(Artist Report)

Written by: Curtis Cooney   

Today we are talking about Slayer, the band from Huntington Park, California, that didn’t just write pages in rock music history — they ripped them out, set them on fire, and screamed in Latin while they burned. Formed in 1981, Slayer rose from the suburban ashes of Southern California with one mission: play faster than anyone else, be scarier than anything else, and never, ever smile on camera. And you know what? Mission accomplished.

The band was formed by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, later joined by Tom Araya (vocals/bass) and Dave Lombardo (drums). These guys weren’t born — they were summoned. Slayer started out playing covers of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest until they realized, “Hey, what if we cranked the speed to ‘seizure,’ tuned everything to ‘hell,’ and sang about things that would get us banned from Sunday school?” And thus, the beast was born. Slayer didn’t form to get chicks or fame. They formed because darkness needed a soundtrack, and nobody else had the guts to press record.

Their debut, Show No Mercy (1983), sounded like a demon learning guitar — and we mean that in the best way. But the real game-changer came in 1986 with "Reign in Blood", a 29-minute panic attack of an album produced by Rick Rubin. It kicked off with Angel of Death, a song about Nazi war crimes, because of course it did. From there, Slayer went on to release a string of albums — South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss, Divine Intervention, God Hates Us All — each one like a sermon delivered from the pulpit of a collapsing church. Their live shows? Think mosh pits, flying bodies, and the occasional fainting teenager who didn’t hydrate enough before being baptized in sweat and distortion.

Slayer’s latest studio album is Repentless (2015), their final sonic punch in the face before stepping off the stage. It includes a title track that’s essentially Kerry King setting his guitar on fire and yelling at it. The music video looks like a prison riot filmed in a meat grinder — in other words, very Slayer. While the band retired from touring in 2019, they never officially said the band was done. Like any good horror villain, Slayer didn’t die — they just went quiet for a while. Kerry King’s 2024 solo project was basically Slayer with a different name and the same amount of fire and neck pain. So yeah, don’t count them out just yet. Evil doesn’t retire. It reloads.

In closing, Slayer wasn’t made for radio. They weren’t made for the mainstream. They were made for that one kid in the back of the class drawing pentagrams on his math homework. Their music didn’t soothe the soul — it dragged it through a battlefield. And while they scared the hell out of parents, preachers, and PTA meetings, they gave a voice to anyone who ever felt like smashing a table instead of having a polite conversation. Slayer didn’t sell out. They burned out... on purpose.

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