A remembrance

February 1, 2019 7:17 AM

The genius of Jeff Hanneman, by ex-Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo
posted by josher71 (15 comments total)

\m/
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 7:25 AM on February 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

It should be noted that Lombardo is also a genius. I always think of those two as the soul of that sound.
posted by gwint at 7:32 AM on February 1, 2019 [4 favorites]

It should be noted that Lombardo is also a genius.

His fills are absolutely key to Slayer.
posted by josher71 at 7:40 AM on February 1, 2019

.
posted by Rykey at 7:44 AM on February 1, 2019

Can't say there was anything I found remarkable (or genius) in that article but I'm always glad to read a Slayer post.
posted by Liquidwolf at 7:53 AM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

What a lot of people don’t know is that Jeff was the least musically educated and least musically trained in the band. He was a novice when he joined.

Can you imagine your first band being Slayer?
posted by escape from the potato planet at 8:01 AM on February 1, 2019 [8 favorites]

Popped 'Seasons' in the CD player as I read this - my fave Slayer by far. Jeff wrote killer tunes - no doubt - but 'Seasons' takes the cake. When I bought it in college, it was a perfect distillation about how I felt about corruption in the US. Metal fans 'round the world miss ya Jeff.
posted by mctsonic at 8:05 AM on February 1, 2019 [2 favorites]

I think it's neat to read about Slayer because they seemed inhuman and unstoppable for so long. They never slowed down until it was over.
posted by Dillionaire at 8:20 AM on February 1, 2019

SSSSSSSSSSLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR
posted by Maaik at 8:22 AM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

btw, here's Jeff's Metafilter obit post.
posted by gwint at 8:37 AM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Th rumor was that he died of a spider bite. I always suspected it wasn't true because that would've just turned him into Spider Slayer.
posted by Liquidwolf at 9:52 AM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Th rumor was that he died of a spider bite. I always suspected it wasn't true because that would've just turned him into Spider Slayer.

When he first left Slayer the story was that he got necrotizing fasciitis from a spider bite and might not be able to play guitar for some time. And I guess that was probably true - the nec fasc part anyway, a lot of people can't tell a spider bite from a staph infection. When he died people initially assumed it was related, but shortly afterward it came out that it was from complications of cirrhosis. I have also heard that his drinking got worse after he wasn't able to participate in the band anymore so it's likely all sort of connected.
posted by atoxyl at 12:36 PM on February 1, 2019 [5 favorites]

He was a guy who took, oh, let's call it, "chromatic liberties," to a scientific extreme. If 20th century composers can be said to have put the harmonic tradition to bed, Hanneman made it eat a pillow. Never before had I heard someone play the entire vocabulary of all of heavy metal at the same time. What was that old description of John Coltrane, "sheets of sound?" Like that. It comes as no surprise that he was the member of the band least constrained by training.

As a result, one of my personal historical opinions is that Buckethead would be nothing without Hanneman.
posted by rhizome at 2:24 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Thanks for this. Reign in Blood still holds up just fine.
posted by aspersioncast at 4:03 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Reign in Blood is my most recent cassette purchase, back 10 years ago when I last had a car with a cassette deck. I bought it with a Hot Boys cassette, which is an interesting callback to one of my musicnerd brags, that I started listening to Slayer when I bought Haunting the Chapel and Run DMC's first albums back when they were new.
posted by rhizome at 1:29 PM on February 2, 2019