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A half-hour version of Slayer’s ‘Angel of Death’ celebrates 30 years of ‘Reign in Blood’
10.13.2016
09:46 am
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Reign in Blood, released on October 7, 1986, is the thrash album, and its first track “Angel of Death” is the Slayer song. The lyrics of “Angel of Death” concern the unspeakable deeds of the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, but I believe the real subject of the song is Tom Araya’s opening scream: an announcement that the Lord of Misrule is back from summer vacation, “shred-ready,” and about to make some total posers eat his dust. A call to mayhem, its effect on a crowd is instantaneous. Dropping the needle on side one of Reign in Blood can transform your garden party from a summer idyll into a hellscape of exploding crockery, crushed sandwiches, and arterial geysers of tea toot sweet.

Having thrown this number into a few DJ sets at bars, I can tell you that patrons enjoy it a lot more than management does. Its signal to kill and destroy emboldens the laborer and frightens the capitalist. Maybe this is a distinctly Southern California phenomenon. In these parts, when one is behind the wheel of one’s Japanese sedan and “Angel of Death” comes out of the speakers, one simply knows to start shrieking, floor the accelerator, and close one’s eyes (or, I suppose, if you are a person of wealth, whimper, pull onto the shoulder, and call for help).

Thirty years is a long time to be conditioned. By now, reaction to this stimulus is involuntary and probably unconscious, too. I’m not sure what my own Pavlovian response would be if I were at a loved one’s funeral and “Angel of Death” came on, but I would not be surprised to find myself whacking my late friend’s body against a load-bearing wall when the music ended and the fog lifted.
 

 
In honor of the 30th anniversary of Reign in Blood, the musician and producer Andrew Liles has created a 30-minute version of this monster song. The original was only 4:52. A simple calculation will demonstrate that your new best friend Andrew Liles just made “Angel of Death” six times better for free. It’s the latest in what Liles calls an “ad hoc series of massive extensions of classic tracks.” Like his previous creations, “45 Minutes of Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath for 45 Years” and the Motörhead tribute “Overkill Overkilled by Overkill,” the extended “Angel of Death” is longer than the album on which it first appeared. I can’t help you interpret Liles’ main addition to the track, a female vocalist speaking in German. A non-Germanophone, I can only make out the part where she’s saying “Angel of Death” over and over; as far as I know, the rest of what she’s saying is as likely to come from Sing mit Heino as Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS.

Hear it after the jump…

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Posted by Oliver Hall
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10.13.2016
09:46 am
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Slayer’s Tom Araya belting Motley Crue, Priest, and Dio covers in 1983
01.11.2016
08:41 am
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Watch these sick videos of Slayer’s Tom Araya performing covers of Mötley Crüe, Scorpions, Judas Priest and Dio along with his brother John Araya on guitar.  Al Messi plays Bass and Jake Alvarado is on drums. Dimitri Galeos, the uploader of these clips, plays second guitar.

One of the clips dates these performances at November of 1983, which would have been a month before Slayer’s Show No Mercy dropped. Slayer themselves had included covers of bands like Priest and Iron Maiden in their sets, playing small clubs and parties around Southern California. 

It seems a bit odd, in retrospect, to see the singer of one of the quintessential American thrash bands performing songs that would be considered more “pop metal” by today’s standards. It should be noted that in the early ‘80s metal encompassed all of metal and metalheads often tended to embrace the full spectrum, much like punks in the early ‘80s tended to embrace anything under the banner “punk rock.” Once the mid ‘80s rolled around, you begin to see more splintering in both metal and punk scenes with offshoot genres springing up and fans gravitating toward their favored pigeon-holes. These clips represent a time of purity in the scene when basically anything went... as long as it was METAL (Insert falsetto wail here).

The videos, after the jump…

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Posted by Christopher Bickel
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01.11.2016
08:41 am
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Fan club memorabilia from Nirvana, The Cramps, Bowie, The Cure, Fugazi, Iggy, T.Rex & more
11.17.2015
09:04 am
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David Bowie fan club mailer
 
David Bowie fan club application
 
As a former fan club member of more old-school fan clubs than I care to mention (you know, the ones you used to have to MAIL away for), I thought many of you would dig revisiting the days when for a few dollars you could become a member of your favorite band’s fan club.
 
