Talk:Slayer

How is Slayer heavy metal or speed metal?
Slayer was never heavy metal or speed metal. They were only ever thrash metal. They were not part of the "Big 4 of Heavy Metal" they were part of the big 4 of thrash metal. I provided sources to show that they were too. Slayer never even made an album that was considered heavy metal. So unless you can actually provide a source showing that they are heavy metal or speed metal, stop adding them please. Thanks. Darkburzum (talk) 18:25, 8 July 2017 (UTC)


 * , as the person doing the genre warring, the onus is on you to provide reliable sources which change the current consensus, not everyone else. The links that you provided were not to reliable sources, and have been removed.  4TheWynne (talk) (contribs)  23:03, 8 July 2017 (UTC)

My God! Why can't they just be both? Thrash is a subset of Heavy Metal. Your average Joe probably won't be able to tell the difference between the two anyway. Why are people so against calling them a thrash band when the whole world knows it's true? Now2blue (talk) 20:19, 11 July 2017 (UTC)


 * , if that's the case, then what's your problem with the current layout?  4TheWynne (talk) (contribs)  00:02, 12 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Why is speed metal and heavy metal in the infobox? Where was the consensus on the talk page that ever said that heavy metal and speed metal must be in the infobox. Thrash metal is a subgenre of speed metal and heavy metal. so therefore, having speed metal and thrash metal there is redundant. besides, Metallica doesn't have sped metal in their infobox. they have heavy metal but it's because they took a break from thrash for many years. we should just keep the genre general instead of being redundant. there are NO sources for heavy metal and while there are 2 sources for speed metal, those sources were from the 1980s. Back in the 1980s, the term "thrash metal" probably wasn't known by a lot of music journalists and people like that. The term "thrash metal" probably wasn't even created yet back in the 1980s.


 * Speed metal and heavy metal both were, in fact, added by an IP without discussion. Statik N (talk) 00:36, 22 September 2017 (UTC)


 * , the edit that concerns you is the one that I made due to the genre wars that were going on at multiple articles, Big Four (with the exception of Metallica) and otherwise. Yes, the previous edit made mention of the same edit that you've presented, but I was then thanked by a couple of experienced editors upon making the edit, so that gives me enough of an indication that the edit was welcomed. Heavy metal is general; thrash metal is specific.  4TheWynne (talk) (contribs)  03:36, 22 September 2017 (UTC)


 * , when I said "keep the genre general", I actually meant don't be redundant and use the least amount of genres possible without refusing to use sourced genres. Heavy metal isn't sourced. So it can't be there. Speed metal is sourced, but it comes from sources from back in the 1980s. I bet that back in the 1980s, music critics didn't know the term "thrash metal" and maybe the term "thrash metal" didn't even exist back in the 1980s. Almost all of Slayer's albums are described as only thrash metal. No mentioning of speed metal or heavy metal. The only albums by Slayer that don't say thrash metal are Diabolus in Musica and Undisputed Attitude. Diabolus in Musica was called nu metal and groove metal. Undisputed Attitude was called crossover thrash (a subgenre of thrash metal). Statik N (talk) 18:12, 24 September 2017 (UTC)


 * We should keep the genre general. I don't see any justified reason to include speed metal or heavy metal in the genre. Besides, although they aren't reliable, even Encyclopedia Metallum labels Slayer only as thrash metal. Almost all of Slayer's albums are only called thrash metal on Wikipedia. Statik N (talk) 03:45, 10 December 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Slayer. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061026042926/http://www.slaytanic.com/news.html to http://www.slaytanic.com/news.html
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120420111522/http://www.soundwavetouring.com/ to http://www.soundwavetouring.com/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 06:39, 27 July 2017 (UTC)

Band member timeline
Does anyone know how to fix it? There are many black lines covering it. Statik N (talk) 03:47, 10 December 2017 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Slayer. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080726073055/http://www.thrashhits.com/2008/07/slayer-reign-of-fear/ to http://www.thrashhits.com/2008/07/slayer-reign-of-fear

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 14:44, 17 February 2018 (UTC)

"Slayer is" versus "Slayer was"
This seems like a really silly point of contention. They played their last show on November 30, 2019. They confirmed their breakup multiple times before the tour even started. If they're no longer playing or recording, what exactly is the argument for saying they're currently a band? Skeletor3000 (talk) 00:40, 7 December 2019 (UTC)

