New Slayer Album to Feature Guest Performance by Jeff Hanneman

Some good news this Monday morning: in a new Revolver interview, Tom Araya finally gives the fans what they really want — a reason to care about the new Slayer album.

After revealing that he both understands how death works and knows multiple synonyms for the word “weird” (“Ever since [Hanneman’s] passing, it’s been like that—just odd and strange, because he’s never gonna be there again, you know?”), Araya drops this Hiroshima-sized bomb:

“The whole process of this album started three years ago, when Jeff was still a part of it. There is one track on there that we recorded with him, that he did play on, which was completely done except we hadn’t finalized the vocals for it. So we were fortunate to have something that he had participated in.”

Which is a tribute both touching and fitting to the late legend, especially since most of the album will feature what is ostensibly a Slayer cover band.

Alas, there is some rain on this parade, though!

Since Dave Lombardo was let go from the band only a couple of months prior to Hanneman’s death, we can reasonably assume that some version of this song featuring Lombardo on the drums exists. And since his dismissal from the band was acrimonious, we can assume that his drums were re-recorded by new old new drummer Paul Bostaph. So we could have gotten one last recording from the classic Slayer line-up, but instead we’re probably getting one last recording from the Divine Intervention line-up. Which is very likely still better than however many recordings from the Slexoder line-up, but, y’know. It would be so much sweeter to have Lombardo on drums.

The new Slayer album will be out later this year on Nuclear Blast.