Huntington Park, CA · thrash-metal

Slayer

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Thrash's most pitiless institution — tritones, air-raid solos, and a rhythm section that never once let up, 'Raining Blood' as closing rite.

Slayer began in Huntington Park in 1981, playing covers of Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Venom at parties and small clubs around Southern California, with early shows leaning on satanic imagery of pentagrams, spikes and inverted crosses. The band was spotted in 1983 by Brian Slagel of Metal Blade Records, who signed them after hearing 'Aggressive Perfector', written for his Metal Massacre III compilation.

Slayer became one of the defining thrash bands alongside Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax, built on the guitar partnership of Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, Tom Araya's bass and vocals, and Dave Lombardo's drumming. Their sound is marked by fast tempos, dissonant tritone-heavy riffing, chaotic solos and lyrics dealing with war, violence and religion, output that drew album bans, lawsuits and criticism from religious groups.

The 1986 album Reign in Blood, and its closing track 'Raining Blood', remain the band's best-known work and a reference point for extreme metal. Slayer released twelve studio albums in all; four were certified gold in the United States, and the band sold five million records domestically between 1991 and 2013. Christ Illusion earned Slayer two Grammy Awards, for 'Eyes of the Insane' in 2007 and 'Final Six' in 2008.

Hanneman died in 2013; guitarist Gary Holt, who had joined as a touring replacement two years earlier, became a permanent member in his place. Slayer performed a farewell tour that concluded in 2019, disbanding at its close, then returned for sporadic reunion shows from 2024, with Paul Bostaph on drums.

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thrash-metal