Kerry King appears at Wrestlemania 41

 

PHOTO COURTESY OF WWE.COM

Slayer's Kerry King appears at Wrestlemania 41.

Last night in Las Vegas during Wrestlemania 41, Kerry King of Slayer, solo'd over the entrance music of WWE superstar Damien Priest. Social media was abuzz about a possible Slayer appearance during night one of Wrestlemani 41. Wrestlemania is a two night extravaganza of pro wrestling action. Damien Priest, a former world champion is also a heavy metal fan. You can clearly see that Priest was in his glory as he threw up the horns while King did his signature riffs and squeals. Priest would lose in night two's SIN CITY STREET FIGHT match against Drew McIntyre. I must mention that Living Color also appeared the previous night playing their hit Cult of Personality during WWE superstar CM Punk's entrance. WWE has embraced heavy metal over the years especially in their promo packages and entrance music. Great to see this during the most watched wrestling event of the year.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WWE.COM

 Ran into this.  I never knew there was a video for this song.  I've always loved this tune, which appeared on the soundtrack for the movie Dracula 2000.  Around this period of time Slayer's songwriting was at its very best.  What a great live band they were too.  I've seen them on the South of Heaven, Diabolus In Musica, and God Hates Us All tours, and not for a single second did they disappoint.

Slayer's Repentless video and album now available.

Jungle Rot vocalist puts Kerry King on blast!

So it's no secret I'm pretty disgusted with Kerry King's comments on his band, bandmates and other bands. It's become too common that blabbermouth and various other Metal sites will quote King's passive aggressive tirades about the industry and anything that seems to cross his mind at any given time. Am I a Slayer Fan? Yes, but it's become much more difficult to enjoy their music and separate the characters in the band. Yes, characters. It's hard to believe that a band that good could be run by two guys who seem to have nothing in common with any other band or musician. I don't even know what these guys are about. First, you downgrade the contributions of your primary songwriter Jeff Hanneman after he passes away and then you dump one of the best metal drummers of all time because you don't value his contributions enough to pay him a fair wage. Come on now.

So recently Slayer has been headlining this year's Mayhem fest along side King Diamond. The tour has been a subject of controversy since the promoter was quoted as saying he was holding out on a Pantera reunion for his fest. Also with costs of musical festivals soaring each year, Mayhem had to narrow down it's scale from four to two stages. I recently spoke with some fans who attended the New England tour stop for the fest and they conveyed dismay over the lack of stages/diversity. So there is that. No fest is gonna be perfect. I look fondly on the Ozzfests I attended back in the day. That was a properly run fest and boy were there some stinkers on both the main and second stages. You can't please everyone every time. But what if you are musician in a band headlining a tour and you decide to spout off on how it's run? What do you think the other musicians should feel about your thoughts mid tour?

Dave Matrise of Jungle Rot recently conducted an interview with Live Metal over King comments with Metal Insider. Click here to read the entire interview

“I’m gonna be truthful—I take it very personal. I’m a longtime Slayer fan, and I hate to say it, but now I’m gonna change my thoughts about Slayer over this. It’s because of the simple fact that there’s a lot of people, including myself, and a lot of bands here that have a lot of money invested in this tour, and we’re trying to make our money back ,and we’re trying to keep this thing rolling. And here’s this guy, and he opens his mouth and sabotages the tour, in my opinion. And then he talks shit about Victory (Records) and that’s are label as well, and calls it a “shit stage.” Well, if it wasn’t for Victory probably getting this stage, this tour would’ve never even happened.
“That’s just my opinion, and if he would get off the bus once in a while instead of charging $20 for a picture or a signing or whatever the hell he does, he’d probably see that there’s some really good talent out there, man. So yeah, I take it very personal, I think he stuck his foot in his mouth and I hope this turns on him and I hope for the worst. I have had enough, the guy’s been runnin’ his mouth enough and this is the final draw.”

BRAVO! Dave Matrise, I always have been a Jungle Rot fan and this quote makes me proud to be a supporter. Finally, a musician finally stands up for himself against Kerry King. I normally try to stay out of controversy....unless it has something to do with Geoff Tate...that said Kerry King has become the spokesman for all things Slayer over the years and it carries weight in the media unfortunately. What he does say about his band and tours he is on affect the rest of the touring roster. Sure, he has the right to say anything he wants but when it comes at the detriment to those sharing the workload to make his band a success, I think he needs to take a look in the mirror. Slayer's last good album was "God Hates Us All" and they are about to drop their new album this year.....Kings quotes have done a disservice to the band so far this year....If the new album sucks, they are gonna have a lot of fans/bands /labels/promoters hating them also.

New Slayer "visualizer" video for Repentless track.

