Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years. A Metal Band Biography. (41 page)

Fixing the fallout from the blood rain summoned a firestorm.

On his website, Shirley would write that the blood “makes the drums sound like wet cardboard boxes, and the cymbals sound a coffee mug being tapped with a spoon! I ended up manually replacing each and every cymbal hit (and there are thousands) and every drum hit with a sample from another song from earlier in the set, so they're still the same sounds.”
^38-5

“Dave Lombardo called and explained to me that the signature song, ‘Raining Blood,’ was particularly gnarly,” recalled Shirley. “I told him I could fix them, which he was really happy about — but I had no video to see exactly what he was playing. Initially I fixed the essentials and sent him a rough mix, but he called and said there was much more playing. So in a very complicated procedure, I spent days replacing each and every cymbal and drum hit.”

Proud of his accomplishment and a little loopy from the draining task, Shirley proudly posted news about the project on his website. Basking in his achievement, he forgot one of the music industry’s cardinal rules that governs communication from the lowest unsigned bands to the bigger stars (with the exception of Kerry King): If they know what’s good for them, nobody goes on record saying anything negative about anybody or anything. And everybody pretends that everything is totally under control and going according to plan.

About the raw tracks, Shirley wrote, "It's OK — some places it rocks hard, and others are a bit sloppy, but I'm sure they won't use the whole concert. It was tough to mix."
^38-6
.

The news was quickly picked up by Blabbermouth.net, and Slayer management was quickly on the phone to their audio contractor. Blabbermouth noted that the posting was quickly altered to read, "The rest of the week I finished mixing a live Slayer set for a DVD, in stereo and surround, and it's great — it rocks hard, but it was tough to mix."
^38-7

Feeling the heat, Shirley issued a
mea maxima culpa
two days later on website, writing with the remorseful tone of whipped dog:  "I am embarrassed with myself, and appalled that I let my emotions get the better of me, and my uncalled for and unprofessional comment about Slayer should not reflect on the artists, but solely on me. There is nothing I can say to exonerate my unprofessional behavior. I don't know what I was thinking — suffice to say, sometimes strong emotions cloud one's view of the rest of the world. I am blessed in my life, but very occasionally, I am subject to bouts of depression, and don't care what anyone thinks. This was an occasion of a terrible lapse of judgment on my part. I apologize."
^38-8

Shirley would later explained the aforementioned heat on his website: Feeling betrayed by the violation of mixer-mixee confidentiality, the band was disputing the fee they had agreed to pay Shirley. Shirley said he was on the hook for the studio fees, and the studio had pressed theft charges against him, prompting his arrest. Once Slayer paid, he settled up with the studio, and moved on.
^38-9

The episode didn’t seem to hurt Shirley’s professional credibility: In 2007, was hired to overhaul Led Zeppelin’s tepid live double album
The Song Remains the Same
– a call for a miracle worker if there ever was one.

Before the mixing storm brewed, Slayer’s management approached Reel Efx, asking the company if they could present the raining blood effect every night for the band’s upcoming European tour.

Reel Efx’s bid was too high, and Slayer went with another company, which would provide a budget version of the effect and rig. The cheaper blood was made with a coloring agent that, unlike the show  blood from the DVD, stained the band, leaving the thrash kings’ skin tinted a lovely pink.

Released in November 2004, The
Still Reigning
DVD captures the blood set.

That fall, the band were playing their second Jägermeister Music Tour in a row, as its first ever back-to-back headliner. Slayer strategized about how to make it worthwhile for fans to come see the band again so soon. With a new DVD to promote, the idea was a no-brainer: Bring the blood. Slated for theaters, the tour would do well, no doubt — but dumping a ton of gore was expensive.

This time, Slayer didn’t play the entire album, but closed with a
Reign in Blood
triple-shot: “Angel of Death,” “Postmortem,” and “Raining Blood.” The rain fell from the scaled-down rig based on the European design.

The forecast didn’t always call for blood. Some venues couldn’t accommodate a suspended swimming pool. Sometimes, the FX crew encountered some technical problems and found themselves without working pumps.

The band had some difficulties, too: Struggling with ongoing throat problems, Araya didn’t always feel like ending every night soaked in syrup.

“One time, Tom pulled the plug on it because it was cold inside,” said King. “Like, come on, man: This is metal. There’s no
cold
involved.”

At the time, King said they wouldn’t tour another album. The other albums, he said, are all longer, and none have quite the string unbroken string of favorites. Explained the guitarist, “Everybody likes
Reign in Blood
.”
^38-10

With around 100 concerts played — most of them between June and October — 2004 was one of Slayer’s busier years. When Slayer returned to the U.S., the band splurged for their homecoming show is Los Angeles, They ordered Reel Efx’s non-staining blood concentrate. And December 17 ended Slayer’s year with a red Christmas.

In April 2005, the
Still Reigning
DVD was certified gold, signifying 50,000 copies sold (for an original long form video not released theatrically). The  next month,
Revolver
readers named it Best DVD in the metal magazine’s readers’ poll.

“It was fun,” said Lombardo, reflecting on the live
Reign
experience for the
Reign in Blood
book. “I think it was an affirmation that we could still do it, that we haven’t slowed down a single bit…. I think it’s an affirmation of who we are and what we’ve stood for all this time. It’s still leaving and breathing in us.”
^38-11

Click here to Google search “Slayer photos 2004”

Chapter 39:

6/6/06

With Lombardo officially back in the fold, Slayer soldiered on for almost another decade of aggression. With
Reign in Blood
out of their system — or still in it — the band returned to touring and recording.