Slayer
Slayer “Slaytanic Wehrmacht” fan club application
 
The Cramps fan club mailer
The Cramps fan club application
 
Back in the day, most fan clubs would charge fifteen bucks or less for membership and you would get a bunch of cool swag from buttons and patches, to letters, exclusive magazines or “signed” photos of your idols. Some of you may even remember that members of The Plasmatics fan club (known as The Plasmatics Secret Service, pictured below) got their very own card with their name on it.
 
The Plasmatics Secret Service fan club membership card
The Plasmatics “Secret Service” fan club card
 
While I sadly missed out on that one (which included a list of “posers get lost” responsibilities on the back of the card which I still take very seriously anyway), I still have a small box full of my KISS Army gear as well as other fan club memorabilia that I’ll never part with. So without further delay, check out some of the sweet vintage fan club applications, mailers, letters and cards from the last few decades from The Cramps, Slayer, LA punks the Screamers and many more. They almost make me want to write to the old addresses just to see if anything comes back.
 
Screamers fan club application
Screamers fan club application
 
Hanoi Rocks fan club letter
Hanoi Rocks fan club letter
 
T-Rex fan club application
T.Rex fan club application
 
Many more after the jump…

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Posted by Cherrybomb
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11.17.2015
09:04 am
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Hell awaits, but a decade’s worth of Slayer fans are surprisingly beautiful
04.10.2015
09:30 am
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Photographer Sanna Charles has been capturing the wild joy of Slayer fans since 2003, and her new book, God Listens to Slayer, has such an enthusiastic, youthful feel about it—which is not as as counterintuitive as it may seem. For any other band of nearly 35 years, this would be a late start. For Slayer however, there is always a fresh crop of teens reconstituting their fanbase with fresh, pubescent faces. Sanna describes her first time watching the fans explode at a show:

The show had been put back by three hours, it was baking hot, and they were now playing in a smaller tent instead of an outdoor stage. The tent was rammed and people were in there waiting for pretty much three hours solid. That buildup, and then watching them play, was amazing. The other photographers left the pit after three songs but I just stayed because I was so mesmerized by the crowd.

The pure release of anger and aggression by the fans felt so free. Everyone was packed into the tent, kind of like kittens in a pet shop trying to get out. Afterward I got about three portraits of people leaving, just as an afterthought, but when I got them back I really fell in love with one of the photos.

Sanna’s photos are more than sympathetic to her subjects; they’re celebratory, with an eye for the evergreen, joyous revelry that is a Slayer show. At the same time, describing them as “kittens” feels about right—no amount of pentagrams can hide those cherub cheeks.
 

 

 
More Slayer fans after the jump…

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Posted by Amber Frost
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04.10.2015
09:30 am
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Slayer’s public health warning
10.17.2014
11:33 am
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Close friends know that I’ve been in mourning since Slayer discontinued their signature line of rolling papers, but seeing this item in the webstore got me out of my black Slayer tee and into my faded black one in no time flat. I used to be in a Seasons in the Abyss mood, but today I’m blasting Show No Mercy. This handsome \m/ metal \m/ sign measures 12"x18”, retails for $15, and is a great way to let clients (prospective and actual) know where you’re coming from.

If I’m not very much mistaken, the idea for this awareness-raising sign came from the guerrilla sticker campaign of @CarveSlayer (see below), and not from OSHA. I rejoice that Slayer has given this message official sanction.
 

