At this point, I'm pretty sure even people's mothers know that Slayer's not having a great year, but this is the Internet, where people are upset when movies from decades ago are spoiled, so for the sake of safety, let's start with a recap:
Up until recently, Slayer was a band who seemed to change their lineup about as often as they changed their sound, except when it came to the person sitting atop the drum throne. Dave Lombardo left the band twice before, once in 1986 and was replaced by Tony Scaglione on tour dates already booked, and again in 1992 when he was replaced on a more permanent basis by Forbidden's Paul Bostaph. When Bostaph left the group in 2001 due to either an elbow injury or musical differences depending on who you ask, Lombardo was brought back into the fold and remained in the band for a further ten years.
In 2011, in a first for the band, a non-drummer was forced to leave the fold when Jeff Hanneman contracted necrotizing fasciitis from an apparent spider bite. The disease, while first sounding like the most metal of all illnesses and frankly, like the title of a Slayer song, proved to be no joke for long as it severely hampered Hanneman's ability to play the guitar, and the after effects of these events eventually led to Hanneman's death on May 2nd of this year.
This alone would prove to be enough for any band to contend with for one year, but events from that February had already caused quite a storm of controversy on their own, a storm which continues to rage until today.
On February 21st, Dave Lombardo released a statement in which he indicated that due to disputes over pay (which, on an interesting note, was the reasoning for his first departure from the band), he would not be embarking on the band's Australian tour. Jon Dette, who previously subbed for Paul Bostaph in the nineties, ended up playing for both Slayer and Anthrax on those festival dates. Lombardo's departure from the band was announced that May. Outside of a brief statement issued by American Records and the band confirming there was a pay dispute, the band has issued very little in terms of concrete updates as to reasoning, and the band, now filled out by Paul Bostaph and Exodus guitarist Gary Holt filling in for Jeff Hanneman has seemed to be focusing on maintaining forward progress, with a new album supposedly in the works that may or may not include contributions from Holt.
As you can see, uncertainty seems to be plaguing a great deal of Slayer's endevours at this point.
Yesterday, Tom Araya gave an interview to Steppin' Out Magazine in which he laid out a very plain and simple explanation as to Lombardo's departure, the kind of plain and simple explanation that should seemingly end any conversation about the matter but has instead only fueled the fire. Araya's quote follows:
“That whole issue came down to this: Dave had been jamming with us for a while, as a working member of the band, but he wasn’t a partner,”
“Like all things like that, you have to have agreements, so nobody feels cheated. We had ongoing issues and finally he put us in a position where we had to find someone to replace him. He wasn’t happy, so he decided to have his Facebook rant and told the world about a lot of issues going on within the band that are legally binding and private. I thought that was wrong and it was upsetting. A lot of the claims he made were untrue. Kerry, [the late] Jeff [Hanneman] and I got on the phone and made a collective decision and we let Dave go and gave Paul [Bostaph] a call.”
Okay, having recapped all the facts, my opinions can wait no longer.
Gee Tom, I can't imagine why Dave wasn't happy! I'd personally relish the chance to start a band, leave, and upon my return be greeted by waves of adulation from the press and fans and substandard treatment from my bandmates! Who wouldn't want to be a second class citizen in their own group?
Ahem.
Putting aside attitude and snark, I'm still somewhat amazed that Araya found himself in a position where he could give that quote and not see the problem with it. Frankly, wording it that way would come off poorly even if this was a band where the rate of drummer turnover was higher, let alone if any of them had an effect on the group's sound. But when that's being said of a man who is considered by many to be one of the genre's premier drummers, a man whose fierce and fast double bass playing is arguably as integral of a piece of the Slayer dynamic as Hanneman and King's guitars or Araya's bass and vocals, it goes past insulting and becomes borderline blasphemous. I mean, my God, members of this band have made it very clear in the past that they don't socialize much when not on the road or recording, but I would think that after thirty plus years Lombardo would have to be considered a friend. To relegate him to a mere working class drummer, not even a partner in the group he helped build, that's cold on a level few manage to reach.
This distinction between member and partner is really bothering me, in case that wasn't evident. I imagine to younger bands it doesn't so much matter, but who wants to enter into a working relationship with a band and wonder if they're essentially going to be spending the next however many years auditioning to become a "partner" instead of a "member". This is the kind of petty treatment that Jason Newsted had to contend with for a decade with Metallica, and we all know how that relationship turned out. Hearing this kind of stuff come out of the mouth of artists makes me reconsider my negative words in the past about people who scream "sell out". I really don't want to have another argument about what constitutes selling out and what constitutes attempting to reach a wider audience, but maybe we have to.
And what does this bode for Slayer going forward? At this point, I imagine Lombardo's not going to return, and Bostaph is probably Slayer's drummer for at least the forseeable future. The man's always had multiple projects going at the same time, I feel safe imagining that he won't be without a gig for long. But what about the question mark that is the lead guitar position? Gary Holt has been playing with them on a temporary basis for almost three years at this point, and Kerry King's been downplaying his potential contributions to the band's new album to anybody and everybody who will interview him. The fact is though, the guys don't seem to be that interested in finding a true fourth member and second guitar player. They throw out phrases like "throwing someone to the wolves" and "it would be like starting over", and obviously we can't speak to their emotional or psychological states, but stuff like Araya's words about Lombardo seems to have the potential to either make that search more difficult. If I were Gary Holt or whoever this mythical future fourth member might be, I'd be giving some very careful consideration to my place in all of this. In Holt's case, he has Exodus, but they've never come close to the level of fame and fortune that Slayer is at. They do, in theory, offer potential for creative input, control, and frankly comfort. How long can one ride the gravy train before the kinds of concerns that Lombardo brought to light become a pressing matter? How long can he settle for being a "member", a temporary one at that, before he deserves to be considered as much of a "partner" as anybody else? Do you really want to be in a situation where it's a pressing concern to answer questions like this anyways?
Slayer's fanbase is rabid, and they are legion, and I imagine enough of them are still reeling from Hanneman's death that for now, they're just happy that they haven't lost the band completely. But those of us without a significant attachment to the band, those of us who are willing to ask these questions, may not be without the Slayer contingent for long. How long will Kerry King's stalling tactics hold out? What, if any, blowback will there be on Tom Araya and his cohorts from the Steppin' Out interview quotes? Who's going to risk both an apparently uncertain financial future as well as the uphill battle that will be stepping in for a legend like Hanneman? There's only so long questions like this can be left open, and in my opinion, Slayer's running out of time.
