RIFTROCK INTERVIEWS
Slayer
Posted by Dave Huffy7/19/04
Riftrock.com: The band is putting out yet another live DVD soon that features the album Reign In Blood played in it’s entirety with the original line up. What inspired you guys to film “Reign In Blood Live: Still Reigning”? When and how did the idea come about?
Jeff Hanneman: The DVD idea was just recent, but the idea to play Reigning Blood in its entirety, we’ve talked about that for years, because its only 28 minutes we thought it would be cool to just throw it in a set, but it really caught fire when Dave got back in the band so it was like “Dave’s back in the band? We should do it” And since the record label and Rick Rubin were having some problems, he suggested we wait until next year, so we said fuck it lets record raining blood live with Dave Lombardo and put it on DVD.
Does the band have any other plans to record live CD’s or DVD’s of albums in their entirety?
Jeff: Not after we finish this one, we are going to be done with the live stuff for awhile. We get people asking why don’t you put out South of heaven In Its entirety? (laughs) but I don’t know, that’s down the road.
Speaking of live performances, were you surprised when you found out Slayer was named “best live band” in Revolver magazine?
Jeff: No, because I think we are pretty good live (laughs).
The band is said to be working on material for a new album, How many songs have you written so far for the album?
Jeff:We’ve got at least 10 songs musically because we always write material first, I have a handful and Kerry does too, but we haven’t gotten into writing lyrics yet . We have plenty of songs to record when we are done touring, the album should be out pretty quick.
Has Dave Lombardo re-entering the fold had any influence on the new material?
Jeff: Oh yeah, anytime you have a drummer like Dave that’s an amazing drummer, he’s always a big influence, he’ll tell us where we should have a pause, where we should stop at parts.
Slayer albums have always incorporated songs about the darker sides of society and people as a whole, especially with “God Hates Us All”, will the next album have these same themes? Especially with the war in Iraq still going on.
Jeff: Lyrically everything comes last so it depends what is going on at that time, we aren’t going in on January to record so who knows what’s going to be going on then. Lyrics always come last and right now musically it’s pretty intense.
Will Kerry be handling all lyrics for this album as well?
Jeff: Oh yeah, well, me Kerry and tom write all the lyrics. We all have our phases where we get on a roll and we just conquer everything.
Slayer is on Ozzfest again this year which showcases a wide variety of heavy metal acts and fans some not really familiar with Slayer, do you find it’s better to be exposed to a band for the first time in a live setting rather than by word of mouth?
Jeff: oh yeah its always fun to come out and bust peoples balls that have never seen us before. They hear slayer from their friend and all but yeah coming out is definitely better because we are a good live band. Because we get a lot of higher paid tickets sit in front and are probably their to see ozzy or judas priest but when they see us they say “what the fuck is this?!”
Slayer has been around for quite some time of course, how does it feel to know that you are playing in front of a whole new generation of fans?
Jeff: It’s fuckin’ great man. Because a younger say 14 , his older brother might have listened to slayer sand never really got into it because his brother was into it ‘yknow like that. But then goes to see us live and goes ‘these guys are pretty fuckin’ cool’ (laughs)
How Many more Albums Do you see in Slayer’s Future?
Jeff: with Lombardo back, quite a few.
Thanks for your time Jeff!
Jeff: No problem man thanks.
Band’s
website:
http://www.slayer.net