 
I don’t know why it isn’t mandatory to display this notice in every American workplace. It’s 2014, people, and this is the most cost-effective way of addressing the major public health issue of our time. My fellow Californians, let’s clean up our act and get this on the ballot in 2016. We Slayer fans are human beings too. #IAmASlayerFan

Posted by Oliver Hall
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10.17.2014
11:33 am
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Slayer, Pixies, Garbage, Insane Clown Posse and more, interviewed by 7th graders


 
Interviews with musicians can be really, really boring. It’s not a defect of the artists or the interviewers, it’s just that their content is so damned predictable because the occasion for an interview is the same most of the time—a new release and/or a tour. The newest album is always “the best we’ve done yet,” and everyone’s invariably “really excited” for the upcoming tour. NO KIDDING. Artists tend to favor their newest work, and even when they know it pales, they’re often obligated by label and PR contracts to hump it for the media. Plus, artists spend all day on the phone with interviewers, repeatedly answering the same questions. That’s got to be a brain-meltingly tedious chore, so moments of refreshing insight can be rare. So I was delighted to get hipped to the untrammeled awesomeness of Kids Interview Bands.

Kids Interview Bands is a video interview series hosted by 7th graders Olivia and Connie.

The site launched in August 2012 and the girls have done over 100 interviews with touring bands passing through the Columbus, Ohio area including some of their favorites (Neon Trees, Imagine Dragons, Phillip Phillips, Walk the Moon, Tegan & Sara, Matt & Kim).

Both girls are active in sports and other activities that typical 7th graders enjoy. They aren’t sure if they want to make a living interviewing bands but they are having a lot of fun getting the chance to talk to all the great artists who have agreed to sit down and chat with them.

If you’re following music that’s Pitchforkishly trendy at the moment, you’ll already know a lot of the bands that Olivia and Connie have spoken with. But while there are a lot of here-today-gone-tomorrow festival circuit hopefuls to be found in the dozens upon dozens of video interviews the pair have posted, they’ve also landed some marquee names. There are some truly wonderful interviews in the bunch, where the musicians don’t merely humor the kids, but let their guard down and have fun along with them. For example, I’ve never been much of a Garbage fan, but I LOVE this:

 
Insane Clown Posse have become a great American cultural punching bag, and for good reason, but they’re natural, forthright and even a bit illuminating here. Shamefully, they blew a huge opportunity when they were asked what subject they should have given more attention in school—staying awake through science might have clued them in on FUCKING MAGNETS.
 

 
Some of the questions lobbed at Queens of the Stone Age are genuinely tough. I harbor serious doubts that if I were put on the spot I could pick a favorite Muppet.
 

 
Here’s the Pixies’ Joey Santiago, probably enjoying the hell out of the one interview in which he doesn’t have to talk about Indie Cindy.
 

 
Mastodon’s drummer Brann Dailor is kinda my new hero. He’s really great here. In two words: headbanging lessons.
 

 
All of these are terrific questions, are they not? I wish the kids had had the chance to ask Lou Reed stuff like this. (Or better still, G.G. Allin., though it probably would have been inadvisable to let 7th grade girls anywhere near him.) But here’s their big coup—the most virally popular of all the kids’ interviews, and justifiably so—a friendly chat with the mild-mannered, upbeat, and almost Santa Claus-ishly genial Tom Araya, lead singer of Slayer.
 

Posted by Ron Kretsch
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05.06.2014
10:11 am
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A 7-year-old’s drawings of classic rap albums


 
Via the fantastic So Bad So Good blog comes word of the talented lad Yung Lenox, who at age 7 is filling his Instagram account with his own re-creations of classic hip hop album art, with some punk and metal in the mix as well. Now, I’ve never known a kid who didn’t love to draw, but this kid shows some promise a bit beyond his years. He’s also admirably prolific, and enterprising to boot—he has an online store where he’s selling prints of his work. There’s little else I could add but to question whether he’s even allowed to listen to any of these, but since that does little to illuminate the actual work, let’s just have a look at the images.
 

Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
 

Ice Cube, Amerikkkas Most Wanted
 

Dr. Octagon, Dr Octagonecologyst
 

2Pac, All Eyez on Me
 

A Tribe Called Quest, The Low End Theory
 

Slayer, Live: Decade of Aggression
 

Minor Threat, Minor Threat
 

2 Live Crew, As Nasty As They Wanna Be

Posted by Ron Kretsch
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02.06.2014
09:12 am
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‘Reindeer in Blood’ SLAYER parody Christmas card
12.10.2013
11:43 am
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What better way to spread holiday cheer than with this “Reindeer Blood” Christmas card by UK-based artist Dominic Sohor. It’s a fun (and most evil) take on SLAYER’s 1986 “Reign In Blood” album cover.

