Metal Martyr » dave-lombardo

How The Slaytanic Era Started

Scott — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:01:18 +0000

In the late 70’s, early 80’s most bands weren’t playing songs that dealt with controversial material. Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper are most credited for playing darker content while other bands going in to the 80’s were singing about sex, drugs and well, rock and roll. Sure AC/DC was on the highway to hell but it wasn’t quite heavy enough for people that really wanted to be pushed over the edge. Sabbath had some dark songs and kept it extremely heavy without playing really fast. There really wasn’t any American bands brave enough to go that route…until Slayer.

The early 80’s marked the death of true punk era but a few bands picked up a part of that broken ball and ran with it. One of those highly influential bands that still carries that little piece of ball in their pocket is Slayer. They took that little piece of ball, mixed it with a pentagram and turned it in to a sound that parents feared, Metal with a punk influence! You can hear that mix in their new song Psychopathy Red. Slayer still has quite a following with fans ranging from their teens to over 50! When you’ve been around for close to 30 years, chances are you have quite a fan-base. They may not have changed much ion the last 20 years, but they’ve never compromised their sound, style and material in the name of record sales.

Filter-mag.com has an exclusive inside look at the birth of Slayer, straight from the source. Here is a small portion of their interview with Tom Araya, Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman and Dave Lombardo.

TOM ARAYA: This Top 40 band I was in was getting a new guitar player—a music teacher who Kerry was a student of. When that guitar player got booted and was replaced by Kerry, then I got booted. That was right out of high school, in ’79. I was working at the hospital and going to school to become a respiratory therapist. I got in contact with Kerry like a year later; he said he wanted to put a new band together.

DAVE LOMBARDO: In the early days, the greatest thing we came across was mixing metal and punk together to create the Slayer style. We were being influenced by bands like Iron Maiden, Venom, Mercyful Fate and a lot of punk stuff, so it all grew from what we were being exposed to at the time.

There is a lot more to this interview at Filter-mag.com and they will publish more of it online later this week. If you want to read the full exclusive you’ll have to pick up Filter Magazine Issue #35.

Despite what people say about Slayer, I still love them. They haven’t “Sold out”, changed their sound much or started trying to be radio friendly. Sure they have videos, but what bands don’t have a video or plans of making one? They may not be technical in anything that they do, but what you see is what you get and that’s what I love about them.

Image: Rockabilia.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

Dave Lombardo Speaks On Gus Chamber’s Passing

Scott — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:22:14 +0000

Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo released a statement (to Blabbermouth.net) concerning the recent death of fellow Grip Inc. band mate, Gus Chambers’ who sadly committed suicide two weeks ago.

“I am still coming to the realization of the recent news. We had lots of laughs writing recording and touring. He was an amazing lyricist and performer. Another loss for the music world. I will always remember ‘Gas’ Chambers as one of the greatest metal sounding vocalist. I am so glad we were introduced and chose him to be the singer in GRIP INC. There were good times and bad times but we never ‘denied the power of inner strength.’ Gus, you will never be forgotten. May God bless you. RIP.”

Image used with permission from Newscom.com

Post from: Metal Martyr

Grip Inc. Frontman Gus Chambers Dies At 50

Scott — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:48:16 +0000

I talked about Grip Inc. awhile back. A great band. Highly under-rated and under-publicized. I don’t know how this took so long to hit the wires, but it appears that Gus Chambers took his own life last weekend (October 13th). A huge and saddening surprise to a lot of people, especially his friends, fans and band mates throughout the years. The crazy part is that absolutely nobody saw this coming. Suppressed inner demons get the best of some of the brightest personalities without showing any signs. No further details into his death have been released yet. You can read some of the testimonials given by some of the people he new and worked with over the years at The Coventry Telegraph, out of Coventry England where Gus first made his mark on the music scene. Gus was 50. I imagine we’ll hear something from Dave Lombardo in the coming days. RIP, Gus.

Post from: Metal Martyr

What Was Your Favorite Show?

Scott — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:48:12 +0000

I can honestly say that I have not been to as many Metal shows as some people, but the ones I have been to have been some of the most memorable moments in my life. The last show I was at was the ATR show at the beginning of this month and I’m sure your all tired of hearing me talk about that by now. While it was an awesome show it is not number 1 on my list but it’s in the top ten. Ozfest 97 was a great experience seeing Black Sabbath, Pantera and a bunch of other great bands. Saw The Misfits with Michael Graves fronting the band three times. I’m a bit young to have been able to see the original line-up so this was pretty cool to me and Graves did great covering the oldies as well as the American Psycho stuff…everything after that blows. Cannibal Corpse and Anthrax were cool as well on that tour. When I saw The Misfits open for Megadeth was one of the best shows I got to see, but not my favorite but close. So what was the best to me?

I saw Slayer at The 9:30 Club in D.C. back in 97 during the Diabulos In Musica tour. System Of A Down opened the show with Clutch following…it was a long wait through System Of A Down because I had never heard of them before and their live show was absolutely excruciating. Clutch was pretty cool but when you have 500 or more people waiting anxiously to see Slayer your kind of screwed no matter who you are. Imagine your in a band going on before Slayer and while your an established band everyone in the venue is screaming “Slayer-Slayer-Slayer” before you even get through your first song.

Not only was this a great show because it was Slayer but I got to go to signing session up in Baltimore before the show and got one of my prized possessions autographed by the band. I have a copy of ‘Til Death Do Us Part, a studio rehearsal session recordings from 1984 on vinyl from Jester Productions that I found in a record store in Woodbridge Virginia that actually sold records and cassettes. As far as I know and from what the sleeve says there are only 500 of these out there and I got Slayer to sign the back of it. Unfortunately this was back in 97 and Paul Bostaph was the current drummer and while he is a great drummer, Dave is the one in the picture from ‘84 so he signed off to the side. Maybe one day I’ll get to see Slayer again and get Dave Lombardo to sign it. That would allow me to die happy.

Post from: Metal Martyr

Metal Shavings 8/2

Scott — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:44:01 +0000

Good evening and welcome to the first August edition of Metal Shavings. Lets get to it!

Warp Tour organizer, Kevin Lyman submitted a letter of apology to the Osbournes for the comment he made about 2007’s “Free” Ozzfest…Punk-ass!

Drowning Pools new CD “Full Circle” Featuring their new vocalist Ryan McCombs formerly of Soil can be heard by streaming audio here. (Tune Lab) Not too shabby thus far.

Speaking of Warp Tour. Killswitch Engage guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz will be leaving the tour due to back surgery he had earlier this year and his doctors advised him to lay off the tour and attend physical therapy in order to make a full and timely recovery.

Bret Michaels Rock of Love reality show on VH1 continues to get great ratings and for some reason I can’t seem to not watch it… I don’t know if it’s curiosity, insanity or a touch of both.

Apocolytica has announced their worldwide release of their 6th album. The CD entitled Worlds Collide will be released September 7th and will feature guest appearances to the liking of Slayers Dave Lombardo, Stone Sour/Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, and Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabia.

Marilyn Manson is being sued by his former drummer…for more info you can feel feel to google it, I’m not gonna waste my time on this one.

In other news, Papa Roach still suck, Ricky Rachtman is still a poser queen and The Office is the best damn sitcom on television.

Post from: Metal Martyr