Oh, aye, sorry. It's just that I really like Lombardo And yeah, Bostaph's cool, but I find him to be at least a step behind the likes of the aforementioned Lombardo, or Hoglan, or Benante, to name a few.

Maybe it's a sign? But funny you should mention those two drummers. People around the interweb are wishing Lombardo joins Sabbath!

Check this:
https://twitter.com/profound_lore/statu ... 6003933184

I think that's bullshit.

Here's Hanneman, stepping up on stage after the spider bite in April 2011:



Does he look almost dead? If he could play then, he can play now, almost 2 years later.

The thing going on with Hanneman is pretty shady. We're hearing absolutely NOTHING from the guy. There are no interviews, no credible status report. Something Dave Lombardo said in his statement gives a hint:

I spent the Christmas and New Year holidays realizing I had toured all over the world in 2012, but yet, had not been paid (except a small advance) or provided a proper accounting for a full year’s sweat and blood. On top of this, I was told that I would not be paid until I signed a long form contract which gave me no written assurance of how much or on what basis management would deduct commissions, nor did it provide me access to the financial budgets or records for review. It also forbade me to do interviews or make statements having to do with the band, in effect a gagging order.

In effect, King and Araya tossed Hanneman to the side in order to get bigger cuts in Slayer. The guy is in a predicament, possibly in a dire financial situation and they've probably paid him some money in return for him to shut up and disappear for now. Kerry King has long ago figured out (since Lombardo's departure in the early 90s) that there was more money to be made by having lesser member in the band, at the expense of quality. Something he stopped caring about a long time ago.

It sucks, but bands like Slayer and Sabbath stopped being bands a long time ago and became businesses.

Eh, I had a spider bite a few years back just below my armpit on my side that wasn't properly treated at first and swelled up limiting how much I could use my arm for a little while. It's not inconceivable something similar happened to him on a worse scale. Also they did detail the incident a bit more last year: http://lambgoat.com/news/18252/Slayer-g ... -continues

Yeah, statements from "Kerry King Incorporated", a notorious asshole, do not constitute credible reports on Hanneman's current situation.

I don't doubt that Hanneman has faced real struggles. But it does look like he's been gagged and put aside. And this is totally consistent with the way Slayer has been doing business.

After what I have heard it was so bad that he actually had to have skin graft afterwards!

But, Dave has been ALWAYS butt fucked by Slayer! That's no news! In fact, I would add an AGAIN to the title of this thread.
P.S: Anyway, I don't give a shit about this band.

Huh, yeah I didn't notice it wasn't an update from Hanneman himself there, my mistake

If we're talking cool hypothetical scenarios, I wouldn't be disappointed to see him take up a permanent position in Testament - I'd presume Gene Hoglan is more or less the most busy drummer on the planet so it might benefit Testament's flexibility with regards to touring.

It really sucks how it just shows it isn't a band and is a business. I agree with everyone that has said that so far. I'd like to think it was still a group of friends making music but thats long gone.

Lombardo in Testament again would be kind of awesome.

And yeah, Gene very well might be the king of multitasking in music.

It is amazing to me all the years that I have been listening to, and involved with music money destroys a band. Dave had every right to voice a complaint if he wasn't getting paid, anda bad agreement was made that gave members of the band a bad deal. If what was said is true, Kerry is a complete scumbag, which those of us who have met him know anyway.

Hmm... Hoglan does drums for just about any band with a pulse, so I could see him stepping in for Slayer in the future.

What reason would Dave Lombardo have for making up that story? He get's nothing out of it except the fans awareness of how he's been treated.

Isn't he really good friends with Dave, anyway? I mean, he apparently held the kit together while Dave played on Haunting the Chapel, so I doubt he'd take the scab job.

The headlines sure have been getting dreary in the last year. Anthrax constantly having to switch out members on their recent tours, Overkill dropping off the Testament tour due to Blitz's health problems, Forbidden going on hold, and now this noise combined with Jeff and Tom's recent health problems. It's really making me start to wonder if we're starting to see the first wave of thrash come to a close...

This definitely does sound like a pretty shitty situation but part of me does wonder if people are jumping to conclusions too quickly. This change could easily be just for this particular tour and maybe they'll work things out once the dust gets settled. I just dread the idea of them doing an album without Jeff or Dave, even if Gary Holt would help with songwriting. That said, the thought of Lombardo going back to Testament is quite promising...

