C�ic Van der Hauwaert 07/14/2008 5:15:00 PM
Friday, June 27, 2008
Bashing and thrashing and stabbing and wounding and killing and bleeding to death
Why Slayer matters by C�ic Van der Hauwaert
cvanderhauwaert@gmail.com
Ok, I'm really fed up with gay guys stereotyping me time and time again. When I tell them I used to be a Slayer fan in my teens � long hair, spikes and 'Jesus is a Cunt' shirt included � people get all jittery fearing I would go Columbine on their asses or something. I hear yelps of disgust and waspish apprehension. Other folks would think I must be some sort of Aryan nationalist skin head or something cause they still think Slayer are nazis for having documented the exploits of Nazi war criminal Joseph Mengele (more on that below).
Of course, people who know of my lavender identity automatically assume I weep along all day to Whitney and Mariah remixes � I confess, I love the tribal punishment Junior Vasquez inflicts on those tragic divas' sped-up vocals, turning lame cheesy ballads into a Chelsea hard house maelstrom. Nevertheless, I still occasionally listen to the thrashers from LA who were the first to declare all-out-war to those lipstick fairies of Motley Crue (now who's really "gay"?). It was the early eighties, people stopped caring about stuff and coke snorting Reaganites driving BMW convertibles had conveniently sanitized heavy metal into a mainstream success � Eddie Van Halen would help cement Wacko Jacko's superstardom by providing a dazzling solo on Beat It.
Luckily the Bay Area was rumbling (well, not literally this time) with the speed metal of newly disillusioned twenty-somethings Metallica, Megadeth, Exodus � LA � now the epicenter of 80s plastic culture and its most flagrant offspring, big hair (think Poison, Bon Jovi,...)� wasn't spared of this brand-new ear-smashing furious fastriffing heavy metal onslaught � Slayer would be the most extreme of this new wave of heavy music which combined the ferocious brutality and simplicity of punk and hardcore with the classic twin solo virtuosity of British metal exports Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.
Looking like carnivorous vampires donned with medieval spiky armory loudly exhorting battle hymns glorifying necrophilia, (cartoonish and theistic) satanism and violence soon attracting criticism from Tipper Gore and her army of pop music inquisitionists (who would go on to attack the likes of Twisted Sister, Prince and Ozzy Osbourne), Slayer became a phenomenon and a controversial one at that.
The controversy - which had been building up and was bound to erupt sometime like the Northridge - took to a new level in 86 when Slayer's David-Geffen-owned record label (Def Jam/American Recordings) refused to distribute Reign in Blood because of insidious opening track Angel of death � sporting lyrics depicting the horrific experiments performed by Nazi doctor Mengele at Auschwitz. Luckily, the fact the album's producer, Jewish American hip hop God Rick Rubin wasn't offended, somewhat silenced the accusers of anti-Semitism. However, suspicion over Nazi sympathies grew over the fact guitarist Hanneman � son of a Dutch war criminal � used a guitar on stage "decorated" with pics of concentration camp victims, as well as some sort Celtic cross - one of the many pagan symbols that are now bathed in controversy because of their use by prominent Nazis. The group has been the scourge of Christians for years. In '06, their album Jihad was pulled out of Indian record stores after complaints of Christian groups because of its violent representation of Jesus Christ (which apparently doesn't cause an outcry when Catholic Mel Gibson creates a slasherfest a million times more horrific than this album cover).
Nevertheless, Slayer's lyrics are definitely right-wing - anti-abortion (Silent Scream), pro-Rush Limbough (Dittohead),...- although matters are more complex like this. If they truly were redneck racists, they wouldn't have a Chilean lead singer, wouldn't have co-operated with black rappers or appeared on the Henry Rollins show.
In these times of all-too-easy Red State/Blue State overgeneralizations, Murdoch WAP tie-ins and general amnesia of the American public, the now married with kids hairy creeps who inscribed many of their trademark realistic apocalyptic hymns into the Heavy Metal Annals � Seasons In the abyss, Dead skin mask, South of Heaven, Raining Blood, hell awaits � remind us of the importance of free speech
