the U.S. the team slightly changed - Slayer performed with Anthrax, Megadeath, and Alice in Chains there. The members of Slayer were on very good terms with all bands, with the exception of Megadeath and its front man Dave Mustaine in particular. As it later turned out, Dave with his hot temper, hard unpredictable character, had accused Slayer of fascism, which certainly influenced the future relationship between two legendary thrash metal bands.

Slayer began to prepare for their 10th anniversary celebration a year before. In 1991, Slayer released the double disk live album called "Decade of Aggression", which included the best hits of the band: Angel Of Death, Mandatory Suicide, South of Heaven, Chemical Warfare, Raining Blood, Black Magic and other songs, recorded with a new fresh sound. Moreover, Slayer were thinking of releasing a cassette of their videos, but finally dropped that idea, being too self-critical. At the beginning of 1992, Dave Lombardo again came into conflict with the rest of the band. The rest of Slayer believed that Dave spent too much time with his wife and not enough time practicing with Slayer. That was the reason for the conflict Dave's leaving Slayer that followed.

Kerry King had foreseen such a turn, that was why he got in touch with Paul Bostaph (ex-Forbidden). During the audition, Paul performed all the drumming parts amazingly; moreover, he was appreciated not only as a musician, but also as a personality. In summer 1992, Slayer performed at the greatest international festivals in Poland, Czechia, Germany and England.

Then there was nothing to be heard of Slayer for a long time; it was even rumored, that the band had split. However, at the beginning of 1994 rumors about the new release began to circulate. On the eve of the release Slayer performed during the tour Monsters Of Rock in brazil together with the veterans of heavy metal Kiss, Black Sabbath, Suicidal Tendencies. In October 1994 Divine Intervention was eventually released. The album received mixed responses from critics. However, all of them agreed, the new album did not resemble the previous works of Slayer. Undoubtedly, the influence of time and modern styles such as punk and alternative is clearly felt. The lyrics of slayer underwent changes as well. The lyrics of Hell and Satan were replaced by the lyrics of rather alternative metal. The lyrics became more socially oriented.

Sex, Murder, Art - the lyrics are traditional for Slayer. The lyrics again deal with a sexual maniac.

Fictional Reality - this time the lyrics of Slayer differed from the traditional ones. The lyrics have a strong social tendency.

Dittohead - the lyrics has a political bias. Slayer share their point of view on what is happening in the country.

SS-3 - the lyrics and music were composed by Jeff Hanneman. Due to the lyrics, numerous accusations of fascism appeared.

Old fans of classical thrash metal could hardly appreciate such changes; Slayer's music was often accused of being commercially oriented. Anyway, the album reached the 8th place on Billboard Top 100, and sold over 1000000 copies. However, problems arose again: besides the fact that the album was controversially accepted by critics and fans, new accusations of fascism and nazism followed. This time the main reason was the song SS-3, lyrics and music by Jeff Hanneman. Max Cavalera, the front man of Sepultura had openly accused Slayer of fascism, which could not but produce Slayer's reaction. As a result, the relationships between two bands were spoilt. However, after Max had left Sepultura, they gradually became normal. Slayer embarked on the next big tour together with Machine Head, and Biohazard joined them in the U.S. Slayer played sold-out shows everywhere, and despite the skeptical prognoses, no band supporting Slayer ever came close to match Slayer live. Due to such activity in 1995 Slayer sold over 4000000 copies only in the U.S. In autumn 1995 Slayer eventually released a cassette with 12 videos Live Intrusion.

In 1996, Undisputed Attitude, an album of punk covers, was released. The band covered songs by T.S.O.L., Minor Threat, D.I. and a few tracks by Slayer. It might seem strange, but one can easily find an explanation. Slayer were brought up and inspired by this music. After the recording of the album Paul Bostaph quit the band, because he was just tired of heavy music. So once again Slayer had to find a new drummer. However, they found the replacement quickly. John Dette from Testament was the next drummer to play in Slayer, but he did not manage to hold this position for a long time, which had indeed become Slayer's heel of Achilles. Fortunately, Paul Bostaph soon rejoined the band, and the musicians set to record their new studio album.

The album Diabolus in Musica was released in 1998. It again received a mixed critical reception. The "old" style lovers criticized it for being commercially oriented and compared Slayer to Metallica. On the contrary, alternative metal lovers appreciated Diabolus in Musica. The album turned out to be slower on comparison with the previous ones. The album had a different sound but it did not surprise anyone, after the release of Divine Intervention it was quite an expected tendency. Overall, the album proved to be a success, though the classical thrash metal could hardly be recognized in it. The lyrics of Slayer also underwent some changes. Hell and Satanism had no longer been the main topics of Slayer's lyrics since the previous release, and in this way the lyrics did not changed. The socially oriented lyrics were still present, while religion in all its aspects became the new topic. This topic run all through the lyrics of the album, sometimes it can be read between the lines.

