Slayer guitarist and songwriter Jeff Hanneman passed away on Thursday leaving one of the biggest holes in the metal community since the loss of Pantera’s Darrell Abbott. Interestingly, Thursday also saw a partial reunion of Pantera, when vocalist Phil Anselmo and bass player Rex Brown joined Anthrax at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards to perform the Pantera classic, “This Love”.
This is a pretty big deal for Pantera fans holding out for a reunion, which appears highly unlikely as long as Anselmo and Vinnie Paul (Pantera drummer and Darrell’s brother) aren’t talking. At least it was something.
The performance was dedicated to Hanneman, and once “This Love” concluded, they launched into Slayer’s “Raining Blood”.
To my knowledge Google never has, and probably never will honor Slayer with a doodle, unfortunately. That doesn’t mean Google doesn’t appreciate Slayer, as we’ve seen.
Luckily, someone has imagined what a Slayer-inspired Google doodle might look like. The image was made to honor “Slayer Day,” which has been proclaimed by some to be June 6th. You know, 6/6. It made more sense in 2006.
Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman passed away on Thursday at the age of 49. Fans around the web are expressing their grief, sharing memories, and of course, listening to Slayer.
With that, it seemed like a fine time to reflect on this ad Google released last October for Chromebooks, which makes use of Slayer’s “Raining Blood”.
The ad was obviously Halloween-themed, and says: “For little devils. For scaring off viruses. For spooky-fast startup. For undead battery. For horror movie marathons. For no fear of crashes. For no phantom files. For no software nightmares. For a fun size. For no haunting hassles. The $249 laptop from Google. For everyone.”
Probably not what the band had in mind when they wrote the song, but it shows just how far Slayer’s influence really does go.
Jeff Hanneman, one of two guitarists for the legendary heavy metal band Slayer, has died of liver failure. He was 49. The above image currently appears on the band’s official site, where they shared the following statement:
Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11AM this morning near his Southern California home. Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure. He is survived by his wife Kathy, his sister Kathy and his brothers Michael and Larry, and will be sorely missed.
A couple years back, Hanneman began suffering from a skin disease called necrotizing fasciitis (which ironically sounds like it could have been the name of a Slayer song). This was believed to have stemmed from a spider bite. Guitar World shares a statement that band made in 2011:
“As you know, Jeff was bitten by a spider more than a year ago, but what you may not have known was that for a couple of days after he went to the ER, things were touch-and-go. There was talk that he might have to have his arm amputated, and we didn’t know if he was going to pull through at all. He was in a medically-induced coma for a few days and had several operations to remove the dead and dying tissue from his arm. So, understand, he was in really, really bad shape. It’s been about a year since he got out of the hospital, and since then, he had to learn to walk again, he’s had several painful skin grafts, he’s been in rehab doing exercises to regain the strength in his arm; but best of all, he’s been playing guitar.”
In February, bandmate Kerry King had reportedly indicated that Hanneman’s health was still an issue, though it’s not entirely clear at this point whether the liver failure is directly related to the illness described.
Hanneman was a founding member of Slayer. In fact, the band was formed in 1981 when Hanneman and King met while trying out for another band, and ultimately just decided to start their own. Slayer would go on to become one of the most influential bands in the history of the heavy metal genre. I think it’s safe to say that no other band, apart from possibly Metallica has had as much influence on modern day metal.
Slayer may not have achieved the mainstream success that Metallica has, but in the metal world, they’re just as big. Slayer did not produce songs that catered to radio play as Metallica did. This is about as close as they came to radio-friendly (keep in mind, they came up in the era before the Internet and satellite radio):
Slayer’s songs almost always took on life’s darker realities (and occasionally non-realities). Their “softer” songs tended to be about real-life serial killers. They didn’t have “Whiskey in the Jar” covers or sports arena anthems like “Enter Sandman” to propel them up the charts.
Still, Slayer’s influence has been heavily felt in the genre, without question, but also across other genres. The band’s song “Angel of Death” was used as the basis for a Public Enemy song, for example:
King played on the Beastie Boys’ classic Licensed to Ill album. The band has also collaborated with Ice-T and Atari Teenage Riot (who also sampled the band’s “Dead Skin Mask” for another song).
Even Tori Amos took on “Raining Blood”:
Search “Slayer cover” on YouTube, and you’ll find an endless plethora of bands and individuals trying to emulate what the band and Hanneman have given the world.
I had the pleasure of meeting Hanneman (and the rest of the band) one time after a show about thirteen of fourteen years ago. They were all incredibly cool and friendly, ready to chit chat with complete strangers, as they must have been doing night after night on tour. I won’t pretend that my brief encounter with Hanneman was anything more than that, but it always struck me how a band like that who has such massive fame (at least among its target audience) was that friendly to its fans. Plenty of others (including those with much less fame) are not like that. I returned to the same venue to see them again a few years later.
There are no doubt countless others with similar, and probably more interesting tales to tell of meeting Hanneman at shows, but many of his peers in the music world also have fond memories of him. Here are a few tweets from fans and friends:
Tonight one less star will be shining and sadly, the stage got just a little bit darker. Jeff Hanneman 1964-2013.
