Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years. A Metal Band Biography. (54 page)

Chapter 59:

Reborn: The Saga Continues

Slayer weren’t going to let death get in the way.

The memorial service was peppered with a subtext: The band would go  without Hanneman. The theme was presented so subtly that any corporate communications executive would have been proud to sign off on the script.

Paredes, the boss at Slayer’s label, referred to the album “we” were working on.

The message from Hanneman’s widow, Kathryn, recounted how happy Hanneman’s was to have Holt filling in for him.

Rubin’s statement hailed Hanneman as “a creative force who will all miss every day going forward.”

And King was not about to shut down a 30-year worldwide campaign, especially not when he was winning.

As King explained it to Jeff Kitts shortly after Hanneman’s death, “I plan on continuing. I don't think we should throw in the towel just because Jeff's not here."
^59-1

Slayer had discussed retirement in recent years. But the more they talked about it, the further away they projected it. Before Hanneman took ill, King had a plan. In July 2010, King had told Metal Temple he had a tentative endgame for the aging band.

“I’ve got plans to do three more records, but I have not talked to the other guys about it, because we are on tour, and nobody wants to talk about the studio when he’s having a good time,” King said. “But that’s what I’d like to do. So, time will not stop for us for about [10 more] years, I’m sure!"
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Later, King said he didn’t want to retire at all.

When Nikki Blakk interviewed King in 2013, the subject of Motörhead iron man Lemmy came up.

“I think Lemmy will die on stage,” said Blakk.

“I plan to, as well,” said King
^59-3
.

Even if retirement was in the cards, the band was staring down a long road before it got there.

First, the band needed to complete its lineup. Dette had performed admirably, but he wasn’t the answer for the group’s long-term needs. (When Testament’s kit last opened up, in late 2011, Lombardo received an invitation, but he was busy with Slayer. Gene Hoglan got the gig, but Dette didn’t receive a call.)

Less than a month after Hanneman passed, Slayer announced a permanent replacement at the drum kit:

“Slayer's Tom Araya and Kerry King are very pleased to announce that Paul Bostaph has rejoined the band on a full-time basis,” read a press release from the band.

The release featured Araya’s take on the reunion: "Paul's a great drummer and a good friend,”  and we're very happy that he's decided to rejoin the band. We're still pretty numb from the loss of Jeff, but we don't want to disappoint our European fans, and we need to begin moving forward... having Paul back in the band makes that a whole lot easier."

It also updated news on the guitarist position: “Gary Holt will continue to fill in for fallen guitarist Jeff Hanneman.”
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The Slayer lineup was now half-Exodus: Holt — Exodus’ leader and guiding force — was, according Slayer’s releases, “filling in for the fallen Hanneman.” And Bostaph, the Exodus drummer from 2005 through 2007, was firmly stationed at on the drum riser. Dette continued filling in with Anthrax. And Slayer kept its other drummer, Bostaph, who had spent over a decade with the group.

King admired Bostaph’s work habits. Araya appreciated his creative contributions. And Holt was not only a big fan, but a satisfied customer. When Bostaph joined Exodus in 2005, Holt took to Facebook to praise the drummer.

"I just returned from our first rehearsal with Paul, and I have got to tell you that it was fuckin' awesome!” wrote Holt. “He has simply the fastest feet I've ever had the pleasure of hearing, and the shit he was throwing down was blazing!”
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Lombardo said he read the news of his dismissal on the internet. His restrained public response arrived online, too, via Twitter: “And… There you have it folks!”
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“I’m excited to be back,” Bostaph told Metal Zone’s Nikki Blakk. “It’s been really cool to come back in the room…. We had a lot of great years with them, we had a lot of fun, and [we’re] hoping to continue all that…. Before I was ever in Slayer, I was a fan of the band, so it’s weird.”
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Metal Sucks promptly dubbed the new half-Slayer, half-Exodus lineup “SLEXODER.”
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June 4, 2013, the new incarnation of Slayer was on the road in Warsaw, Poland. The set stood as a virtual tribute to Hanneman’s work — as all Slayer shows do
^59-9
.

1. “World Painted Blood”

2. “Hallowed Point”

3. “War Ensemble”

4. “Hate Worldwide”

5. “At Dawn They Sleep”

6. “Stain of Mind”

7. “Disciple”

8. “Bloodline”

9. “Mandatory Suicide”

10. “Chemical Warfare”

11. “Seasons in The Abyss”

12. “Dead Skin Mask”

13. “Raining Blood”

Encore:

14. “South of Heaven”

15. “Angel of Death”

“In fact,” noted Axl Rosenberg of Metal Sucks, “of the fifteen songs the band played, only five feature music written or co-written by King or Tom Araya (‘Hallowed Point,’ ‘Hate Worldwide,’ ‘Bloodline,’ ‘Mandatory Suicide,’ and ‘Chemical Warfare’), and only three were from the first Bostaph era (‘Stain of Mind,’ ‘Disciple,’ and ‘Bloodline’).”
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Days later, King took time to acknowledge the eighth International Day of Slayer. On a dark waterfront in Germany, a little after midnight, the guitarist filmed a brief message for the fans.