Well when you put it like that, I think you may be right. Anyhow, according to Blabbermouth (link: http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?m ... mID=186547 ), Jon Dette is taking over for the Australia dates. Never heard the guy so I can't comment on his ability. As for who the permanent drummer would be, I would LOVE to see Bostaph back but that might just be wishful thinking.

Is that so strange? I mean, they're all around 50 years old. Constant touring, drinking and partying will do that to you when you get older.

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?m ... mID=186563



A statement from Slayer on Lombardo being kicked off the tour.

I wonder if any critics who gave Slayer a bad review that were subsequently cut off from not only Slayer, but any other bands under their company feel vindicated by having their management exposed like this.

I don't think so but you never know, there wasn't too much bad blood after Paul left Slayer. He knows a lot of the songs so he'd be a good fit. This is the only article I could find with Kerry commenting on Paul after his departure from the band;

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?m ... temID=5235

Sure, they both wrote a lot of shitty filler material after the classic era. Only one of them composed 3/4 of the classics, though, and the name's Jeff Fucking Hanneman. The absolute top tracks officially penned by Kerry King alone are "Evil has no Boundaries" and the title track off of 'Show no Mercy', which are both fine tracks, but possibly the two least remarkable out of this masterpiece. Meanwhile, "Die by the Sword", "Fight Till Death", "Tormentor", "At Dawn They Sleep", "Hardening of the Arteries", "Angel of Death", "Raining Blood", Postmortem", "South of Heaven", "Dead Skin Mask", "Seasons in the Abyss"? All composed by Hanneman alone. Sure, a lot of songs' music is credited to "Hanneman, King", most of them in fact, but I've always suspected this was a half-assed Lennon/McCartney type of deal, if only one of them had composed the bulk of the co-penned material and the other one just cashed in on it while contributing a solo or maybe a riff here and there. When you have two composers in a band and one of the two single-handedly composed a majority of their classics and signature songs while the other's contributions include shitty filler like "Skeletons of Society" and "Expendable Youth" or, at best, generic fast thrashers with no real compositional skills required like "Praise of Death", "Piece by Piece" or the aforementioned opener and closer from SnM, it doesn't take a genius to figure out who was the James Hetfield and who was the Lars Ulrich in this songwriting "team" all along. Interestingly, the similarities are far from stopping there.

Which brings me to this: Slayer ceased to be relevant upon the release of 'Divine Intervention'. It ceased to be worthy of the Slayer name upon Hanneman's withdrawal from the active line-up. Firing Lombardo now may be a dick move, but it's not like there was anything good to expect from this company at this point.

I just wanted to chime in to say that I fully support everything that LegendMaker said.

PS: But I like Skeletons of Society and Expendable Youth.....

I'd rather Gene Hoglan stayed with Testament.

I'd like for Hanneman and Lombardo to team up, create a new band together and get some other old school thrash musicians on board.

If Hanneman isn't being fucked in some unholy contract he has signed, the guy has more draw than he probably imagines. And Dave Lombardo is a living legend who has wasted too much time in shitty projects outside of Slayer but can definitely draw as well. I'd take a duo of Hanneman/Lombardo over King/Araya any fucking day of the week. Plus they can add to the core and form a real band, unlike Araya and King who treat other band members like mere employees.

Legendmaker has it right! Lots of fans aren't fooled: Hanneman is responsible for some of the best metal songs ever released. This shit is legendary. Even if he is not who he used to be, I'll take him over King any day (who has an awful reputation across the board).

I'd look forward to a project featuring these two guys plus a few others... much more than the next Slayer at this point in time!

The difference is Jeff at least writes good shitty shit, while Kerry writes god fucking awful puke shitty shit. Diabolus, while terribly trendy and simplified in some cases, still had a fuck ton of nice riffs. GHUA was just plain garbage. And yes, if you do look at the credits for their albums, Jeff does write most of the good material on each of them. I was unaware that Jeff was still on leave due to his infection, I thought he had made a recovery by now. Hearing that there are only two original members left in slayer (at least playing live?) Is profoundly dumb. I was hoping Slayer would go out with a bang, or at least something above the standard that World Painted Blood set.

This sucks ass big time, this may be the demise of the original Slayer.

I like them too, much better than Dead Skin Mask. Never understood the hype for that snorefest. Ultraboris hit the nail right on the head with that one in his SITA review.

Expendable Youth is a fucking excellent song.

I like Jon Dette, so good for him. He's been around forever, and been on, what, two albums? One being a Testament live album, and the other being from that mexican band Terror. At least I think they were mexican; all the lyrics were spanish...

