Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years. A Metal Band Biography.

by Ferris, D. X.

  On Metallica’s breakthrough single, the band adapted a nursery rhyme (“Enter Sandman”). And since then, the group’s lyric sheets have consistently been entries from James Hetfield's gearhead diary (see “The End of the Line,” “Fuel,” etc.). Hetfield likes cars. He likes gas. And he likes to love. The band not only penned a ballad early on, but wrote more, and followed one with two sequels. Slayer have written some bad lyrics, but they’ve never been a heartbeat away from “Over the Rainbow.” And they’ve never written “Crionics III.”

  Since their first album, Metallica have filled their bassist slot twice following the death of Cliff Burton, for a total of two new members (three if you include producer Bob Rock playing bass on St. Anger). Blabbermouth references, as of June 20, 2013: 9,873.

  Over a platinum year, the peers and rivals of the Big Four became a dream team.

  Click here to Google search “Slayer photos 2010”

  Chapter 44:

  The Big Four’s Really Big Shows

  In summer 2010, headbangers witnessed the metal event of a lifetime. The Big Four finally played together.

  The first Big Four concert took place June 16, 2010, at Sonisphere’s show in Warsaw, Poland’s Bemowo Airport, in front of a crowd of 81,000 44-1. (Hometown black metal heroes Behemoth opened the historic event.)

  After two more festivals, the bands were ready to unveil the show for the world. On June 22, edited portions of the concert from Sofia, Bulgaria Sonisphere sets were beamed from the 43,000-capacity Vasil Levski National Stadium to 800 theaters around the globe, 450 of them in the US, to an estimated net audience of 100,000.

  Anthrax opened the shows, followed by Megadeth, then Slayer. On the commemorative DVD art, Metallica had the top line, followed by Slayer, with Megadeth and Anthrax both on a third line, in that order. On other artwork, Megadeth’s logo appeared atop Anthrax’s.

  At the close of Metallica’s headlining set, members of all four bands took the stage for a group rendition of Diamond Head’s cinematic tale of macabre vengeance, “Am I Evil?,” the New Wave of British Heavy Metal [NWOBHM] classic that set the template for thrash’s speedy, epic, evil intricacies44-2.

  Slayer’s set skipped the first album, Hell Awaits, Divine Intervention, and Diabolus — but otherwise spanned most of the band’s career. It was a Hanneman-heavy set. Of the 12 songs in the show, 11 had Hanneman writing credits, four with input from King, six from Araya. Only “Hate Worldwide” was a King solo composition.

  1. "World Painted Blood"

  2. "Jihad"

  3. "War Ensemble"

  4. “Hate Worldwide"

  5. "Seasons in the Abyss"

  6. "Angel of Death"

  7. "Beauty Through Order"

  8. "Disciple"

  9. "Mandatory Suicide"

  10. "Chemical Warfare"

  11. "South of Heaven"

  12. "Raining Blood"

  The sets were later compiled into the DVD The Big Four: Live from Sofia, Bulgaria. Released October 29 2010, the two-DVD set landed atop Billboard’s Music Video Chart. It was certified platinum that January, commemorating shipments — if not sales — of over 100,000 copies. It had sold 78,000 copies, though its two discs were counted as two units each.

  American audiences couldn’t help but wonder if they would have a chance to see a Big Four tour. As the numbers added up, all signs pointed to “yes.”

  Chapter 45:

  American Carnage

  The boys of the Big Four stayed in touch.

  The summer of 2010 was hectic. As festival season played out, Slayer bounced between Europe and America.

  When Slayer set down on American soil, it had another special set and tour lineup. Slayer joined Megadeth and Testament on the American Carnage tour. For this trek, contrary to King’s predictions from 2007, the band found another classic album to play in its entirety: 1990’s Seasons in the Abyss.

  Three years earlier, King had said they wouldn’t tour another record. But his mind was changed. Megadeth had agreed to play all of Rust in Peace. And Slayer reluctantly went along to be team players.

  “The fucking promoters wanted us to do it,” King explained to Metal Temple’s Kontogeorgakos Dimitris. “I didn’t want to do Reign In Blood no more because we have done it everywhere. So, Seasons In The Abyss was my first choice.”45-1

  The band bookended Seasons with new songs and old favorites, often:

  1. “World Painted Blood”

  2. “Hate Worldwide”

  3. “War Ensemble”

  4. “Blood Red”

  5. “Spirit in Black”

  6. “Expendable Youth”

  7. “Dead Skin Mask”

  8. “Hallowed Point”

  9. “Skeletons of Society

  10. “Temptation”

  11. “Born of Fire”

  12. “Seasons in the Abyss”

  Encore:

  13. “South of Heaven”

  14. “Raining Blood”

  15. “Aggressive Perfector”

  16. “Angel of Death”

  The package continued as the fall’s Jägermeister MusicTour. Slayer and Megadeth kept playing the same classic albums. And the Big Four bands swapped Testament for a fourth Big Four group: Anthrax, with classic-era singer Joey Belladonna back in the lineup.

