Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: Slayer (pt. 1)

Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the “Big Four” thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax. Their album Reign in Blood is considered to be the foundation and inspiration of death metal.

Slayer’s musical traits involve fast tremolo picking, double bass drumming, and shouted (or chanted) vocals. Hanneman, King, and bassist/lead vocalist Tom Araya, contribute to the band’s lyrics. King and Hanneman create and arrange the music with additional arrangement from drummer Dave Lombardo and sometimes Araya. The band’s lyrics and album art, which cover topics such as serial killers, Satanism, religion and warfare, have generated album bans, delays, lawsuits and strong criticism from religious groups and the public.

Since their debut album in 1983, the band has released two live albums, one box set, six videos, two extended plays, and eleven studio albums, four (Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss, and Divine Intervention in 1986, 1988, 1990, and 1994 respectively) of which have received gold certification in the United States. The band has received five Grammy nominations, winning two of them; one in 2007 for the song “Eyes of the Insane”, and one in 2008 for the song “Final Six” (both from 2006′s Christ Illusion). Slayer has played music festivals worldwide, including Unholy Alliance, Download, and Ozzfest. As of November 2011, Slayer has begun writing their next album.

Early days (1981)

Slayer was founded in 1981, when guitarist Kerry King met Jeff Hanneman while auditioning for a band. They recruited Chilean bassist and vocalist Tom Araya, who had played with King before in the band Quits (previously known as Tradewinds). Drummer Dave Lombardo was recruited when he met King while delivering a pizza. The band played cover versions of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest songs at clubs and parties in Southern California. Early shows relied on a Satanic image, which featured pentagrams, make-up, spikes, and inverted crosses. Rumors that the band was originally known as Dragonslayer, after the 1981 movie of the same name, were denied by King, as he stated, “We never were; it’s a myth to this day.”

The band was invited to open for Bitch at the Woodstock Club in Los Angeles, performing eight songs — six being covers. While playing Iron Maiden’s “Phantom of the Opera” the band was spotted by Brian Slagel, a former music journalist who had, at the time, recently founded the label Metal Blade Records. Impressed with Slayer’s performance, Slagel met with the band backstage and asked them to record an original song, “Aggressive Perfector” (About this sound sample (help·info)), for his upcoming Metal Massacre III compilation. The band agreed and the song created underground “buzz”, which led to Slagel offering the band a recording contract with Metal Blade.

Show No Mercy, Haunting the Chapel and Hell Awaits (1983–1986)

Without a recording budget, the band was forced to self-finance its debut album. Combining the savings of Araya, who was employed as a respiratory therapist, and money borrowed from King’s father, the band entered the studio in November 1983. The album was rushed into release, hitting shelves three weeks after tracks were completed. Show No Mercy, released in December 1983 by Metal Blade Records, generated underground popularity for the band, and the group began its first national club tour in 1984 to promote the album traveling in Dave Lombardo’s Camaro towing a U-Haul trailer. The tour gave the band additional popularity; sales of Show No Mercy reached more than 20,000 in the US and another 20,000 worldwide.

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Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: Meliah Rage

Meliah Rage is an American power/thrash metal band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1987 by guitarist/songwriter Anthony Nichols. Meliah Rage (whose name was inspired the Meliah Indian tribe’s practice of taking opium before going into battle), was signed to Epic records in 1988. Characterized primarily by their thrash metal vibe married to more classical metal melodies, the band has released eight albums since their inception. Solitary Solitude, released in 1990, turned out to be Meliah Rage’s last Epic release; in 1992, they left the Sony-owned label. It was also in 1992 that Meliah Rage went through some lineup changes. Jesse Johnson and Stu Dowie left the band, replaced by two newcomers: bassist Keith Vogele and drummer Sully Erna, who spent 18 months in Meliah Rage before going on to become the lead singer of the well-known, Boston-based alternative metal band Godsmack. The band’s 2004 lineup united three original members—Nichols, Koury and Johnson—with drummer Barry Spillberg (ex-member of Wargasm) and new lead singer Paul Souza. Nichols had expressed interest in working with original lead singer Mike Munro again, but Munro declined the offer in order to spend more time with his family—and Souza ended up getting the gig. With that new lineup in place, Meliah Rage recorded their first album in eight years, Barely Human, which was released on Screaming Ferret Records in August 2004. The 2009 release “Masquerade,” featured the return of original singer Mike Munro. The band’s current 2011 lineup features Paul Souza back on vocals, Anthony Nichols and Jim Koury on guitars, Darren Lourie on bass, and Stu Dowie on drums.

