It’s Still (Satanic) Rock N Roll To Me

Growing up in the 80s there was plenty to be scared of. We always had the threat of nuclear war with Russia hanging over our heads, and the movie The Day After Tomorrow to completely traumatize us through must-see TV. There was the ‘stranger danger’ campaign that made kids like me absolutely horrified of people I didn’t know. I was convinced that every single older white male I’d see walking in the mall was actually a kidnapper waiting to dump me in the back of their dingy Oldsmobile Cutlass. And then there was the great ‘Satanic Panic’ that spawned many discussions about Satanists attempting to steal the youths souls through D&D, horror films, and of course heavy metal.

While those first two laid some serious psychic trauma on my brain, that last one never really stuck the landing. In fact, Satanic Panic did the complete opposite to me. While it didn’t make me want to hail Satan, it did make me curious about horror novels and movies, and of course heavy metal music.

It started out with the mid-80s hair metal stuff, but by the time I was in the 8th grade my older brother bought Metallica’s Master of Puppets and Ride The Lightning and that was it. His thrash metal curiosity started a lifelong obsession with everything speed metal. Anthrax and Megadeth soon followed and we were both hooked. That spread out into Suicidal Tendencies and Death Angel and then to Exodus, Metal Church, Overkill, and the list only grew from 1988 on.

Oddly enough, the last band we hit was Slayer. That completed “The Big Four” for us, and once we heard South Of Heaven our minds were blown. Now, while I said the whole Satanic Panic thing didn’t bug us Slayer hit differently. These were four scruffy dudes in jeans, t-shirts, and tennis shoes singing songs about Nazis, serial killers, and actual Satan. And not in some over the top sort of way. In a very real and visceral way. These guys looked like dudes my brother would have been partying with in 1987. Dudes I’d see at the Fun Center playing Dragon’s Lair and hitting on girls way younger than them. Real world boogeymen.

I was both fascinated and a little freaked out.

Of all the big four metal bands Slayer never changed up their style. They remained consistently heavy and dark for their 30+ year run. There were no forays into radio-ready alternative music or electronic experimentation. No singer changes or slowing down in the BPM department.

Not every album post Seasons In The Abyss lived up to what came before, but you could count on Tom Araya to belt out lyrics about Jihads, antisocial misfits, and the world drowning in blood with the same vitriol and disdain for society that he always had. And the one-two punch of Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman on their pointy BC Rich guitars laying down these blistering, needle-prick guitar solos and dive bombs all the while putting some of the fastest guitar rhythms and k-chunk k-chunk riffage to tape. And Dave Lombardo on drums? Oh man, no one was better. Charlie Benante of Anthrax came close, but nobody had the double kick speed and razor wire fills that Lombardo did. Even the albums he wasn’t on Paul Bostaph did a great job of filling in.

You could count on Slayer. That’s probably why they’re my favorite of the big four.

Of course they broke up for good in 2019 after a run of farewell shows, and after their last studio album Repentless from 2015. Original guitarist and songwriter Jeff Hanneman died in 2013 from either a spider bite or alcoholism. And there was an ocean of animosity between the remaining members and Dave Lombardo over, of course, money.

Repentless may not be a top 5 Slayer record, but I’ve grown to appreciate it over the nearly decade since it came out. The band was King and Araya, along with Paul Bostaph on drums and Exodus’ Gary Holt on guitar. The record chugged more than it sped, but for being in their 50s I’d still take that record over most of the modern metal these days. I can’t do screamers and belchers when it comes to metal vocals. I like to at least hear the ridiculous lyrics. And Slayer still delivered the ridiculousness all those years later.

I’ve been listening to Repentless the last few days, and I’ve also been hitting up albums I wasn’t that familiar with, like Diabolus in Musica, Divine Intervention, and Christ Illusion. I hadn’t heard good things about Diabolus in Musica, but I kind of dug it. Sure, it’s got some “what’s happening now” vibes with the super low guitar tunings and the weird vocal effects in certain parts, but it’s still heavy as hell. And World Painted Blood from 2009 is a late career high, IMO.

Kerry King has a new band and album coming. The album, From Hell I Rise, arrives in May. Lead single “Idle Hands” sounds like, well, Slayer. Mark Oseguedo(Death Angel) handles the vocals perfectly. Like a mix of Araya and Phil Enselmo. This is classic thrash metal, and I’m hear for it.

Don’t get all worked up over “Satanic Panic”, guys. It’s just Riefenstahl-level propaganda from the Christian Right. You should be worried about the real threats, like older white guys walking alone in the mall. Or nuclear war with Russia.