  On one hand, it was an awesome gesture, playing the group’s second-most popular album all the way through. And by then, playing classic albums was a more common convention on the tour circuit. It certainly helped generate tickets sales. Keeping busy May through October, the band had had its fourth-busiest touring year, playing around 85 shows.

  On the other hand, another classic-album tour could be interpreted as a bad sign, taking a second dip into the nostalgia market to celebrate an album that was 20 years old. By then, the Slaytanic temple’s façade had multiple cracks.

  Tom Araya, Jeff Hanneman, Kerry King, and Dave Lombardo played their final complete show together October 21, a hometown show at Hollywood’s Gibson Amphitheatre. They ended the night in a blood-red fog, with an encore of “South of Heaven,” “Raining Blood,” “Aggressive Perfector,” and “Angel of Death.”

  Chapter 46:

  Necrotizing Fasciitis

  For all intents and purposes, Jeff Hanneman’s career ended October 21, 2010. Early the next year, a tiny incident nearly killed him. And he never recovered.

  “Jeff’s pretty hard-headed,” King told me in 2007. Hanneman’s ability to keep his pain to himself and proceed quietly may have been his demise.

  Jon Hotten of Classic Rock magazine scored the rock-press scoop of the year at the end of 2011, when he broke Hanneman’s account of a small wound that grew into a career-ending injury.

  As Hanneman would recall it: In January 2011, he was relaxing on a night off, drinking beer in a hot tub, his right arm hanging over the side. He didn’t even notice the injury that derailed his entire life. Later, Hanneman spotted a mark on by his right bicep.

  "Didn't even feel it," he told Hotten. "But an hour later, I knew that I was ill."46-1

  As with all stories, the details of the events that followed vary according to who’s telling them. Weeks after Hanneman’s death, his widow, Kathryn Hanneman, said if Jeff had felt sick an hour after the bite, he endured it much longer.

  Kathryn recalled Hanneman’s brush with death to Guitar World’s Jeff Kitts, a moving story that was an even bigger scoop: Jeff had been away from home, visiting friends. He didn’t return for about a week. When did return to his home in Hemet, California, he was hammered46-2.

  Jeff made his way through the front door. On top of the heady buzz, he felt shitty. He wanted to go upstairs and pass out. But first he had something she needed to see.

  Recalled Kathryn: “He said, 'Kath, I need to show you something, even though I really don't want to.”

  Jeff took off his shirt. Mrs. Hanneman took a look. And she freaked out.

  His right arm was bright red, swollen to more than twice its norma
l size.

  “'Jeff, we need to go now,” she said. “We need to get you to the ER.”

  Hanneman refused to go. He wanted to go to bed and go to sleep. So he did.

  In the morning, Jeff was weak, and his resolve flagged. Kathryn talked him into going to the hospital. She helped him to the car. Hanneman’s arm burning, they headed to the emergency room.46-3

  When Hanneman recapped the episode to Classic Rock, he sounded like he was improvising Slayer lyrics.

  On his way to the hospital, he remembered, "I could see the flesh corrupting.”

  Luckily, a nurse had seen the rare affliction before. She recognized it and nailed the diagnosis.

  According to their best guess, a spider had bitten his arm, causing the rapid onset of a bacterial infection called necrotizing fasciitis. The gangrene-like, flesh-eating infection immediately had begun digging into his skin and muscle. The hospital staff told Hanneman if he had waited another hour to come in, he would have died46-4.

  The hospital admitted Jeff immediately.

  Hanneman sent his wife home. He knew he wasn’t going anywhere soon — and he needed her to be ready if not rested.

  Some hours later, Jeff called Kathryn. Kathryn recalled the scene for Guitar World:

  “Kath, it's not good,” he said. “They may have to amputate. I think you need to come back here.”

  When she got there, Hanneman was on stretcher, ready to go into surgery. A doctor greeted the stressed wife.

  “I need you to see your husband,” the doctor said. “He may not make it.”46-5

  The doctor knew who he was dealing with.

  "Unbelievably, the doctor was a Slayer fan," Hanneman told Classic Rock. "First thing he said to me was: 'First I am going to save your life. Then I am going to save your arm. Then I am going to save your career.'"46-6

  The doctor made good on the first two promises, but Hanneman didn’t give him the cooperation he needed for the last part.

  “Looking at Jeff on that stretcher and possibly saying goodbye,” Kathryn told Kitts, “knowing that I may never see him again… was one of the hardest moments of my life."46-7

  In the operating room, surgeons cut away the dead skin and tissue. According to Hanneman, they saved vital muscles and tendons, but he guitarist was left with a gaping wound that spanned inches on either side of his right elbow, stretching from his forearm to bicep.

  Hanneman made it out of surgery and was reunited with his wife. He survived. As the doctor promised, his arm was intact. And he was alive. But the status of his arm — and his very life — were far from steady.

  Slayer announced Hanneman’s situation weeks later, and the statement made the guitarist’s condition sound stable and manageable. It was true, from a certain perspective.

  A year later, in May 2012, another release from the group detailed the depths of Hanneman’s damage and the life-threatening complication that following the surgery.46-8

  The infection and the expert procedure had brought Hanneman to death’s door.