Discography

Kill to Survive (1988, CBS/Epic Records)

Live Kill (1989, CBS/Epic Records)

Solitary Solitude (1990, CBS/Epic Records)

Death Valley Dream (1996, BSR/Locomotive Records)

Unfinished Business (2002, Screaming Ferret Wreckords; recorded 1992)

Barely Human (2004, Screaming Ferret Wreckords)

The Deep and Dreamless Sleep (2006, SFW/Universal Fontana)

Masquerade (2009, Metro Ctity Records/SFW)

Dead to the World (2011, Metal on Metal Records)

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Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: Xentrix

Xentrix were a British thrash metal band of the late 1980s/early 1990s hailing from Preston, Lancashire. Xentrix were one of the leading lights of the British Thrash movement. They had videos for their songs For Whose Advantage and their cover of Ray Parker, Jr’s Ghostbusters theme. They had regular air time on Headbangers Ball. Xentrix’s biggest show was at Wembley in 1991, opening for Slayer. Xentrix had never gained global notoriety, but had many underground performances with audiences of over 2000 to 5000 people, and still do to this day. In the For Whose Advantage tour they were touring with thrash metal band Sabbat. In the most of the shows they were playing as an opening band to Sabbat.

The Sweden Rock magazine said that songs like “For Whose Advantage” and “Questions” were Thrash metal classics.

Climbing the ladder and Shattered Existence

The band gained notoriety when its demo gained interest, and a 5 star rating from Kerrang magazine. Roadrunner Records then contacted the band asking them why they had not been sent a copy, and arranged an audition with the band. After the audition to band was signed to the label and recorded their first album Shattered Existence in the summer of 1989 and toured with Sabbat to support the album.

For Whose Advantage

In 1990 the band faced a small bit of controversy/publicity surrounding the release of their cover of Ray Parker, Jr.’s Ghostbusters theme, in which the original artwork for the single had an unauthorized use of the Ghostbusters logo (with the ghost flicking a V Sign). The single was subsequently re-released using a different cover. The track was originally recorded for the BBC Radio One Friday Rock Show along with several others which remain unreleased. The band also reached new heights when they opened for Bay Area Thrash metal band Testament. Later that year they recorded their second album For Whose Advantage which gained them yet more interest and their first music video for the album’s title track.

Dilute to Taste

In 1991 the band released the Dilute to Taste EP which had two new tracks from the band as well as a live album. The rest of 1991 saw Xentrix headlining a United Kingdom tour, taking out the new band Skyclad and a return to Hammersmith, this time opening for Brazilian Thrash metal band Sepultura.

Kin and decline

In 1992 the band decided to take a different direction with their album Kin, adopting a more progressive style with their music, which was considered by many to be the band’s biggest mistake. A music video was filmed for the album’s opening track “Order of Chaos” and received some airplay on MTV, the band would later release an EP of the same name. After a European tour supporting German band Tankard, the band returned to the United Kingdom to play what would be their final tour with Chris at the helm.

Astley’s departure and Scourge

Chris Astley finally left the band after recording a demo of a number of new songs, some of which ended up on Scourge, released in 1996. The band then reformed after a period of inactivity with a new vocalist, Simon Gordon, and guitarist, Andy Rudd. This line up released 1996′s Scourge only before disbanding due to lack of interest from the United Kingdom’s then dwindling metal scene.

2006 Reunion and end

The band briefly reformed with its classic line-up for a small number of dates in the UK in the early part of 2006. One of these shows included support from Onslaught and Evile. In September 2006 it was announced that the band was splitting up with no intention of reforming in the future.

Final line-up

Chris Astley – guitar/vocals, 1985–1994, 2006

Kristian Havard – guitars, 1985–1997, 2006

Paul MacKenzie – bass, 1985–1997, 2006

Dennis Gasser – drums, 1985–1997, 2006

Former members

Dacaw Hough – vocals, 1985

Sean Owens – vocals, 1985

John Brennan – drums,1985

Dave Catchpole – drums, 1986

Peter Hiller – bass, 1985

Steve Hodgson – bass, 1986–1987

Mel Gasser – bass, 1987

Simon Gordon– vocals, 1995–1997

Andy Rudd – guitars, 1995–1997

Carl Arnfield – keyboards, 1992

Discography

Shattered Existence – 1989

Ghostbusters (Single) – 1990

For Whose Advantage? – 1990

Dilute to Taste (EP) – 1991

Kin – 1992

The Order of Chaos (single) – 1992

Demo -1994

Scourge – 1996

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Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: PANTERA (pt. 9)

