Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Top Box Office Hits FOR THE WEEKEND OF JUNE 8-10_ J' 1. Swordfish' S18.1 million 7.‘What's the Worst That Could Happen?’ 2.‘Shrek' $16.5 million 5.5 million 3. Pearl Harbor' $14.7 million 8.‘The Mummy Returns' $4.7 million 4.'Evolution' $13.4 million 9.‘A Knight's Tale' $1.7 million 5.‘The Animal’ $9.6 million 10. Bridget Jones’s Diary' $1.1 million 6.‘Moulin Rouge' $7.6 million 11.‘Memento' $741,004 PLACES Hht (SairiccoCk Wednesday, June 13,2001 Slayer: Here comes the pain :b y Jonathan Dun agin The Gamecock Slayer, one of the originators of thrash metal and recognized by VH1 as the 50th most-influential band in hard rock history, will perform Friday night at Ground Zero in Spartanburg. Along with opening acts Vision of Disorder and Skrape, the show promises to . be one that any metal fan would be disappointed to miss. In reference to Slayer’s place in music today, vocalist/bassist ‘Tom Araya told KNAC.com in an interview last month that a lot of what you hear in music today could be traced back to them and _ other founding thrash metal bands. “You hear a lot of the stuff out there today — the heaviness of music,” Araya said. “The heaviness wasn’t there until we came around — the same with Metallica, Anthrax, Exodus and us. I think we’ve had a big impact on the sound. We took music and made it really heavy, and I think it’s affected a lot of music ...” The Ground Zero show is a warm up for the upcoming month long “Extreme Steel Tour,” which Track Listing Slayer’s Upcoming Album God Hates Us All 1. Darkness of Christ 2. Disciple 3. God Send Death 4. New Faith 5. Bloodline 6. Threshold 7. Exile 8. Seven Faces 9. Cast Down 10. Warzone 11. Here Comes the Pain 12. Payback Courtesy www.slayer.net “You hear a lot of the stuff out there today — the heaviness of music. The heaviness wasn’t there until we came around — the same with Metallica, Anthrax, Exodus and us. I think we’ve had a big impact on the sound. We took music and made it really heavy, and I think it’s affected a lot of music...” Tom Araya Vocalist/bassist for Slayer begins June 20. Along with fellow bands Pantera, Static-X, Skrape and Morbid Angel, Slayer will tour cross-country before traveling to Europe in September for the ‘Tattoo the Earth 2001” tour. Following the conclusion of that mobile metal-fest, the band has plans to begin a tour of its own. However, at this time, they have no dates scheduled in the Southeast, so the show at Ground Zero may be regional fans’ only chance to catch a legendary performance. Slayer was formed in 1982 by guitarist Kerry King in a suburb outside of Los Angeles. Along with fellow founders Araya, guitarist Jeff Hanneman and drummer Dave Lombardo, the band produced albums including Haunting the Chapel, Hell Awaits and Reign in Blood — the album called the greatest thrash album of all-time by Kerrang! magazine. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, under the guidance of producer Rick Rubin, the band went on to achieve critical acclaim with albums that included South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss, which sold more than one million copies. However, Lombardo left in 1992 and was replaced with drummer Paul Bostaph. Though Slayer has undergone numerous drummer changes and a few disappointing selling albums, including Diabolus in Musica, over the last decade the band has emerged stronger than ever. “We’ve progressed as songwriters, but it’s more of a maturing, if anything,” Araya said in last month’s KNAC.com interview. “Lyrically, I think we’ve matured quite a bit. Musically, I think we have, too. You come to the realization that music doesn’t have to be complex. It can be simple and still give you the illusion that it’s complex.” All of this has climaxed with the production of Slayer’s first new album in three years, God Hates Us All, which is set for release on July 10. This album is the first in more than 15 years that Rubin didn’t produce. According to Araya, Monster Magnet and Porno for Pyros producer Matt Hyde, who also produced the Slayer song “Bloodline” on the “Dracula 2000” Soundtrack, was the band’s first choice. However, Araya and bandmate King insist their new producer won’t change the band’s sound. It you re expecting us to start doing some hip-hop shit like Limp Bizkit or Korn just because it’s popular, then you’re gonna be disappointed,” King said in an interview with Metal Hammer Magazine. “The next record will be very heavy — exactly what our fans expect and want from us. The new album will have a lot of that Reign in Blood and South of Heaven feeling in it, but like Diabolus in Musica, it will also feature a few surprises.” In an interview in April 2001 with Rolling Stone Online, King clarified the new album’s sound. “It’s got a lot of fast stuff, but it’s got a lot of chunky heavy stuff too,” said King. “On this record I made a conscious effort ... to keep our dark themes but also write stuff that people can relate to. It’s got a lot of stuff that, if we weren’t in such a P.C. world, would be on the radio, but the name ‘Slayer’ is just blackballed at radio stations. People say, ‘Oh, it’s Slayer — we can’t play it,’ without even listening to it.” In the future, the band plans on finding time to finally complete the oft-discussed audio/visual Slayer box set, which King told Rolling Stone Online they’ll probably be calling “Soundtracks of the Apocalypse,” which will likely contain numerous videos and hard to-find songs. In the meantime, Slayer plans to continue creating music and touring extensively while enjoying the recent resurgence of metal music in both the mainstream and underground scenes. However, in response to this, Araya assures fans that Slayer will continue to progress, regardless of a resurgence in the music. “When the media starts printing that there’s a resurgence of metal ... people believe it, so they go out and start buying metal albums,” Araya said. “The media creates these things, and sometimes it’ll catch and sometimes it won’t. ... Slayer’s like a snake that slithers on through life. We get on top of the game, and sometimes we crawl under it, but we’re always there slithering through life.” Tickets for the Ground Zero show on Friday are $20. Doors are scheduled to open at 7 p.m. and the show to start at 8:30 p.m. For more information, contact Ground Zero at (864) 948-1661 or go to www.gzforum.com. The spotlight desk cm be reached at gamecockspotlight@hotmail.com Special to The Gamecock Slayer’s members include (left to right) guitarist Kerry King, drummer Paul Bostaph, guitarist Jeff Hanneman and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya.