If you saw the 1987 cult classic film River’s Edge — a harrowing drama about a high school stoner who kills his girlfriend, starring Dennis Hopper and a cast of then-unknowns including Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye and Crispin Glover — you might remember the breakneck, blistering and brutal heavy-metal soundtrack as much the engaging story line.
That movie was my first exposure to the thrash-metal band from California called Slayer, whose songs “Captor of Sin,” “Tormentor,” “Evil Has No Boundaries” and “Die by the Sword” were featured in the film.
Say it with me: Slayer.
The word even sounds sinister. Today, Slayer still lives up to its name, its song titles and its reputation as one of metal’s most controversial yet influential bands. It built a loyal and fervent fan base that defies demographics, doesn’t give a damn about musical trends and sometimes still dresses like it’s 1985 in high-tops, ripped jeans and denim jackets covered in band-logo patches.
Last fall, Slayer released its 12th studio album, Repentless, which debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold a band-high 50,000 copies its first week. The following week, Repentless was the No. 2-selling album in the world, and Guitar World magazine proclaimed it “the metal album of the year.”
Slayer is celebrating 35 years in 2016 by headlining a highly anticipated tour with two other veteran bands, Testament (founded in 1983) and Carcass (founded in 1985). This trio of thrash/death metal titans will invade the Orpheum Theater on March 9.
“The reason for the fan loyalty is that it’s obvious we all love doing what we do. It’s genuine,” says Slayer’s Gary Holt. The founding guitarist of the California thrash band Exodus, he replaced Slayer’s original guitarist and songwriter Jeff Hanneman under circumstances that sound like a Slayer song: Hanneman contracted a flesh-eating virus from a spider bite in 2011 and died from alcohol-related cirrhosis in 2013.
“Trends come and go, but heavy metal is here to stay — even though it’s been declared dead many times,” Holt continues, rattling off a list of gutted genres that include disco, grunge and rap-metal. “We’re still here, and a lot of those other bands aren’t.”
Contrary to what mainstream critics claim, heavy metal music is some of the purest and most complex you’ll ever hear. For proof, just listen to Kirk Hammett’s guitar solos on Metallica’s “Creeping Death” and “One.”
Heavy metal music also is in the midst of renaissance, powered by old-school bands that not only are touring but also putting out new music.
Since last August, such stalwarts as Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Saxon and Danzig have released new albums, and Metal Church and Judas Priest will drop new or live releases this spring.
Of the so-called Big Four thrash-metal bands — Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax — only Metallica has not released an album of new material in the past six months. But deluxe reissues of Metallica’s groundbreaking Kill ’Em All (1983) and Ride the Lightning (1984) are on the way. Metallica also recently was named 2016 Record Store Day Ambassadors and on April 16 will release Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, Metallica!: Live at Le Bataclan, recorded in 2003. Proceeds will benefit the Give for France charity for victims of the November 2015 terror attacks at the Bataclan concert hall and other locations in Paris.
As a longtime headbanger, I’m all too familiar with the stereotypes that plague heavy metal and its fans: Metal is music for society’s lowest common denominator, detractors say. Metal fans are prone to angry outbursts and violence, and they’re nothing more than misfits who wear leather and chains and never seem to cut their hair. (When I told Holt I don’t look like a metalhead, he accused me of perpetuating a stereotype. Touché, dude.)
As VH-1 once proclaimed, “heavy metal lies in your heart, not in your outward appearance.”
Mocking metal is easy when you don’t bother to look past an individual’s appearance, question the reasons why you find a particular album cover offensive or fail to realize that a song called “Chasing Death” is about the tragic effects of alcoholism because you didn’t take time to truly hear the lyrics.
But here’s the thing: Many metal bands (not all, I admit) use graphic imagery and explosive words to make political, religious or social statements that, on the surface, appear vulgar, blasphemous or borderline criminal. In reality, they’re conveying compelling ideas that force listeners to consider alternate perspectives. Slayer’s founding guitarist and chief songwriter Kerry King told Metal Hammer magazine last year that his band is neither sacrilegious nor satanic.
“I’m an atheist,” he said. “I don’t care what you believe in, as long as you’re open to listening to what I have to say. Everybody should be able to make up their own mind about whatever they want to do or believe. Perspectives are valuable whether they’re mine or not.”
Anthrax’s new album, For All Kings, dropped Feb. 26. The video for its lead single (yes, single!) “Evil Twin” features blurred images of religious and political leaders juxtaposed with those of violence and tragedy to go along with lyrics referencing “insolence,” “atrocity” and “repulsion.”
The message of the song isn’t to promote hatred, guitarist Scott Ian told Rolling Stone. “Let’s forget for a moment the history of radical extremism and why we live in a world where it exists and just think about now,” Ian said. “That’s what ‘Evil Twin’ is about. It’s my relationship to the violence perpetrated by radical extremists. It’s my anger towards it, and it’s my hatred towards the inability to stop it.”
Despite the often serious tone of heavy metal’s message and the extremeness of its delivery, Holt — who is 51 years old and suffers from back problems — has no intention of stopping. Heavy metal is about “having fun, never selling out, sticking to our guns and staying musically honest,” he says. “Fifty years from now, people will still be rocking the Motörhead patches.”
