gary holt

Tag.

Slayer releases title track of Repentless

After “When The Stillness Comes” and “Implode,” Slayer has just released the title track of their new album ‘Repentless’. This is the song that Kerry King called their “Hannam-anthem” in tribute to late guitarist, Jeff Hanneman.

Watch here:

The track is very typically Slayer, and definitely sounds like it has the Hanneman touch. The first two songs they previewed from the new album didn’t get very good reviews. What do you think of this one? Share your opinions in the comment section below.

Slayer’s brand new, eleventh studio album- ‘Repentless’ comes out this September 11th via Nuclear Blast Records.
Place the order for your copy here.

Exit Lombardo, enter Bostaph

Thrash titans Slayer have just announced that their previous drummer, Paul Bostaph has re-joined the band, full-time. This means that Dave Lombardo has been asked to leave the band for good just a week after they paid tribute to Jeff Hanneman at a memorial.

The band has released this statement on their official Facebook page:

SLAYER WELCOMES PAUL BOSTAPH BACK TO THE FOLD. Slayer’s Tom Araya and Kerry King are very pleased to announce that Paul Bostaph has rejoined the band on a full-time basis.  Bostaph will be behind the drum kit beginning June 4 when Slayer kicks off the first leg of its 2013 international tour in Warsaw, Poland.  Gary Holt will continue to fill in for fallen guitarist Jeff Hanneman. Slayer’s 2013 …itinerary will have them playing 35 dates that will include headline shows as well as a number of major summer festivals in Europe, Eastern Europe and South America between June and October.  The complete itinerary is below. “Paul’s a great drummer and a good friend, and we’re very happy that he’s decided to rejoin the band,” said Tom Araya.  “We’re still pretty numb from the loss of Jeff, but we don’t want to disappoint our European fans, and we need to begin moving forward…having Paul back in the band makes that a whole lot easier.” “I’m very excited to be rejoining Slayer,” added Bostaph.  “We spent a very intense ten years of our lives together, had a lot of fun, made a lot of great music, so for me,  this feels like coming home.” Bostaph was Slayer’s drummer from 1992 until 2001 and recorded four albums with the band – the Gold certified Divine Intervention (1994), the 1996 punk covers album Undisputed Attitude, Diabolus in Musica, (1998), God Hates us All (2001) that received a Grammy nomination for “Best Metal Performance,”  as well as the DVD War at the Warfield (2001), also certified Gold.  In addition to Slayer, Bostaph has been a member of Forbidden, Exodus, Systematic and Testament.

Araya hospitalized in Australia


Slayer frontman Tom Araya was hospitalized just before their show in Soundwave Festival in Sydney. The reason was supposedly a severe ear infection, which led them to cancel their slot at the festival. This isn’t the first time the legendary Slayer frontman has had a set back, as he underwent a back surgery in early 2010 which caused Slayer to stop touring for a while. Also, this is not the only medical issue for Slayer at the moment, as Jeff Hanneman is recovering from a surgery on his right arm. Jeff is currently replaced by Exodus guitarist Gary Holt.

EXODUS’ guitarist Gary Holt recruited by SLAYER

Slayer have recruited Gary Holt, the guitarist of Bay Area thrash metal band as  a temporary replacement for Jeff Hanneman, who’s underwent emergency surgery after contracting necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh eating bacteria on his skin. Holt will join Tom Araya, Kerry King and Dave Lombardo at the Soundwave festival that begins this February in Australia.

“Jeff is our brother, we’ve all been friends and together as a band for almost 30 years,” said Araya, “so we just want him to completely recover as soon as possible.”

“After everything that happened last year,” King added, “we all agreed that we just can’t let our fans down again,” referring to Araya’s severe back and neck pain that prompted his January 2010 surgery, unfortunately leading to the band’s postponement or cancellation of numerous shows in 2009 and 2010. “Jeff is totally on board with this decision, so we will tour as planned. At this point, we can’t pinpoint exactly what day he’ll be back, but he’ll be back as soon as he possibly can. And we can’t wait for Jeff to get better and get his ass back on the road.”

We at Headbangers India wish the best to Jeff Hanneman and hope he recovers soon, as well as a successful tour for Gary Holt with Slayer!