Despite being a by-the-book Glam Metal band early in their career, the band members perceive themselves to have had an uncompromising career in which they never “sold out” or gave into trends. This is most noticeably highlighted in the themes and title of The Great Southern Trendkill. On Pantera’s official website, Anselmo puts it in his own words:

We’ve survived every f**king trend—alternative metal, “grunge metal”, funk metal, rap metal—and we’re still here. We put everyone on notice that we don’t fuck around. Our fans know we’re true right down to the fucking core.

Similarly, the die-hard attitude of “We’ll Grind That Axe For a Long Time” (from Reinventing the Steel) is, according to Anselmo, “in a way, our motto.”

Aside from their post-glam thrash metal influences, the band members cite heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath as one of their favorite bands. As a tribute, Pantera has recorded three different covers of Black Sabbath songs (all from the Ozzy Osbourne era). The first was “Planet Caravan”, a slower, quieter song planned for the first Sabbath tribute album, Nativity in Black, that eventually became the final track on Far Beyond Driven. The band performed Sabbath’s “Electric Funeral” on the second Nativity in Black. A previously unreleased cover of Sabbath’s “Hole in the Sky” was included on the band’s 2003 compilation album, The Best of Pantera: Far Beyond the Great Southern Cowboys’ Vulgar Hits! Pantera’s affinity for Black Sabbath is also shown through the lyrics, “Your trust is in whiskey and weed and Black Sabbath”, in “Goddamn Electric”. The same song also mentions Slayer, one of the band’s thrash metal influences. Pantera’s musical style was also heavily influenced by the bands of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal such as Motörhead, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Venom.[6]

Pantera has come under some criticism within the fringes of the heavy metal world in relation to New Orleans thrash metal band Exhorder. Some fans[who?] have accused Pantera of stealing from Exhorder their groove metal sound. While Pantera’s style change on Cowboys from Hell was released before Exhorder’s debut, Slaughter in the Vatican, Exhorder self-released two demos in the late 1980s (around the time that Pantera was still playing glam metal) that a number of fans believe to be the real birth of the musical style Pantera invented.

Allmusic points to several elements of Exhorder’s debut that could potentially explain its lack of success in relation to Pantera. In disagreement with the opinion that Exhorder is “Pantera minus the good songs”, AMG’s review of Slaughter in the Vatican expresses that “perhaps a more accurate billing would be to call them Pantera without the major label backing.” They also point to the fact that the title of Exhorder’s debut, along with the unsubtle album cover, “certainly didn’t help [its] cause any.”[31]

However, some fans and critics dispute any notion that Pantera “stole” Exhorder’s sound. Brian Davis, a contributor to Internet radio station KNAC, addresses the issue as follows:

Exhorder’s main “claim to fame” is the common opinion that they’re the band that Pantera stole their sound from. That’s total bullshit. There are minor similarities in guitar style, and on occasion, vocalist Kyle Thomas spits out a line or scream that will bring Pantera to mind, but to go so far as to say that Pantera is an Exhorder clone is ludicrous.

Despite originally decrying Pantera as a rip-off to their sound, lead vocalist of Exhorder, Kyle Thomas, has stated that he does not care about any of the criticism and is sick of seeing Exhorder’s name tied to Pantera’s. He also stated that he and the members of Pantera were great friends who used to tour together, and that he mourns the loss of Dimebag Darrell.[33][34] Recently[when?], Thomas suggested that while it is possible Pantera may have been influenced by his band, the members of Pantera “work[ed] a … lot harder than [we] did.”

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Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: PANTERA (pt. 8)

On May 11, 2006, the VH1 Behind the Music episode on Pantera premiered. While focusing heavily on Darrell’s murder and burial, the episode also detailed the band’s glam metal beginnings, the band’s perceived rise in its own popularity after the change in musical direction, and the conflicts between Anselmo and the Abbott brothers in the band’s later years that would tear them apart.

