Slayer - Trivia
South Of Heaven, Seasons In The Abyss and God Hates Us All were all used as the titles for the first 3 books written by Hank Moody on the Showtime dramedy Californication.
Before Slayer was formed, vocalist and bassist Tom Araya worked as a respiratory therapist.
The song Unit 731 from the World Painted Blood album gets its name from the Japanese biological warfare division during the Second World War and during the occupation of Manchuria.
The album title Diabolus in Musica translates to "The Devil in Music." It is a well-known, originally medieval, alternative name for the tritone: a feature common in Slayer's music and thrash metal as a whole. Widely banned for many decades or even centuries, perhaps most well-known is its use in the song "Black Sabbath", after the atmospheric introduction. It can also be found, less prominently, at the very start of The Simpsons' theme-song.
Although endorsed by ESP, Jeff Hanneman's main stage guitar is a Jackson.
"Payback", the final song off of 2001's God Hates Us All contains the shortest guitar solo of all Slayer songs. It only lasts for 10 seconds.
Kerry King has his own bobble-head.
Track eight, "Temptation" on Seasons in the Abyss featured an overdub of lead vocalist Tom Araya's singing, because the first vocal track was not erased between the takes. The vocal arrangement on the track was unintentional. Araya sang the song twice: once the way he felt it sounded best; the second time at the insistence of Kerry King the way he thought it should be sung. When the producer played the track and heard both vocal renditions simultaneously on the instrumental background, he suggested that both vocal tracks should be used on the album.
The video for the Christ Illusion album's first single, "Eyes of the Insane", was released on October 30, 2006. The song was featured on the Saw III soundtrack, and won a Grammy award for "Best Metal Performance" at the 49th Grammy Awards, although the band were unable to attend due to touring obligations.
All of the drummers who played in Slayer had endorsed TAMA drums.
The song "Raining Blood" appeared in a South Park episode called "Die Hippie Die". Eric Cartman, a hippie hater, drilled through a crowd of hippies while they were holding a festival in South Park. When Eric got on stage, he put a CD in a laptop and started blasting "Raining Blood" through the speakers to scare away the remaining hippies.
Rumors that the band was originally known as Dragonslayer, after the 1981 movie of the same name, were denied by King: "We never were; it's a myth to this day."
Kerry King recorded a solo for the song "What We're All About" from the pop punk band Sum 41 and also appeared in the video. When asked why, Kerry said: "The Sum 41 guys are big Slayer fans and cool guys, and they come to lots of our shows, but I actually did that because one of our record company guys nagged me endlessly."
Kerry King has his own signature guitars line under the B.C.Rich trade mark. Most of the KK guitars are simply tribal graphics added to a Warlock or V with some modifications such as different pick-ups, headstock, neck construction and so on, but in the new 2009 line of B.C.Rich guitars there is a new KK guitar that is a combination between the Beast and V, it is called Beast V. The KK gallery can be seen here. The Beast V can be seen here and here.
The song "213" from the Divine Intervention album is named after Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment number.
After the release of Hell Awaits in 1985, Slayer embarked on the Combat Tour with Venom and Exodus. Inside Venom's tour bus (the first time Slayer had been in one) the band members got drunk with Venom, while listening to Hell Awaits. Araya entered the bus "hammered out of his mind" according to Lombardo, saying "I gotta take a piss! Where's the bathroom in this thing?" Venom vocalist Conrad "Cronos" Lant said "Right here?right here in my mouth!" Araya took him literally and urinated on his hair. Cronos got up and punched him in the face, the two blamed each other all night, and Araya continued the tour with a black eye.
According to a list published by The Guardian (a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group) in May 2008, Slayer fans have been called the "most dedicated, least rational" fans in music. The list was compiled by writer Chuck Klosterman and puts the fans in order of how fanatical their fanbase are. The complete list is: (1) Slayer, (2) Tori Amos, (3) Sublime, (4) Kiss, (5) Bruce Springsteen, (6) Black Sabbath (particularly the Tony Martin era), (7) Jimmy Buffett, (8) Iron Maiden, (9) Guided By Voices, (10) Morrissey.
When you play the intro to the song "Hell Awaits" backwards, you actually hear the words: "Join Us".
Slayer has been accused of holding Nazi sympathies, due to the band's eagle logo bearing resemblance to the Eagle atop swastika, Schutzstaffel stickers on guitars and the lyrics of "Angel of Death". The lyrics of "Angel of Death" were inspired by the acts of Josef Mengele, the doctor who conducted human experiments on Jewish and Romani (gypsy) prisoners during World War II at the Auschwitz concentration camp, and was dubbed the "Angel of Death" by inmates.
Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo was recruited for the band when he met King delivering a pizza.
The album God Hates Us All was released on September 11th, 2001 - the day of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York and other American landmarks.
Kerry King recorded a guitar solo for "No Sleep till Brooklyn", a song by the punk/hip-hop group Beastie Boys.
Slayer released their first live album Live Undead in 1985. In 1992 an American punk band called The Undead (with Bobby Steele from The Misfits) released a live album called Live Slayer, as a pun to Slayer's album.
The song "Necrophobic", appearing on Reign in Blood, is the band's fastest at nearly 250 beats per minute.
The band produced their first album Show No Mercy, in one week, for $400. It eventually sold over 60,000 copies. |