Here Comes The Pain

“Things are getting’ busy these days,” sighs Slayer guitarist Kerry King, who seems coolly irritated as he prepares for a 10-day tour. Despite his exacerbated sigh at this conversation’s outset, King’s tone lightens when he starts talking about the imminent road trip and the set list that the band has worked up for the short tour. “This time I think we outdid ourselves. It’s gonna be good with the different stuff that we’re playing. People are just gonna shit.”
By ‘shit,’ King obviously means ‘go fucking nuts,’ which is a common reaction by fans at Slayer shows, usually no matter what’s on the set list. The kind of intensity that permeates the air and the chaos that ensues when this seminal metal band plays can’t really be described to people who have never witnessed it firsthand, but the recently released War At The Warfield DVD offers a fair representation of the environment. While King agrees that the DVD — recorded at the Warfield in San Francisco on the God Hates Us All tour back in December of 2001 — aptly imparts the live atmosphere, he says that the concert footage itself is a bit outdated now.
“That set list on the DVD is so old,” he laments. “That concert was shot on [ former drummer Paul] Bostaph’s last tour, and it’s taken so long to come out. It’s not Dave [Lombardo, current drummer] on drums. Ideally, on the next album cycle, we’ll do a DVD with him as well. That would be everything every Slayer fan ever wanted — a live concert with Bostaph and one with Dave.”
The lag time on the release of War At The Warfield was due to several push-backs before release, but according to King, that had nothing to do with the departure of Paul Bostaph. In fact, King isn’t even sure exactly why Bostaph left.
“I know he had some problems with his elbow, but if it was that bad, I don’t really understand how he jumped into another band right after he left. I don’t really care, it just seems a little hokey to me,” casually relays the guitarist, who then explains that the DVD was delayed for reasons at the record label. “The record company lost the 5.1 Dolby mix, and then they lost some of the interior photos. Since then, the 5.1 has been found, so it is coming out the way is was originally supposed to. That was the original hold-up. Then we saw the execution copies and they were outta sync. People were just trying to rush and they overlooked stuff that had to get fixed.”
Despite the trials of getting the first Slayer DVD onto stores’ shelves, the band is excited to utilize the format’s freedom to add all kinds of extra stuff to the concert footage, and one of War At The Warfield’s most endearing extras is the Fans Rule documentary.
“Oh, that’s entertaining as hell — just comedy. It has fans from Phoenix, Fresno, San Fran — like four or five cities where we had a tag-along camera crew with us. We just turned them loose. They edited it themselves, and it’s essentially as is,” laughs King, who’s not quite as excited with the inclusion of the video for the band’s last single, “Bloodline,” which didn’t get a lot of play at the traditional outlets when God Hates Us All was released (incidentally, on the fateful date of September 11th, 2001).
“Yeah, DVDs are cool, and I love good videos, but in America there’s so little point in making one,” King sighs, then stiffens up. “Let’s put it this way: Headbanger’s Ball has been back on MTV for a few months now, and we’ve been on it once. I know we’re requested, I know people want to see us. So, thanks for nothing again, MTV. Suck my fuckin’ left nut. Actually, I think they are throwing a Headbanger’s Ball our way, but I said I wasn’t gonna do it unless I get to choose every song on that show, because the new show sucks.”
Slayer did eventually do that episode of the new Headbanger’s Ball, but the band is no stranger to being on the outside of the music and media mainstream. The band is comfortable there, and that’s where their fans are. The essence of Slayer is that they’re still just as dedicated to what they started as they were when they started it…unlike some metal bands, King is quick to point out.
“Man, now that the new Metallica record is out, people just think it’s the second coming of fucking whatever. I’m thinking, ‘What are you people listening to? Do I have the same disc?’ It’s atrocious,” King blasts. “This is the big hype, ‘Metallica’s heavy!’ If that’s heavy, they certainly forgot how to do it, because to me, Master of Puppets is heavy. This is fuckin’ smokin’ my cock, dude. Just garbage. And I wanted to like that record, but eight- or nine-minute songs, no leads, tunes about going to rehab — whatever dude, go get a fuckin’ drink.”

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