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BIZARRE: 2 - What They Never Told You

9 heavy metal stars who made it big with their first band

From Lars Ulrich to Lzzy Hale, these are the rare metal musicians who hit the big time on their very first go

Metal Hammer

“It was funny when I first met James Hetfield. I was like, ‘Thank you for teaching me how to play guitar. You paved the way for me’”: Mastodon's Bill Kelliher on how meeting his guitar heroes pushed him to improve his craft

Mastodon's Bill Kelliher also credits Slayer's Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman for changing his previously nonchalant attitude to warming up before a show

Guitar World

“I think Jeff not being around had a lot to do with Tom leaving Slayer”: Jeff Hanneman wouldn’t have wanted Slayer to retire, says Kerry King

Slayer guitarist Kerry King has said that the late Jeff Hanneman would have wanted the metal legends to stay together

Metal Hammer

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“When I was doing this record, I thought, ‘Jeff would ****ing love this. There’s plenty of hate’”: Kerry King says his new solo album would have got ex-Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman’s approval

What would late Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman have thought of his former bandmate’s new album? Kerry King thinks he knows

Metal Hammer

"We were like, ‘These guys are just like us, this is crazy! We want to hack things up with machetes with them!’” Members of Metallica, Megadeth, Ghost and more talk the years that made Slayer into the ultimate thrash icons

Slayer might not have been the first band in thrash metal, but they became the genre's ultimate champions

Metal Hammer

Kerry King’s band made their live debut last night – watch footage and see which Slayer songs they played

See Kerry King’s new band blast through some Slayer classics here

Metal Hammer

"My band is not a solo project. My band is the band I intend to play with until the end of time.” Kerry King admits that yes, he will be playing Slayer songs this summer, but only select cuts

Curious about the setlist Kerry King's new band will be playing this summer? The thrash metal legend sheds some light

Metal Hammer

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“I got phone calls from myfriends saying, ‘What the f*ck is up with that sh*t?!’” Listen to the Slayer cover of Born To Be Wild that Slayer really don’t like

In 2002, thrash metal deities Slayer covered a Steppenwolf classic. Then Kerry King disowned it and Jeff Hanneman got bullied by his mates.

Metal Hammer

"CBS dumped us and we couldn’t get the record out for ages": Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King on the making of Slayer's Angel Of Death – and the fallout that followed

In 2011 Slayer's guitarists reflected on their classic and the blowback from its subject matter

MusicRadar

“We can make records until our hands fall off. But if we can’t sell it live, I don’t want to”: how Slayer reconnected with 80s thrash and made World Painted Blood

Slayer’s 2009 album World Painted Blood was the best since their 80s heyday – and this is how they made it

Metal Hammer

“We’ve got lots of leftover material from Repentless – we wrote so much stuff!” The story of the lost final Slayer album

After Repentless, Slayer guitarist Kerry King promised the thrashers had enough music left over to make a 13th album. It never materialised.

Metal Hammer

"We’d build our own pyro - there was a lot of smoke and chaos": Dave Lombardo talks Cuban heritage, befriending Mike Patton and why Slayer were the greatest thrash metal band

One of thrash metal's architects, Dave Lombardo recounts a life in music from Slayer to Dead Cross, Testament to Empire State Bastard

Metal Hammer

"He was Slayer. He affected a lot of people and he didn’t even realise it.” The life and tragic death of Slayer’s Jeff Hanneman

Jeff Hanneman was the architect behind some of Slayer's biggest - and most infamous - songs but his 2011 passing was a tragedy that shook thrash metal

Metal Hammer

"The other kids in school voted me 'Class Clown'". From taking English lessons to becoming a thrash legend, the life of Slayer's Tom Araya, in his own words

Moving to Los Angeles from his native Chile in the 1960s, Tom Araya began a journey that'd take him to heavy metal immortality

Metal Hammer

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Kerry King: Jeff Hanneman “wanted nothing more than to come back” to Slayer before his death

Jeff Hanneman suffered numerous health issues in his final years, but his former Slayer bandmate Kerry King reveals that the guitarist wanted to return to the band

Metal Hammer

9 surprising artists who have sampled Slayer

From hip hop legends Public Enemy to Essex rave punks The Prodigy, here are some of the musicians who've sprinkled the Devil's music in amongst their own delicious chaos

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