Offstage, the classic lineup’s chemistry was different the second time around. Lombardo and his marital status weren’t raising tempers. By now, there wasn’t a bachelor in the band. Araya and Lombardo were busy parents. Lombardo had three kids (two sons and a daughter). Araya had two (a boy and girl). The singer’s family would settle on a Texas ranch, where they raised livestock as meat, not pets. The Hannemans remained childless, but raised Rottweilers — which, in many ways, represents a more relentless commitment than kids.

Since the reunion, King had married for a third time. Even after two divorces, as always, he was no quitter. Explained the guitarist, “It took me three tries to get it right.”

(In 2013, music site Loudwire ranked both Mrs. Araya and Mrs. King among its Hottest Rock Star Wives, alongside Gwen Stefani
^39-1
.)

King has a daughter from his first marriage, but no siblings followed. The Kings are prolific snake breeders, however. Their house has been home to dozens —sometimes hundreds — of reptiles, some of them pets, some sold via their Psychotic Exotics business. For the most part, King continued to live like he did when the band was in its infancy. He played guitar when the mood struck him. He listened to metal. He collected snakes. And Slayer was better off for it.

"I'm still 17,” King told Cincinnati
City Beat
’s Alan Sculley at the time. “That's probably why our music kicks so much ass, because we're still kids. You don't have to grow up."
^39-2

Friends concur.

“To this day, when I see the Slayer guys, that’s what they’re like now,” says Doug Goodman, their early tour manager. “Super-grounded. None of them have changed at all. Staying so similar to how they were is kind of rare. They’re the same guys.”

 Metal, long on the wane through the 1990s, was back now. MTV had reintroduced
Headbangers Ball
in 2003. Thrash reared its head again, becoming the style of choice for new groups like Toxic Holocaust and rebounding old bands like Kreator and Death Angel. Slayer’s commercial prospects had waxed and waned, but the band had stayed the path. And the group still had career highs in front of them.

Without a true current product to promote, Slayer hit the road anyway, mounting a modest tour of around 30 shows between May and July 2005.

In the year of 6-6-06, the dark stars aligned, and the
Reign in Blood
team rode again.

In 2006, the band released its ninth original full-length studio album,
Christ Illusion
.

Rubin, as always, was still on board as executive producer. By this point, Slayer had long been his sole remaining client from the Def Jam days. But their relationship was still productive. They weren’t as tight with him as they once were. Rubin didn’t have to spend all night in the studio to put his stamp on a record — even for newer high-profile recruits like Slipknot and Linkin Park.

“Rick Rubin is a really good boss,” Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington explained to journalist Jason Bracelin in 2007. “A really good boss kind of comes in, makes sure everybody’s doing their job — if they can do it better, he gives suggestions on how they can do it. But he sits back in his office, and somehow the office runs. You don’t really see him very often, everybody’s happy, the company’s making a ton of money. That’s more of what Rick Rubin’s like. He not going to come in and do the work for you. He’s not going to come in and push the buttons and sit down and tell how to play your guitar or which guitar you should go look at.”
^39-3

Still, Rubin wasn’t just a label executive or a name on the Slayer albums. He might not have been a constant presence, but he remained connected to the group in a way that few could claim.

“To this day, Jeff is the Rubin [friend] in the band,” King told me in 2007. “I don’t talk to Rick — not ‘cuz I don’t like him, but ‘cuz I never fuckin’ see him.”

The on-site producer for the affair was Josh Abraham, a multi-threat in the studio with plenty of underground cred. After scaling the ladder with Danzig, Coal Chamber and Limp Bizkit, he would go on to work with Pink, Shakira, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Adam Lambert.

The band returned back to its native soil, recording in two Southern California studios: NRG Recording Studios, a North Hollywood studio that specialized in lesser albums by artists such as Bon Jovi, Helmet, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Dave Navarro, and Stone Temple Pilots — in addition to Hootie and the Blowfish’s landmark
Cracked Rear View
. And Westlake in Los Angeles, a institution that had hosted work for Boston, Alanis Morissette, Rage Against the Machine, Britney Spears, Van Halen, and Michael Jackson (
Thriller
).

Larry Carroll returned for cover art, bringing his style back for an image of a dismembered Christ figure in a crown of thorns, standing in a sea of blood,  surrounded by dismembered heads.

Carroll doesn’t like explaining his work, but some exposition was necessary for this piece. A dozen intriguing details are hard to notice on a CD-sized version of the artwork: Wreckage in the background includes the Capitol Building and a wrecked World Trade Center. The Christ-like figure has a chest tattoo of another Christ-like figure with “JIHAD” written above it. The band vetoed including “SLAYER” in the ink, but subtle reference to the
Reign in Blood
cover appear in one of the shoulder tattoos and a rising bubble.

“If the content is strong, why not have the image just as strong?” Carroll told Stylus. “I think [Slayer] really have something interesting to say. You can try to create an image that can provoke something, get you to think about or question something. You don't get a lot of opportunity in print to do that, unfortunately. So many people shy away from it. When you have an opportunity to do an image that is able to do something, that has some weight to it, then it's interesting to me.”
^39-4

Nobody thought to invite Wallace — the Trilogy’s engineer — to the party.

King, as all artists always are, was proud of his new product.

“I love it,” he said in the accompanying press packet, the official liner notes the band provides for the press. “I really like
God Hates Us All
, and I think that’s the best record we’ve done in my opinion since
Seasons in the Abyss
, and I like this better than that one. I think it’s a more complete record, I think sonically it’s better: all the performances are awesome.”

Araya underscored the lyrical themes, which remained unchanged, but updated. It skewed toward current events more, with the soldier song “Eyes of the Insane” and the crusade anthem “Jihad.”