They’re $2.80 per card at Red Bubble
 

 
Via Cherry Bombed

Posted by Tara McGinley
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12.10.2013
11:43 am
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Marvin Gaye meets SLAYER: ‘South Of The Grapevine’
12.05.2013
11:27 am
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Does this mashup of Marvin Gaye’s “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” meets SLAYER’s “South Of Heaven” work? Well, some parts do, IMO, but I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

More than anything, this video is an After Effects PhotoBucket-style work of art. I mean, Marvin Gaye is in flames. Marvin.Gaye.Is.In.Flames.
 

 
Via Cherrybombed

Posted by Tara McGinley
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12.05.2013
11:27 am
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Slayer graffiti confused as hate crime
08.20.2013
12:15 pm
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Photo by Amanda Lindner
 
Apparently if you spray paint the word “Slayer” along with a pentagram, it may be—at least momentarily—considered a hate crime.

Wicks Park, which is home to the Commack South Little League, was vandalized Tuesday night, police said.

One of the buildings on the town park property was marked with black graffiti.

Police were initially investigating the vandalism as a hate crime after a resident called in the incident, but officials then realized the markings, which included a pentagram, were symbols from the band, Slayer.

According to Cherrybombed, a thrash metal-lovin’ police officer had to set everyone straight and “correctly identified the graffiti as an illegal homage to the band Slayer.”

Via Commack Patch

Posted by Tara McGinley
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08.20.2013
12:15 pm
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Westboro Baptist Church may picket Slayer guitarist’s funeral


 
This is the only time I think one of the Westboro Baptist Church’s protests should be televised.

This should be interesting…
 
Via reddit

Posted by Tara McGinley
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05.06.2013
12:40 pm
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Reindeer In Blood: the Slayer Christmas sweater!
11.20.2012
06:18 pm
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image
 
No, this isn’t a joke. This is official Slayer merchandise, available from backstreet-merch.com, and a snip at only £49.99. It’s only available in the UK, mind you, but if you’re really really nice, Santa might be good to you.

 

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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11.20.2012
06:18 pm
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Slayer Kid
08.20.2012
11:52 am
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image
 
Over the weekend John Vantine snapped this photo of his girlfriend’s daughter writing the the Slayer logo in chalk on a sidewalk.

You can read the adorable backstory at Vantine’s blog
 
image
 
Via Nerdcore

 

 

Posted by Tara McGinley
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08.20.2012
11:52 am
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Happy Slayer Day!
06.06.2012
01:14 pm
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image
 
Apparently, International Day of Slayer 2012 is here!

On June 6th, Hessians worldwide come together to do something upon which we can all agree - listening to Slayer! Finally, one of the most dismissed cultural groups in the world has a holiday to call its own. Join us in our cause to stand unified in our celebration of metal music and let us prove to the rest of society that we too have a voice.

Here’s how you can celebrate according to the National Day of Slayer website:

  • Listen to Slayer at full blast in your car.

  • Listen to Slayer at full blast in your home.

  • Listen to Slayer at full blast at your place of employment.

  • Listen to Slayer at full blast in any public place you prefer.

Basically, everything you need to know about this holiday can be found here. Be forewarned though, you may wanna turn down (or maybe turn up?) your speakers before visiting.

Below, “Angel of Death” rendered in smooth rock stylings:
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
\m/ Slayer wine \m/
Slayer custom condoms

Posted by Tara McGinley
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06.06.2012
01:14 pm
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m/ Slayer wine m/
04.05.2012
05:01 pm
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image
 
Well, it’s only for sale in Sweden right now, but you can order Slayer’s new Reign In Blood—appropriately named after their 1986 record—Cabernet Sauvingnon here.

Previously on Dangerous Minds: 
Slayer: Angel of Death rendered in smooth rock stylings
 
Via Cherrybombed

Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.05.2012
05:01 pm
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