Head shaved, sunglasses off, pointed beard hanging halfway down his chest, King was, by far, the most emotional he had ever appeared in public — which isn’t to say that he was anywhere close to welling up. But when King said his missing friend would have been glad to be in Germany, his voice wavered ever so slightly as light reflected on his eyes in a melancholy glint.

“We’re out on tour, the first tour since Jeff’s passing, so that’s tough,” King said. “But me, Tom, Gary, and Paul are out here carving the next legendary, monumental thing that is bound to happen on this tour…. Cheers to you fans for supporting us, and we will see you on tour.”
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Slayer’s permanent fill-in guitarist: Gary Holt. Live with his other band, Exodus. April 15, 2013 at the Rex Theater, Pittsburgh.
Photo by Sean Benedict of www.ironcityrocks.com.

The new face of Slayer. 2013 lineup, left to right: Holt, Araya, King, and Bostaph. Picture taken backstage before a show 7 June 2013, at Rodahal in Kerkrade, Holland. Photo by Tim Tronckoe, © Tronckoe, reprinted with permission.
http://www.timtronckoe.com

Notes Tronckoe, “I got ten minutes to shoot this new promo shot, right before showtime. The band was super relaxed and cooperative, which made it a pleasure to work with these guys. They were joking around constantly, not stressed at all, making it hard to get everyone looking serious.”

As Slayer edged closer to its first album following Hanneman’s death, speaking to Loudwire’s Graham “Gruhamed” Hartmann, Araya made it official: He might be gone, but Jeff would be part of the next record, too. Not only did the band plan to use the song Hanneman gave them before his death. The group planned to revisit a near-complete leftover Hanneman song recorded during the
World Painted Blood
sessions. And they planned to scour his archives for any other material he had left behind. Even after his death, Hanneman remained an active part of Slayer
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.

Life after any loss is sad, but life goes on. And it becomes more bearable with time.

“Let’s not downplay the amazing chops Gary has brought the last couple years,” offers Howell. “Not to mention balancing his time between Slayer and Exodus. You take the good with the bad; there’s no law that says they need to stop playing. It’s a band, and it’s a brand. With Tom and Kerry, you have the voice and one of the main components of the songwriting — you’re not going to have some Slayer tribute band. Slayer is Slayer. This is Slayer, moving forward.”

As Slayer moved forward, the setlist stayed much the same for the summer shows, but with some slack.

“At Dawn They Sleep” and “The Antichrist” rotated in and out of the set list. The next month, Slayer fans witnessed something even rarer: not only a cover song, but a guest appearance.

In Athens, Greece, former Pantera singer and metal icon Phil Anselmo was working on his 45
^th
birthday. On tour with Down, he joined Slayer live during their set, and they ripped through a  cover of Pantera’s “Fucking Hostile.” The singer and guitarist had worked out the song during a recent edition of Metal Masters, an ongoing educational, promotional, and concert event that pooled headbanger all-stars into short-lived supergroups.

“Slayer ain’t never needed nobody for nothin’,” Anselmo said before the song. “They never needed me, but you know what? I needed Slayer!”
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And maybe the world needs Slayer.

Those immediate post-Hanneman concerts represent an intriguing possibility as Slayer continues. Countless times, King has compared his group to one of Rubin’s other favorite bands.

“[Fans] can expect the same record we've been giving them for the last 20 years,” King told gear website The Tone King  in 2012. “It’s the AC/DC of thrash metal. You know what you're gonna get.”
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Like the Ramones before them, long after they graduated from their status as underground heroes, Slayer continued making powerful records and staging killer tours. Sadly, they were easy to take for granted as the band lunges into its fourth decade.

Looking back at Slayer’s first 26 years, King told me the band Slayer learned the most lessons from was Slayer itself: The group has remained what it is. They haven’t slowed down. They haven’t chased radio play. They haven’t written a ballad. They never hired a stylist to update their look.

Said King: “I don’t think we’ve done anything professionally that was a mistake. “

And at this late stage in the game, Slayer were unquestionably winning.

“I think we’re pretty consistent,” Hanneman told me in 2007. “We wanted to stay true to our roots, not change like
all
of the other bands we listen to changed. They do a couple great albums, and then they say, ‘This is what we wanted to do all along.’ Like, ‘
What
?’ To us, it’s like you either didn’t mean what you did on the first album, or you’re just trying to make money, because you got a little bit of success, you tasted a little green. We just wanted to stick to our guns.”
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And as it played out, maybe that consistency became a liability. The band’s background visuals are increasingly elaborate. But give or take three songs and some stage props, fans always know exactly what they’ll get at a Slayer show. Imagine going to a Slayer concert, with full faith that it will be a solid set, but still unsure what you’re going to see.