When asked by Crave Music in 2006 if there was any chance of reconciling with Phil Anselmo, Vinnie Paul answered “Absolutely not. That’s it.”[25] The former Pantera drummer has since begun work on Hellyeah, a collaboration between him and members from Mudvayne and Nothingface. Both Anselmo and Brown have reunited with Down, and supported Heaven & Hell and Megadeth on their 2007 Canadian tour, as well as supporting Metallica on the first half of their World Magnetic Tour. In interviews in 2009 & 2010, both Rita Haney & Phil Anselmo have stated that after a meeting at Download 2009 they have patched up their differences and are once again on speaking terms.

On March 30, 2010, Pantera released a greatest-hits collection, titled “1990-2000: A Decade of Domination”. It was made available exclusively at Walmart stores and is made up of 10 tracks that were remastered.[26]

Legacy and influences

Pantera have been influential to the development of nu metal, metalcore, and several other movements.[27] They have also been called one of the pioneers of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal.[28] Popmatters has claimed that, “Darrell Abbott’s influence on the entire genre of heavy metal is massive; after Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display of Power, every notable young American metal band since has, in some way or another, copied their guitar style from those records: Tool, Korn, Deftones, Killswitch Engage, Limp Bizkit, Disturbed, White Zombie, Slipknot, Trivium, As I Lay Dying, Job for a Cowboy, Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet for My Valentine, A Day to Remember, Hatebreed, Lamb of God, Shadows Fall, Mastodon, The Showdown, Evile, James Durbin, DevilDriver, Five Finger Death Punch… the list is endless.”[29]

Pantera toured on Ozzfest as main stage acts twice; the band played at the second annual Ozzfest in 1997 and the fifth Ozzfest in 2000. Over the course of their career, Pantera’s members became known for their excessive partying and debauchery, even acquiring an official drink called the “Black Tooth Grin”. The “Black Tooth Grin” (“Black Tooth”, “The Grin”, or “BTG”, alternatively), named after lyrics from Megadeth’s “Sweating Bullets”, is a mixture of Crown Royal or Seagram 7 whisky (or both) and Coca-Cola.

Pantera also adopted a self-described “take no shit” attitude, epitomized in its song “5 Minutes Alone” from the album Far Beyond Driven. According to Vinnie Paul, the song originated when, during a show in San Diego, California, Anselmo was annoyed by a heckler and encouraged the crowd to “jump [his] ass and beat the shit out of him on the spot.” Consequently, the band was sued; the man’s father took action and called Pantera’s manager, saying, “You just give me five minutes alone with that Phil Anselmo guy and I’ll show him who’s big daddy around here”, to which Anselmo responded, “You just give me five minutes alone with that cat’s dad and I’ll whoop his ass.”[5]

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Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: PANTERA (pt. 7)

The Abbott brothers officially broke up Pantera in 2003, also the year when their “Best Of” compilation album was released (on September 23), when the Abbott brothers concluded that Anselmo had abandoned Pantera and would not return. The break-up of the band was not amicable and subsequently a war of words was waged between the former bandmates via the heavy metal and musical press. The Abbott brothers and Pantera crew members claimed that they tried numerous times to contact Anselmo over the phone to reorganize Pantera, but Anselmo maintains that they never called him. Caught up in the torrent was Rex Brown, who later said “It was a bunch of he said, she said nonsense that was going on, and I wasn’t going to get in the middle of it.”[3] Anselmo’s comment in a 2004 issue of Metal Hammer magazine saying that “Dimebag deserves to be beaten severely” typified Pantera’s internal conflicts; Anselmo insists that this comment was tongue-in-cheek, and he was angered his comment ended up on the cover of the “god damn” magazine.[3] This explanation was soon dismissed by Vinnie Paul, who said shortly after the 2004 murder of his brother that he had personally listened to the audio files of the interview and that Anselmo had not been misquoted or misrepresented, but said the exact words which appeared in the article.[3]

In July 2004, Vulgar Display of Power went double-platinum, and The Great Southern Trendkill went platinum the next month.[17]

Damageplan and Darrell’s murder (2004)

After Pantera’s breakup, Darrell and Vinnie formed a new band, Damageplan, with vocalist Pat Lachman and bassist Bob Zilla. The group released their first album, New Found Power, in February of 2004. The album was a commercial success; over 44,000 copies were sold in its first week alone and within a year over 100,000 copies were sold. However, some fans felt that Damageplan’s material did not measure up to that of Pantera.[3]

