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The Heavy-Metal Thrash-Metal outfit Slayer was established by the lead
guitarist Kerry King in Huntington Beach, California USA, in 1982; originally
dubbed Dragonslaye, the band's line-up also included vocalist+bassist
Tom Araya, guitarist Jeff Hanneman and drummer Dave Lombardo.
Slayer's first album, "Show No Mercy", came out in late 1983
on Metal Blade Records; at the time of its release, the band received
first major exposure by appearing on the covers of several Metal magazines
and earned great respect in the underground Metal community.
After their first tour across the United States the band recorded three
songs for their "Haunting The Chapel" EP.
The band's second full-length release, 1985's "Hell Awaits",
expanded on the darkness of the previous EP, as hell and Satan were common
song subjects; it contained only seven tracks, three of which clocked
in at over six minutes.
After being offered a recording deal by Rick Rubin's Def Jam Records,
Slayer signed and quickly began working on its third LP with Rubin as
co-producer; the result, "Reign In Blood", still largely considered
the greatest Thrash-Metal album ever recorded and even credited with almost
single-handedly inspiring the entire Death-Metal genre, at least in North
America. The record hit #94 on The Billboard Top 200 chart and went on
to sell over 500,000 copies, however, some problems came along after its
release; because of the song "Angel Of Death", that deals with
Auschwitz doctor Joseph Mengele and the experiments he did on his patents
during the Holocaust, Slayer were accused of being Neo-Nazis, also Jeff
Hanneman was really interested in war medals at that time so he wore some
Nazi cross and eagle symbols on his jacket.
"South Of Heaven", released in July 1988, marked a significant
musical departure; to contrast the aggressive assault put forth on their
previous album, Slayer consciously slowed down the tempo of the record
as a whole; the band's fourth full-length disc, the last for Def Jam,
reached #57 on The Billboard 200 list but the new sounds disappointed
some of the band's fans who were more accustomed to the style of earlier
releases.
The follow-up album, 1990's "Seasons In The Abyss", was more
of a return to the sound of "Reign In Blood" and was greeted
warmly by fans; a video clip for the title-track had the band playing
in the Middle-East, shortly before the start of the Gulf War; the record
peaked at #40 in U.S. and climbed into the U.K. Top 20 Albums chart.
A double live album, "Decade Of Aggression", was released in
October 1991, and aside from a brief tour the next year, including an
appearance at the 1992 Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington,
nothing new would be heard from Slayer until 1994's "Divine Intervention",
this album marked drummer Paul Bostaph's studio debut with the band and
became another success going gold in no time; Slayer also achieved the
career highest chart debut on the Billboard Top 200 at #8 and hit #15
in Britain.
In the summer of 2006, Slayer released their first studio album in six
years and its first studio effort with the original line-up, including
drummer Dave Lombardo, since 1990's "Seasons In The Abyss".
Slayer biography is an exclusive of 100xr.com
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