Raining Blood's official video
Of course, getting to know these guys over the years, I know Hanneman was into a lot of the punk stuff, and that’s where the speed and all that shit came from. But Slayer was one of those groups that bridged the gap. Even back in the day when there was such a big divide between the musical scenes, punk rock kids would see Slayer, metalheads would see Slayer, hardcore kids would see Slayer. It’s fucking Slayer. Slayer is a noun, it’s a verb, it’s an adjective. They’re more than just a band!
But that first Slayer show I saw was probably the worst Slayer show I saw. Because the Mosque is a very nice venue for like, the Nutcracker Ballet at Christmas, so it was 100% seated. There wasn’t even a little pit area up front. And the security is walking through telling people to stay in their seats, y’know, not to be too raucous -- and of course a bunch of seats got broken that night, and a bunch of people got thrown out.
Testament opened up (who’s also out on this tour with us), and I was like, ‘This is crazy -- why does that dude have half a mic stand?’ And then Slayer came out, and I do remember their light show. I was really impressed because coming from like, just seeing punk rock bands and basement shows, nobody gives a fuck about lights, you know?
I’m pretty sure I didn’t see Slayer again until July of 2003, when they took us to London to play two sold out nights at the Astoria, a historic venue that no longer exists. This was a very impactful thing on me, as a musician, and on my band. People always ask, ‘What were some of these magic moments you’ve had on stage?’ The first was playing at CBGB for the first time; the second was Slayer taking us out of the country for the first time. (Canada doesn’t count.)
It was just us and Slayer. Slayer played the entirety of Reign In Blood both nights. And people knew the words to our songs, they were goin’ off! And I remember very distinctly seeing off-stage right, there’s Kerry King with a bottle of Jagermeister. He gave me a shot later, and I was like, on stage, going ‘I’m in England, with Slayer...I’m getting paid to do this...and people know our music.’ And that was a moment where I thought, ‘Okay, maybe this could turn into a career.’ I still had to come home and work a day job after that -- working in the restaurant business, or construction. But that moment on stage was very impactful for me.
Slayer’s music has also impacted our band. If there’s a modern metal band out there playing today that says they weren’t influenced by Slayer, they’re either really young and completely unaware of the history of this music…or they’re just fucking lying. Slayer has influenced everyone. Everyone. When we write music, you’ll see on the dry erase board, it’ll be like ‘Fast part / Breakdown / Slayer riff / blah blah blah.’ Almost all bands do that.