  Following the surgery, doctors placed Hanneman in a medically-induced coma.

  In the days after Hanneman’s operation, his life hung in the balance. As he lay in bed, connected to life support, the staff considered one drastic way to tip the scales in the guitarist’s favor: amputate the arm.

  Kathryn decided to take her chances. The arm was damaged, but it stayed.

  Hanneman’s coma lasted days. More surgeries followed, culling additional dead and dying tissue from his afflicted arm. And, to cover the decay zone, he would have to undergo painful skin-graft surgery in coming months, doctors peeling skin from healthy parts of his body to cover the wounds.

  “So, understand,” the Slayer statement explained. “He was in really, really bad shape.”46-9

  As of February 2011, the extent of Hanneman’s condition was still secret. But it was clearly critical. Slayer’s co-founder was out of the game indefinitely.

  Chapter 47:

  Now Entering the Lineup: Gary Holt of Exodus

  February 2011: Two weeks after the surgeries that saved his life and arm, Hanneman was still in a hospital bed, chunks of skin and flesh carved from various parts of his body.

  February 12, the Slayer camp issued broke the news to the world. A statement said Hanneman had contracted an infection on his right arm. The infection had been treated with emergency surgery and followed by hospitalization.

  And, revealed the statement, Hanneman wasn’t just hurt. He had been knocked out of commission.

  But Slayer had major concerts on the books in coming weeks. The clock was ticking.

  The press release revealed news that was even more shocking.

  The shows would go on without Hanneman.

  “In light of this situation and Slayer’s upcoming participation in the Australian Soundwave Festival tour that is set to kick off on February 26,” the statement read, “the band has made the tough decision to play the dates without Hanneman, and will bring on a guest guitarist to fill in for him until such time as he has fully recuperated and is ready to return to the lineup. The band will announce details about the guest guitarist shortly.”47-1

  Without citing signed contracts, the band spun the altered lineup as a preferable alternative to no shows.

  "After everything that happened last year," King said in the statement, "we all agreed that we just can't let our fans down again. Jeff is totally on board with this decision, so we will tour as planned. At this point, we can't pinpoint exactly what day he'll be back, but he'll be back as soon as he possibly can. And we can't wait for Jeff to get better and get his ass back on the road."47-2

  Blabbermouth deftly picked up on recent a Kerry King interview with Australian magazine Loud:

  “The front three people [in Slayer’s front line] never changed, and I think that's important,” King said to Cameron Edney. “I don't mean that as a shot on Megadeth, but at the end of the day, Megadeth is Dave Mustaine, and that's it. It's whoever Dave decides to play with on this record. Could you imagine watching Slayer without me, Jeff or Tom? It just couldn't happen! That's something to be said there, 'cause we're all irreplaceable.”47-3

  In the Loud interview, King continued taking the hard line about band commitments vs. family developments, as he had since the ‘80s: “The last few years I've noticed people in bands are almost interchangeable. I've seen some of my friends stay home because their wives were going to have a baby and they'd have somebody replace them when they play live, and I think… How can you fuckin' do that?"47-4

  King found a way.

  It took some discussion and more adjustment before Slayer committed to finding a fill-in player. At first, Araya, King, and Lombardo did not unanimously agree that the band should proceed.

  “For me, it was really difficult to make the decision to go on without Jeff,” Araya told Kitts. “They started naming names to take his place, and I’m like, ‘How can you guys even think about this? We can’t do this without Jeff.’”47-5

  But King wasn’t quitting. Pulling the plug on the band wouldn’t help Hanneman. After some debate, Slayer collectively decided to continue. And then they decided whom to continue with.

  Once again, Team Slayer drafted an inspired choice for a replacement player.

  The band didn’t formally announce Hanneman’s temporary replacement. But days after they announced plans to find a fill-in, word was out.

  After 30 years with the same three-man frontline, Slayer would play its first shows with another guitarist: Gary Holt, of renown for his long tenure in Exodus, one of King’s favorite thrash bands.

  Holt’s track record was less distinguished than Hanneman’s, but even longer.

  As he explained it to website Metal Rules, Lombardo had planted the seeds for Holt to join the outfit, a year and a half before they needed him.

  Sunday, June 20, 2010, Slayer were in Clisson, France, for a headlining set at the annual Hellfest. Lombardo found himself hanging with King backstage. Word came t
hat, before Slayer took the stage, Exodus was warming it up by playing the classic thrash album Bonded by Blood in its entirety.

  The Slayer team hadn’t seen the Slay Team guys for awhile. They sidled up to the stage, and Exodus delivered a reviving metal injection.

  “Wow,” Lombardo recalled. “Now I remember why I liked them so much, when I was young.”

  Exodus were old peers and friends. They had partied together at the height of Slayer’s bad habits. And the two bands had even exchanged shout-outs in their early album credits.

  Lombardo remembered the days fondly. As Exodus shredded through Bonded, Holt looked like he still had his chops.

  “Look at that guy,” said Lombardo. “That guy’s an amazing guitar player.”