Slayer Visualizer Video for Title track, Repentless

This is the video for the title track "Repentless". Slayer's 11th album "Repentless" will be available on September 11th(kinda morbid, kinda gimmicky). This video is parts lyrical and parts concert footage of current line up. Nothing spectacular. As far as the song goes, it's actually much better than the other tracks I've already heard off the album. This is more of what I was expecting from the band. While I don't agree with the change on drums, I'm a huge Dave Lombardo fan, the playing is acceptable. I mean the beat on this is straight forward and so is basically the entire structure of the song. Slayer will always be at it's best when its in your face and not trying to be a thinking man's type of metal. Yes, Slayer have basically sounded the same for many years now and there are have been very few advances in their sound. What can fans expect from "Repentless"?...more of the same. Can they succeed in giving us the goods? That's the biggest challenge Slayer faces. There has been more negative press than positive going into this. With the death of their primary songwriter Jeff Hanneman, the dissolving relationship with original drummer Dave Lombardo and just about anything Kerry King says in the press these days, it's been difficult to defend the band as a fan. The good faith their major successes as a band have afforded them are starting to wear thin. With the state of music in general and the cost of running a major band such as Slayer, King and Araya would be best suited to let their music and not their opinions sell "Repentless".

First listen: Slayer Streaming New Song "When The Stillness Comes"

Slayer Streaming New Song "When The Stillness Comes"

Heavy Metal Moment of Zen - Uke-Slayer?

Are you tired of seeing kids on talent shows playing heavy metal covers with REAL INSTRUMENTS? Finally, a grown up playing Slayer on a ukelele.

Enjoy!

(Disclaimer: Ukelele's are real instruments, pardon my snarky remark..sorry, not sorry)

-grownman

Download Slayer's New Song IMPLODE!!!!!!

Last night Slayer released their new song IMPLODE. Download it for free at this link.
Their upcoming album will be their first with Nuclear Blast. It will also mark their first album since Hell Awaits to not be produced or executive produced by Rick Rubin.

Fan Footage of Implode being played live. (recorded by tarantulaman on youtube)

The Haul

Let's face it. In the digital age, music libraries are stored on a hard drive instead of a CD rack or in a milk crate. I collect vinyl, demo cassettes and the occasional CD but even I have terabytes of music stored on my hard drive but nothing compares with the thrill of finding a rare gem or old classic after an hour of digging through second hand bins. This column will be dedicated to those finds. On a weekly basis I'll be posting up what I find. On weeks I need to save the cash, I'll be digging into my collection and saying a word or two about it.

Without further ado, I present This Week's Haul.

YNGWIE MALMSTEEN'S RISING FORCE

I'm not a guy who's into long bouts of shredding and wankery but I do like me the first couple of Malmsteen album's. This one is bit more on the melodic side rather than the pure wank side and probably his standout album. Really a piece of metal history from a guy who has influenced so many great guitarists.

 

RELEASED: March 5, 1984

LABEL: Polydor Records

CATALOGUE NUMBER: 825 324-1 (US 1st Press)

STANDOUT TRACK: Icarus Dream Suite OP.4

VG+/VG+

PRICE: $5

SLAYER - HAUNTING THE CHAPEL EP

 

Other than the classic songs, I ignored Slayer for a long time. What an asshole. My first full album exposure to Slayer was Diabolus In Musica when it was the soundtrack to me dropping liquid acid under my tongue for the summer. Lot's of good memories tied to that one but needless to say, it doesn't hold a candle to the classics. Anyway, Haunting The Chapel is the EP between Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits. The change between the two albums was evident here as they showed less NWOBHM influences and become much thrashier.

RELEASED: June, 1984

LABEL: Metal Blade Records

CATALOGUE NUMBER: MBR 1024 (US 1987 Re-Issue)

STANDOUT TRACK: Chemical Warfare

EX/EX

PRICE: $20

ANTHRAX - SPREADING THE DISEASE

There was a time when I enjoyed John Bush Anthrax more than Joey Belladonna Anthrax. That is no longer so after seeing Belladonna live a couple years ago. I'm not a huge Anthrax fan to be honest but it's hard to top the first couple. I had the Armed and Dangerous single in my hand when I spotted this one and since this is the full album I decided to get this instead.

RELEASED: October 30, 1985

LABEL: Island Records

CATALOGUE NUMBER: 90480-1 (US 1st Press)

STANDOUT TRACK: Armed and Dangerous

EX/EX

PRICE: $8

I also finally grabbed Magister Templi and the new Toxic Holocaust on vinyl. For more on Magister Templi go check out my "Best of The First Half of 2013" column. For more on Toxic Holocaust, I'll be reviewing that in a couple of days.

Until then...

BUY MUSIC!!!