Ex-Slayer Drummer Dave Lombardo: “I Worked on All of the Songs That are Going to be on the New Album”

We’ve all be hoping against hope that Jeff Hanneman left some material behind for Slayer to put on their forthcoming fifteenth studio album, because, well, Hanneman wrote all the best Slayer songs, and “Implode,” the band’s first new song since Hanneman passed away, was one of their worst ever.

But what about legendary drummer Dave Lombardo, who was fired from the band over financial issues last year? Did he make any contributions to the new Slayer album?

Well… yes! At least, according to Lambardo himself. He tells Thrash Zone:

“I worked on all of the songs that are going to be on the new album with Kerry [King, guitar]. They’ve been working on that album… shit… for years now. ‘Implode,’ their new radio hit, is basically the guitar tracks that were done during my session, but they’ve removed my drums and added Paul’s [Bostaph, current Slayer drummer].”

Metal Injection wonders if Lombardo will receive any songwriting credits on the new album, and, if not, whether this will lead to a lawsuit. But I’m gonna go out on a limb right now and say that Lombardo will not receive any songwriting credits, and that there will not be a lawsuit. The whole issue of who actually “wrote” a song can actually be a tricky one; Lombardo has NEVER received a songwriting credit for a Slayer song, but it’s hard to imagine that he didn’t write, or at least collaborate on, all his own parts. For whatever reason — and I’m not gonna get into a discussion of whether or not this a fair decision (you can do that in the comments section) — the band never considered this writing. So it seems unlikely that they’ll start now. Especially when giving Lombardo more money is exactly what they DON’T wanna do.