Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years. A Metal Band Biography. (2 page)
Read Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years. A Metal Band Biography. Online
Authors: D.X. Ferris
Goodnight, Spartacus: A Suburban Metal Dad Bedtime Story
Goodnight, Metal: A Suburban Metal Dad Bedtime Story
Praise for 33 1/3’s
Slayer: Reign in Blood
One of Noisecreep’s Top Ten Heavy Metal Books:
“Thrash expert and journalist D.X. Ferris does all the necessary footwork needed for a project like this… If you think you knew everything about Slayer already, one quick glance through [the]
Reign in Blood
edition of the 33 1/3 series will put you in your place.”
— Carlos Ramirez
The Merciless Book of Metal Lists
, a Heavy Metal Reading List top-ten pick:
“Great.”
— Howie Abrams & Sacha Jenkins
"A short, intense, meticulous history of
Reign In Blood
and really, the whole band... The result is a damn perfect look at this one album."
— Martin Popoff, senior editor of
Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles
, author of
Rush: The Illustrated History
and
The Collector’s Guide to Heavy Metal
series
“Ferris' book is as powerful and refreshing as
Reign in Blood
itself. His writing takes us behind the scenes of the making of a classic metal album and sheds unholy light on a band that has been criminally neglected by the mainstream media."
— Tom Kapinos, creator & executive producer of
Californication
"Ferris's recent 33 1/3 book devoted to
Reign In Blood
is excellent."
— Joel McIver, author of Slayer biography
The Bloody Reign of Slayer
“The Mini Encyclopedia of Slayer.”
— Amazon reviewer AVNut
“
Reign in Blood
is notable for its brutality, but as the defining manifesto of thrash metal, it is transcendent for its purity. To love rock & roll is to love subcultures, and D.X. Ferris has explained, in stunning detail, how one subculture was defined and galvanized by that single album, and why that definition will never need to be written again."
— David Giffels, co-author of
We Are Devo!: Are We Not Men?
and author of
All the Way Home: Building a Family in a Falling-Down House
“It is not scholarly.” — some tool on the internet
"Declares Ferris, 'I wanted to present the story in a way that's compelling to both rabid Slayer fans and to NPR listeners who love pop music but have never lost a shoe in a mosh pit' — and he largely succeeds."
— Dave Segal,
OC Weekly
"Ferris has written an academic and thought-provoking book while at the same time presenting it as a general reader. Ferris does not give in to the tendency of 'dumbing down' metal; instead, he puts forth a very well argued statement that Slayer's
Reign In Blood
is a classic album and should be treated as such."
— Laura Kowalewski and Andrew Carpenter, Ballet Deviare dance company
"If you don't learn something from this book, then you are a liar."
— Sage Francis
“This book is the manual for why the thrash metal movement began, why it thrived, and what was the ultimate in thrash metal recordings, Slayer's
Reign In Blood
.”
— William C. Frable, Graphic Violence
"D.X. Ferris breaks it all down person-by-person and track-by-track to separate fact from fiction, retracing the origins, occasional pitfalls and eventual triumph that brought forth in his words, 'the greatest heavy metal album ever.'... The book untangles a number of assumptions related to the band that should surprise even longtime fans.... The book provides not only a good introduction to the band, but capably answers on all fronts regarding the album in question.... Ferris pens a clean and even story; flashes his bona fides outright and is passionate enough about the work to sustain that fervor through to the end."
— Todd DePalma, The Left Hand Path
Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years…
(click to jump to the chapter)
Methodology and Review of Slaytanic Literature
2. The Story So Far…, or, What We’re Looking at Here
3. Postmortem: Jeff Hanneman Made the Difference
8. Sign on the Axe and Show No Mercy: The Metal Blade Deal
9. Metal Moonlighting: Kerry King Joins Megadeth
10. Haunting the Chapel and the Lombardo Learning Curve
11. Slamming to Slayer: Metal Enters the Pit
Gallery 1: Slayer Killing It, Photos by Harald Oimoen
Gallery 2: Previously Unreleased Live Undead Draft Art
13. Hell Awaits, and Hell Arrives
15. Reign in Blood, Long Story Short
17. Blood in America, or, Love Def Style
Gallery 3: Slayer 1986 and 2009
19. The First One of the Gang to Bail. And the New Guy.
21. On and On, South of Heaven
25. Gazing Back Into the Abyss: The Tom Album
28. Disorder and Divine Intervention
33. Slayer’s Experimental Moment
36. Drums in the Deep: Lombardo’s Interim
40. Manson Tour 1: Louder Than Hell
44. The Big Four’s Really Big Shows
47. Now Entering the Lineup: Gary Holt of Exodus
51. Slayer XI: Embryonic Recording
54. Interlude I: A Moment of Noise
55. Interlude II: 11 Top Memorial Tributes to Hanneman
56. Interlude III: Six Things Hanneman Hated. And Six He Liked.
Gallery 3: Slayer Lineup, Late 2013
59. Reborn: The Saga Continues
Appendix A: Slayer Concert Counts by Year
Appendix B: Slayer Songwriting Credits
Appendix C: Slayer, a Visual Progression
Addendum: “It’s Time to Set the Record Straight,” or, “I Fucked Up”
(The print version has an index too)
This book begins with a variety of material to provide a useful background about the subject matter and the work that produced it. Context is important.
RAD PHOTOS MADE POSSIBLE BY UNDERWRITERS LIKE…
In unlikely harmony, Slayer live at San Francisco’s Kabuki Theatre April 12, 1985, toward the end of a cross-country trek that included the legendary Combat Tour. Hanneman, left, in an Agnostic Front shirt. King, right, dressed in the Judas Priest tradition. Photo by Harald Oimoen.
Methodology / Review of Literature
Underlined text is hyperlinked to interesting material
— video, articles, visual references, etc. I tried to provide useful material without linking to copyrighted properties. Because videos and web material are always going up and being taken down, sometimes I linked to general searches instead of going directly to the material being discussed. Hopefully, this approach will keep the hyperlink features functional in future years. Click away and have some multimedia fun.
Interviews and quotes have been slightly condensed and edited for clarity — just like every interview you’ve ever read. But now it’s trendy to point that out.
How is it possible to release a decent full-length book about Slayer just six months after Hanneman’s untimely demise? This project actually began in February 2013, when Lombardo and the band split. The initial idea was to write a short e-book that put the split in historical context; Lombardo had left twice before, and the rest of the band seemed like they were always picking on the guy. Events and momentum expanded its scope.
The decision to quote Dave Lombardo's divorce records was not made lightly: His relationship with his ex-wife was, by far, the greatest source of tension in Slayer’s tumultuous history. Lombardo and the group have parted ways three times, and family issues accounted for at least one-and-a-half of them — especially his 1986 departure, which forever fractured his relationship with the rest of the group. Over the decades, when faced with the choice between his band and his family, Lombardo consistently chose family. So what was more important than the woman who was more important than Slayer?