Tragedy struck on December 8, 2004. Damageplan was performing in support of their album at a show at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio when, less than a minute into the first song of their set, mentally unstable Nathan Gale, 25, went onstage and shot and killed Darrell. Gale also killed fan Nathan Bray, 23, club employee Erin Halk, 29, and Pantera security official Jeff “Mayhem” Thompson, 40, and injured longtime Pantera and Damageplan drum technician John “Kat” Brooks and Damageplan tour manager Chris Paluska before being shot dead by Columbus police officer James Niggemayer.[22]

Aftermath (2004-present)

When Anselmo called in the aftermath of the murders, Rita Haney, Darrell’s girlfriend, answered one of Anselmo’s calls and said she would “blow Anselmo’s head off” if he attended Darrell’s funeral.[3] Dimebag himself was interred with his guitar, acquired from Eddie Van Halen, not long after. Not long after Dimebag’s murder, Anselmo received a heated message from Vinnie, which (according to Anselmo) went along the lines that Anselmo’s day was coming. Anselmo’s rebuttal was that everybody’s day is coming and that if his day should end before Vinnie’s it would not change anything, except for Vinnie to go through ‘losing another brother’. Public comments made by Phil Anselmo following the shooting suggested that he had considered reuniting with the band prior to Darrell’s death.[23] However, one year after the murder Vinnie stated in an interview that this reunion was never going to happen.[24]

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Oldschool Thrash Metal Bands: PANTERA (pt. 6)

Around this time, Anselmo ventured into more side projects, such as playing guitars on Necrophagia’s 1999 release Holocausto de la Morte, where he went as the alias “Anton Crowley”, which combines the names of Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey and occultist Aleister Crowley. He also temporarily joined the black metal supergroup Eibon and contributed to that band’s 2000 release. Another one of Anselmo’s “Anton Crowley” projects was black metal band Viking Crown. The Abbott brothers and Rex Brown began their own country metal crossover project, Rebel Meets Rebel with David Allan Coe, around the same time.

Fans of the NHL’s Dallas Stars were treated to a raucous fight song penned by Pantera and dedicated to their favorite hockey team during the Stars 1999 Stanley Cup Championship run. Throughout the season members of the team befriended members of Pantera. During a Stanley Cup party hosted by drummer Vinnie Paul, the Stanley Cup was damaged when Guy Carbonneau attempted to throw the Cup from the roof of Vinnie Paul’s house into his pool. The Cup landed short on the concrete deck and had to be repaired by NHL commissioned silversmiths.

Reinventing the Steel and break-up (2000–2003)

Pantera returned to the recording studio with Anselmo in 1999 and cut its last album, Reinventing the Steel, which was released on March 21, 2000. Steel debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200[2] and included “Revolution Is My Name” and “Goddamn Electric”, the latter of which featured a Kerry King outro solo recorded backstage in one take during Ozzfest in Dallas. “Revolution Is My Name” became the band’s fourth nomination for Best Metal Performance in the 2001 Grammys.

In 2000, Pantera played on the mainstage of Ozzfest alongside Ozzy Osbourne, Godsmack, Static-X, Methods of Mayhem, Incubus, P.O.D., Black Label Society, Queens of the Stone Age, and Apartment 26. In November the band cancelled their planned tour after Anselmo broke his ribs after falling during his eighth annual House of Shock event.[19]

The band once again returned to touring and visited the United States (where they were guest musicians on the show SpongeBob SquarePants in the episode “Pre-Hibernation Week”), Canada, South Korea, Australia, and Europe. The tour in Europe was cut short, however, by the September 11, 2001 attacks which left the band stranded in Dublin, Ireland for 6 days as a result of all flights being cancelled. Pantera played their last show in Yokohama, Japan at the ‘Beast Feast’ festival on 28th August 2001. This would be the last time the members of Pantera performed together. Back home, the band planned to release its fourth home video in Summer 2002 and record another studio album later that year, but neither came about.[20]

Anselmo again engaged in numerous side projects. In March 2002, Down released its second studio album, Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow, which featured Rex Brown on bass following Todd Strange’s departure in 1999. Brown remained Down’s full-time bassist until 2011, having appeared on their subsequent release in 2007. Also, in May of that year Anselmo’s Superjoint Ritual released its debut, Use Once and Destroy. Vinnie Paul claims that Anselmo told him he would take a year off following the events of September 11, 2001 attacks, but Anselmo’s touring and record output for both Superjoint Ritual and Down contradicted this. The Abbott brothers were frustrated, and held out for a time, assuming Anselmo would return. However, according to Anselmo, taking a break from Pantera was a “mutual thing” between each of the band members.[21]

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