Slayer Fight Back Strong After the Loss of Hanneman
Published
Repentless
Slayer
After 6 years, Slayer have released their eleventh studio album, ‘Repentless’.
A lot has happened since ‘World Painted Blood’ was released back in 2009. After the passing of Jeff Hanneman in 2013, Slayer are looking uneasy and this album could have turned out a flop. However upon acquiring Gary Holt (Exodus) to fill in on guitar as a temporary placement for tours, he ended up becoming a part of the new album. In Kerry King’s eyes “he was the guy”. Another big change happened when founding drummer Dave Lombardo quit in 2013 allegedly over money concerns, and Paul Bostaph, who played on Slayer's '90s records, returned to replace him.
Without Hanneman to contribute, the writing of the songs was piled onto Kerry King. With all these changes there was bound to be some effect and ‘Repentless’ is not immune. Gary Holt is one hell of a guitarist but when paired with King it just doesn’t seem as dynamic, most of the guitar is coming from King. This album is missing the iconic back and forth chaotic speed that Hanneman and King fought with back in Slayers prime.
‘Repentless’ starts with “Delusions of Saviour”, a heavy intro without vocals which nicely sets up the album and flows perfectly to the next track on the album “Repentless”, the title track. King calls this his Hannemanthem, quoting: “I wrote it from my perspective about how Jeff looked at the world. And there’s some very Jeff lines in that song “I hate the life, hate the fame, hate the fuckin' scene!” He’d love that. He didn’t want to be famous. Being Jeff was a derogatory part of playing guitar! That’s exactly who Jeff was
The next track “Take Control” is packed with riffs, when you think you’ve heard them all another one will pop out and drag you back in. A big highlight of the album is a song written by Hanneman, which was meant to be used in their last album, but remained unfinished. “Piano Wire” has classic Slayer written all over it. The perfect tribute for Jeff Hanneman, showing his legacy will continue with Slayer.
This album may not be of the standard of some of Slayers greats but it is still stupidly exciting. Considering that it is only half the band from their last album, they show no signs of slowing down.