For crying out loud, this is simple grammar. Slayer is a noun. Slayer is a band. They have specimens; cd's, t-shirts, website, etc, that are still, and will be for quite some time, in existence. Slayer *IS* a band. Further proofs: the members are still alive, no official announcement has been made that they buried themselves, etc.
 * None of that has anything to do with whether they're still a band or not, and I'm not sure what you're mentioning the fact that "Slayer" is a noun, as that has nothing to do with whether we use past or present tense. The Beatles have merch. Members of Oasis are still alive. Both were bands. Araya wouldn't say "I'm in this band called Slayer." He would say "I was in this band called Slayer." You're right that it's simple grammar. Araya was in Slayer. Slayer was a band. Check any Wikipedia page (or any published work for that matter) referring to a defunct band and tell me what you find out about "simple grammar." Skeletor3000 (talk) 18:12, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

In this day and age, will somebody just found out who the troll is that's doing this. If wikipedia admins won't step in, perhaps embarrassment would be sufficient to correct this page. 97.84.218.68 (talk) 17:51, 10 December 2019 (UTC)
 * As the person that requested the most recent page protection, the current situation sure beats the edit warring seen before with the constant back and forth over "is" and "was". It has been quoted by KK's wife that they are done, this has been reliably sourced to Blabbermouth and the general feeling among many longstanding editors that watch this article was to leave it as "was" for now. And you are wrong btw, we don't say "Nirvana "is" a band..."  Rob van  vee  18:10, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

Slayer, in reference to this, are not an adjective. To anyone that understands the difference between nouns and adjectives, this is laugh out loud ridiculous. To make a joke; #shortbus 97.84.218.68 (talk) 18:17, 10 December 2019 (UTC)
 * What are you talking about? Nobody thinks Slayer is a describing word. The fact that you're even bringing that up shows that you need to brush up on your parts of speech. Are you saying you think "is/are" goes with nouns, and "was/were" goes with adjectives? I'm beginning to understand why you find this so confusing. Skeletor3000 (talk) 18:19, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

Kurt Cobain is dead. That makes Nirvana an adjective as well as a noun, making "was" appropriate. I'm not going to continue to bother with this. I just find it funny, as I am an attorney, and this is just funny to me. 97.84.218.68 (talk) 18:24, 10 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Nirvana is an adjective? Can you use it as one in a sentence? I hope you're messing with me, or I fear for your clients. Skeletor3000 (talk) 18:25, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

I am just smiling and laughing. To make a joke #slayerfansmustbestupid. But really, it's obvious this is a trolling problem, and I'm not going to waste my time with it. But for those who want to, you need to go about requesting a consensus from wikipedia admins. 97.84.218.68 (talk) 18:30, 10 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Probably not. It's simple grammar, after all. Skeletor3000 (talk) 18:31, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

For anyone that has the time to bother; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Consensus. Farewell. 97.84.218.68 (talk) 18:32, 10 December 2019 (UTC)
 * Maybe we should focus on consensus for bigger debates, like whether the earth is round or flat. Skeletor3000 (talk) 18:39, 10 December 2019 (UTC)

Genre of Slayer.
Why are Slayer speed metal? The answer to that question is obvious, they play at a blistering pace and always have done, from the very early days of their career. Why are they death metal, at least in the early days of their career? Again a very simple answer, they spent all day either talking about death itself lyrically or the luciferian as well God Forgive them and also, technically no-one can argue that Reign in Blood is not a Death Metal album. You simply cannot have the influence Slayer has had on extreme metal and death metal itself as a genre in general without being in some way, at least partly Death Metal yourself. Once again, this should be readily apparent as it simply stands to reason. Also, I clearly remember the British metal magazines I read myself as a teenager, namely Raw, Kerrang and Metal Hammer clearly referring to Slayer as a Death Metal and Speed Metal act in the mid to late 1980s. Anyone who would care to go through those magazines' issues from those years would clearly find those designations there. However as the 90s wore on that designation seemed to shift and Slayer were from then on categorised as fundamentally a Trash Metal outfit, hence the confusion but like I said, pull issues of the British Metal and Hard Rock magazines from that era and you will find copious references to Slayer as a speed metal and death metal act. Of the so-called " Big Four " in the 80s they were always slightly on the periphery, being regarded as the fastest, the most brutal, the heaviest, the most morbid in terms of lyrics and let's face it: essentially the most evil. Death metal they may not have remained but anyone who can argue that Reign in Blood is not one of the greatest Death Metal albums is no disrespect intended, simply talking nonsense. I'll say it again, you simply cannot have that much influence on a developing genre, namely Death and Speed Metal in the 1980s without being in some small way a part of that genre yourself. Not to me anyhow. Brádach Mac Gormáin (talk) 23:20, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