He's been on three recordings ever. Live at the Fillmore by Testament, the Terror demo by Evildead, and Hijos de los Cometas by Terror, although on the latter he didn't play on the whole thing.

Well, call me crazy, but I also like Dead Skin Mask. I find it to be a genuinely creepy song, with a nicely constant, crawling pace and a hair-raising ending. I can see how someone wouldn't like it, though.

I do like "Dead Skin Mask" and some of the slower, doomier side of the band but prefer the thrashers of course.

The problem is, as others have said, the band has ceased to be a band and has become a buisness. Sure, some bands start out this way from day one. But I think most bands, Slayer included, started out with a love and passion for playing music. But when it ceases to be a group of guys who love playing music and becomes a buisness, then the fun and passion go right out the door. And you can usually tell, when you hear material from a band when they have reached this stage, that there is an undefinable something missing compared to their earlier stuff. Another problem, as demonstrated here, is that it is no longer a group of friends united by their love of metal, but strictly a buisness relationship; buisness partners, clients and agents, bosses and employees. Some inter-band relationships evolve to the point where some members are "employees" and "bosses." Of course, Slayer is at that stage now, as this incident suggests. The point is, at this stage, the genuine passion is gone. Even if Dave was still in the band, I would not be that excited to see them play anymore, although I might still go if the tickets were cheap!

http://www.revolvermag.com/news/slayer- ... bardo.html

Slayer have released a statement about the news that they have parted with drummer Dave Lombardo, as reported earlier today.

“Slayer confirms that Jon Dette (Testament) will drum for the band on its Australian tour that starts this Saturday, February 23 in Brisbane. As regards Dave Lombardo’s Facebook post, Slayer does not agree with Mr. Lombardo’s substance or the timeline of the events, except to acknowledge that Mr. Lombardo came to the band less than a week before their scheduled departure for Australia to present an entirely new set of terms for his engagement that were contrary to those that had been previously agreed upon. The band was unable to reach an agreement on these new demands in the short amount of time available prior to leaving for Australia. There is more to the account than what Mr. Lombardo has offered, but out of respect to him, Slayer will not be commenting further. Slayer is grateful to its Australian fans for their understanding of this unfortunate last-minute change, and very much looks forward to seeing them at these shows.”

thanks, a little late with that soundbyte though. (see Subrick's post above)

Huh, I thought he did ALL the drums on the Terror album.
I didn't know he was on that demo though; good catch!

Slightly off topic, but this thread inspired me to finally get around to listening to some later Slayer, namely Diabolus in Musica. Now I am a sad boy.

See, at least with Metallica, despite their massive size and being a business because of said size, they still genuinely like each other and enjoy making music. They still seem like they're a band first rather than business first or purely, unlike Slayer who are the complete opposite of that.

Well yes and maybe no also. The difference with Metallica is that they're earning so much money from their past records and current touring and merchandising...like millions...that it would be sheer stupidity for anyone of them to throw it all away with internal fights and egos. Sure there would be altercations but sorted quickly. At the moment, they got good PR. So I'm not sure about your statement "they're a band first rather than business". It's more like they're sensible businessmen. For fuck's sake, their turd Black album still outsells (weekly sales) some of the new and upcoming albums on established labels like Metal Blade, Earache etc.

Slayer on the other hand is a smaller band (relatively) and so they squabble over such shit. And it sure doesn't help when you have idiots like Kerry King. Not sure if this has been posted here before but there was a video interview earlier where King said that he doesn't give a shit about Hanneman and also that he had more than enough material for the new Slayer record. Later, he tried to be diplomatic and said something along the lines of "Sure, Hanneman can contribute if he returned but he pretty much had all bases covered".

Hot Topic is hiring.

This guy. I knew he was a douchebag, but fuck...

Anyway, Dave has always been a solid guy in my opinion (the interviews I've watched/read of him, what I have heard from people etc.), not to forget his abilities as a drummer. Here's hoping he'll get active with other projects, maybe that Fantomas album some people have been hoping for already in this thread?

I wouldn't attend a Slayer gig without Hanneman AND Lombardo.

If Hoglan leaves Testament (which is very likely), I hope they pick up Dave (and Steve Di Giorgio if it's possible).



Nah, that's just Ulrich pushing everyone to keep up the business and Kirk crying for the constant fights between Lars and James. You can say they handle their problems in a more 'professional' way, trying to keep the band/business in one side and their feelings about themselves in other (although I remember when they were 'bullying' Jason constantly, when James used to got into the stage completely drunk and Lars was fighting with everyone). They still survived, yes, but not without controversy.