STOP YOUR CRIMSON TEARS: SLAYER WILL SOON RETURN TO ITUNES, AMAZON, AND SPOTIFY

Over the last week or so, we have gotten a LOT of frantic readers e-mails, all concerned with the same horrible realization. What is the cause of their despair? Is it Randy Blythe’s ongoing imprisonment? Charlie Benante’s marital woes? The well-being of the stabbed members of the Cro-Mags? The fact that Winds of Plague are working on a new album?

No no no, these readers are concerned with an issue far more bleak than these: the fact that the vast majority of Slayer’s catalog has suddenly disappeared off of iTunes, Amazon’s digital store, and Spotify.

GOD SEND DEATH AND MISERY, IT CAN’T BE TRUE, CAN IT?!?!?!

Well, the bad news is, yes, it is true — right now the most popular outlets for the legal downloading and streaming of music are sorely lacking in Slayer.

The good news is, we did some snooping, and — PHEW! — it’s only a temporary issue.

A representative for the band explains: as a result of Slayer’s longtime label, American Recordings, ending its distribution deal with Sony and beginning a new affiliation with Universal Music Group, the band’s music — and all music on American Recordings — must now be migrated to UME. Once this process has been completed, the band’s music will once again be available via all the usual outlets.

In the meantime, if you’re really desperate for a Slayer fix, the band’s Metal Blade-era releases, Show No Mercy, Hell Awaits, and Live Undead, are all still available on iTunes, and there are two songs, “Spill the Blood” and “Eyes of the Insane,” up on Spotify via soundtracks that must have separately licensed the music from American.

-AR