FA in need of review
This is an article on a very popular (and active until very recently) band that has not been reviewed since its promotion in 2007. Issues:


 * In the lead: The band's lyrics and album art, which cover topics such as murder, serial killers, torture, genocide, politics, human subject research, organized crime, secret societies, mythology, occultism, Satanism, hate crimes, terrorism, religion or antireligion, Nazism, fascism, racism, xenophobia, war and prison, have generated album bans, delays, lawsuits and criticism from religious groups and factions of the general public - there's no reference in the body of the article to torture, genocide, politics, organized crime, secret societies, mythology, occultism, hate crimes, antireligion or xenophobia, so that's a lot of original research going on;
 * Similarly in the lead: often being cited by many bands as an influence musically, visually and lyrically - There's zero mention of how they influenced other bands visually in the article and only one reference to lyrics in the Legacy section;
 * The album was the band's first to primarily feature dropped tuning, as featured on the lead track, "Bitter Peace", making use of the tritone interval referred to in the Middle Ages as the Devil's interval. - The provided reference for this sentence is an article about the tritone that only covers the 2nd part of the sentence (use in the Middle Ages), so that's a failed verification. This was just a random spotcheck, I did not check any of the other links;
 * All those bands that have named Slayer as an influence need references (Legacy section);
 * http://metallipromo.com/slay.html and http://www.rockonthenet.com/archive/2002/grammys.htm are not high quality reliable sources; citations need clean up (bare urls, for instance);
 * The Controversy section ends in 2006;
 * There is no lack of mentions of Slayer in scholarly publications, so an article on such an influent band should have more scholarly coverage (just examples):
 * A stairway to heaven or a highway to hell?: Heavy metal rock music in the 1990s (2006);
 * The poetics of destruction: Death metal rock (2008);
 * Metalheads: Heavy Metal Music And Adolescent Alienation (2018);
 * Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge (2006).

The article needs to be updated to reflect the last 12+ years of coverage on the band. RetiredDuke (talk) 19:28, 5 March 2021 (UTC)


 * I saw in the article's history that you have made significant improvements to this article. Are you willing to address the above concerns? Z1720 (talk) 13:43, 30 May 2022 (UTC)

Adding notes on genre section
How about including heavy metal? Vikthor06 (talk) 13:44, 24 April 2022 (UTC)
 * they dont play traditional heavy metal at all --FMSky (talk) 18:54, 24 April 2022 (UTC)

Adding black metal to Genres?
i feel like slayer is definitely black metal. The satanic imagery and themes, the fast tempo, the tremolo picked riffs… definitely

https://www.kerrang.com/rick-rubin-says-slayer-were-one-of-the-inventors-of-black-metal

https://tonedeaf.thebrag.com/why-slayer-are-innovators-not-just-thrashers/amp/

also a source on metalwani, which is blacklisted for some reason. BoxxyBoy (talk) 09:25, 9 August 2022 (UTC)

Jon dette
Dette was never an actual member of the band, he helped out on a couple tours. The official drummers were Lombardo and bostaph. 142.160.108.140 (talk) 05:37, 20 August 2022 (UTC)

Slayer started out as Black Metal
Listening to the old Slayer rehearsal tapes, from 1982, it is possible to see that most likely Slayer had plans to become a Black metal band, not only because of its aesthetics and symbology, but also because of the distortions that closely resembled that of a Blackstar (Blackpedal) apart from the vocals that were much more booming like a guttural vocal.

Which is not so hard to believe, since several other thrash metal bands either started out as black metal, or due to fate, ended up mixing the two genres, like Sepultura, Sarcófago, Bathory, Sodom, Venom with Slayer was no different.

So I edited it and it have to stay that way unless someone presents a counterpoint, until then, don't revert.

--The Young Prussian (talk) 22:49, 14 October 2022 (UTC)

Gene Hoglan has never played with Slayer
Why is he listed as a touring member in 1983 and 1996? In 1983 he was only the roadie for Slayer and I haven't found a single source confirming he played with them in 1996. There's not a single mention of that anywhere in Slayer biographies or in the Internet 77.254.250.141 (talk) 10:40, 22 February 2024 (UTC)