SurMetal lost a great songwriter when Jeff Hanneman died though I never thought for a band who the majority of their songs are about
death their fan would be so Necrophobic, the weeping on facebook was a little excessive. He died an alcoholic death so go have a drink in his honor though what you should also be mourning is the death of Slayer, sure the corpse of the band will be dragged out on life support just like bands like Yes and Deep Purple drag out the corpses of their less than classic line-ups, metal finds it self over the hill so now we are going to get to see the bands we grew up with turning into Cheap Tricks.
Slayer had been placed on a pedestal, they were the band that made punk rock kids feel like they were into metal for liking, and the first five albums took the blue print bands like Priest and Maiden laid out and hardened its arteries. I was a fan of the band until some where around Divine Intervention I read an interview with them where they admitted the whole satanic thing was just a gimmick for them and then I gave up on them until God Hates us all, during the break up I pretty much just went with band more serious about the Left Hand path like Merciful Fate, Morbid Angel and Deicide.
I heard about Jeff's death and though well there goes Slayer, As I new he wrote all the gruesome Nazi songs, but it wasn't until I sat down and complied the data in regard to what percentage of their best stuff he actually wrote did I realize how bi of a hand he played in being the Aggresive perfector of their best work, I guess King's spiked gauntlets distract from the fact he's writing all the filler .
My favorite Slayer album "South of Heaven" Hanneman almost wrote all by him, then Kerry King stepped up his game on the Seasons in the Abyss album, which could be argued is the last classic Slayer album, while I like Divine Intervention, Lombardo doesn't play on it. I did notice that over time King and Hanneman wrote less together with Hanneman not really contributing much to albums like "Divine Intervention"
SO LETS LOOK AT THE FACTS ... I only counted Show no Mercy to Divine Intervention and then added on God Hates us all as the album in-between and after are pretty lame, even though I have tried to like them over the years.
sonsongs with music written solely by Hanneman
Die by the sword, Fight til Death, Tormentor, At Dawn they Sleep, Necrophiliac,Hardening of the Arteries,Angel of Death, Altar of Sacrifice,Reborn, Post-mortem, South of Heaven, Live Undead, Behind the Crooked Cross, Read Between the Lies, Behind the Crooked Cross, Spill the Blood, War Ensemble, Blood Red, Spirit in Black, Dead Skin Mask,Seasons in the Abyss, 213,Disciple, God Send Death, Threshold. Deviance,
25
and out of those I would say 17 of those are some of Slayers best songs
had a hand in co-writing with Kerry King
the Anti-christ,Metal Storm, Crionics,Black Magic, the Final Command,Haunting the Chapel, Captor of Sin, Hell Awaits, Kill Again,Raining Blood, Necrophobic, Jesus Saves, Criminally Insane,Epidemic, Aggressive Perfector,Mandatory Suicide, Ghosts of War, Hallowed Point, Born of Fire, Divine Intervention, SS-3,Serenity in Murder, Mind Control,Blood Line,
24
I would say out of those 14 are almost the rest of of Slayer's best work
70
35 percent Hanneman single handed wrote the music for
34 percent he co- wrote with King
so 70 percent he had a hand in writing
and almost half of those are Slayer's best stuff.
Lets hope another Slayer album is not released unless its Jeff song's from the vaults. Here comes the pain because the touring incarnation is like Kiss without makeup at this point or even Kiss with Make up now. I Metallica was the Van Halen of metal as they made it digestible to the general public, whiel Slayer in terms of sticking to their guns were more defenders of the faith, but when your tours all sponsered by Jagermeister then its not very metal to die any other way. SO have a drink for Slayer today.
No comments:
Post a Comment