Bitter Peace - the lyrics of this song again deal with endless wars and destructions, initiated by modern "civilized" world. But now it is carefully concealed behind "democratic" ideals.

Death's Head - Slayer's lyrics is rather original. The lyrics represent a dialogue with "death" itself.

In The Name Of God - the lyrics deal with religious topic, but it is by no means sermon. At the beginning of the lyrics we see a typical religious fanatic, but his God turns out to be Antichrist in the final couplet.

Scrum - the lyrics is absolutely different from the previous Slayer. This time slayer decided to write about football. One should say, it is VERY original.

Point - Slayer's lyrics continue to explore the topic of war. The narrator took pleasure in numerous victims and destructions, as it is the Devil himself.

Right after the release the album got into various charts. Meanwhile Slayer was preparing foir the next tour to promote Diabolus in Musica. In September 1998 Slayer embarked on the grand tour, which included Europe, Asia, Australia and America. In spring 1999 Slayer for the first time was performing as a headliner in the U.S. In summer, Slayer joined Ozzfest and took part in it for 5 months.

At the same time Slayer started working their next studio album, however, they were constantly distracted. Firstly, they were performing in Europe together with Iron Maiden, then recording soundtracks, including the track Bloodline for Dracula 2000. The album God Hates Us All was eventually finished in spring, 2001. But due to the problems with the label, the release was constantly being put off. Meanwhile Slayer toured once again with Pantera and other bands. God Hates Us All was released only on September 11, 2001. Exactly on this tragic day. Naturally, it generated considerable excitement as the title itself made think about everything that had happened...This time nobody was surprised by the title, music or lyrics of the new album. It was a logical continuation of Diabolus in Musica. However, despite its resemblance to the previous Slayer's album, there were some differences. Firstly, it was the quality of recording and Slayer's sound. Nobody argued about the quality, that was had been improving every year, but the sound received controversial opinions. It was a confrontation of old metal lovers, who prefer really heavy and thick sound, and modern alternative metal lovers, who appreciated mid-range overload and distortion, the sound more resembling "meat". Overall, the sound was closer to the modern one; Slayer had already chosen this line of development in the 90th. As for the lyrics, there were practically no changes. Slayer continued to blaspheme in their lyrics: there were also a few songs of social lyrics.

Darkness of Christ - the lyrics of the first track avowed, that religion and everything connected with is lie, and nobody cares for us, there is no justice and equality, only the strongest will survive in our crazy world.

Disciple - the lyrics develops the idea of Darkness of Christ, but everything is described according to what is happening in the world of chaos.

Bloodline - Slayer's lyrics again touched upon the subject of evil spirits. This song is a soundtrack to the film Dracula 2000.

War Zone - the lyrics again deal with the topic of war, Slayer believes all the cataclysms and destructions are sent "from above".

Addict - the lyrics of Slayer are written in the name of another fallen who hates everyone and everything. The lyrics give us a chance to put ourselves in his shoes.

Right after the release the new album debuted at #8 on the Billboard Chart. The work of Slayer was highly appreciated, and the band received its first Grammy nomination "best metal performance" for the track "Disciple". Numerous tours and performances followed the release to further promote Slayer. Firstly, Slayer performed in the U.S., then in Europe, and then returned to the U.S. The second part of their tour began in January 2002, Dave Lombardo having rejoined the band! No one had expected it, but later on, it turned out that Dave decided to help Slayer as Paul Bostaph sustained a chronic elbow injury, which prevented him from playing to his full capacity. Paul eventually left Slayer and in a couple of months was noticed in Systematic, where he plays to the present day. Thus, the "gold lineup" of Slayer was reestablished after many years to give its fans new hope...

After their reunion, Slayer together with its releasing label started working at the next DVD. In 2003 DVD War at the Warfield and and Soundtrack to Apocalypse, featuring rare live performances since 80th up to 2002. A bit later, in 2004, Slayer released a DVD Still Reigning, which was based on their first works. At the same time, there appeared information about Slayer's new album. The album Christ Illusion was originally scheduled for release on June 6, 2006, but Slayer had to delay it due to the sudden hospitalization of Tom Araya. Just Divine Intervention! The album was entitled Christ Illusion, the lyrics mostly deal with two topics: world aggression (under the influence of what was happening in the Middle East) and religion, which became traditional for Slayer since the mid 90th. Christ Illusion resembles the previous album.

Flesh Storm - Slayer's lyrics again deal with victims and horrors of war, the situation in the world is critical nowadays, and one should think of it...

Eyes Of The Insane - the lyrics develop the idea of "Flesh Storm", but this time the lyrics are written in the name of a common soldier, who realizes he is going crazy because of this madness.

Skeleton Of Christ - the lyrics negate religion and faith as such.

Cult - the lyrics continue to blaspheme and depict various victims and wars, which happened because of religious fanatics.

Right after the release, Slayer embarked on a world tour, having once again disproved the opinions of skeptics and other ideological enemies.