NAMM 2026: ESP Guitars has unleashed eight new signature guitar models into the world, promising something for everyone, as late greats and artist debutants are celebrated – while its mid-priced LTD Deluxe 1000 Series guitars are touted as “among our best in history.”

In 2025, the ESP portfolio was dominated by single pickup builds, a theme that Gojira’s Grammy-winning riff monster Joe Duplantier has continued into the new year, but there’s a tentative balance between honoring the past and looking to the future across its wider signature series this time around.

Top of the tree in that respect is the LTD Alexi Laiho Arrowhead and Sawtooth SE models, which mark 20 years since the late Children of Bodom virtuoso – a player still highly revered in the metal guitar scene – started his relationship with ESP.

Looking as sharp as ever, the pointed, subtly uneven V-shaped axe sports a black finish and a choice of white or yellow beveled speed stripes. Its three-piece maple neck-thru-body construction with a Thin U profile, Macassar ebony fingerboard, and scalloped frets from the 19th to the 24th position are in place for lightning-quick playability.

The 25.5” scale electric guitar also has a Floyd Rose trem – it would be criminal to have anything else – Grover tuners and, you guessed it, just one pickup in the form of an HZ F-H2 passive humbucker with Volume control.

Another gone but fondly remembered guitar hero, in Slayer’s Jeff Hanneman, is also remembered via the LTD JH-200 CTM. The Super Strat gets an alder body, a Floyd Rose Special trem with whammy bar, a pair of high-output ESP LH-301 ‘buckers, and red star inlays.

Conversely, Joe Duplantier isnt’t the only Signature Series debutant in 2026, with Slaughter to Prevail’s Jack Simmons also welcomed into the family.

The LTD JS-7 Baritone features a V-shaped body, neck-thru-body construction, 24 extra-jumbo stainless steel frets, a Graph Tech TUSQ XL nut, Hipshot 7 hardtail bridge, and Fishman Open Core Modern pickups. With a 27” scale, the elongated V looks deadly and is tailored for tunings lower than the Mariana Trench.

The series is rounded out by new models from old faithfuls. Slipknot’s Mick Thomson has opted for a streamlined, mahogany-bodied S-type with a Hipshot Hi-Mass hardtail bridge, blue Luminlay side markers, and his signature Fishman Fluence pickup for his LTD MT-I.

Deftones’ Stephen Carpenter has built on a bumper 2025 with the LTD SC-607 Baritone that marries mahogany, maple, and ebony tonewoods, his signature Fishman Fluence pickups in the bridge and middle positions, and TonePros Locking TOM trem.

Meanwhile, ’80s shredder supreme George Lynch gets a stripped-back version of his distinctive 1985 Kamikaze guitar, complete with a “hockey stick” reverse headstock headlines, basswood body, Floyd Rose Special, and ESP-branded HS pickup configuration.

Away from signatures, the LTD 1000 Series is defined by a mission statement of “versatile tones, smooth playability, and complete reliability,” and there's plenty of variety as twin-pickup builds regain dominance.

From the TH-1000 Evertune, which boasts a swamp ash T-style body, Seymour Duncan's new multi-voiced MortalCoil pickups, and an Evertune bridge, to the ARROW-1000, a shark fin-esque V with Fishman Fluence Modern humbuckers and a built-for-speed profile, diversity is vast.

Other choice picks include the LTD Deluxe RS-1000, rocking its X-like Random Star silhouette with the classic EMG 81/85 pickup combo and a Floyd Rose 1000SE, the EC-1000, a Granite Sparkle-finished single cutaway LP with a classic mahogany/maple/ebony tonewood cocktail, and a Fishman pickup and hardtail-laced offset via the LTD Deluxe XJ-2HT Snow White.

ESP’s affordable Epiphone/Squier equivalent brand, LTD, is also celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2026.

With models like the LTD Arrow-400, single cutaway LTD EC-400 QM with a quilted maple top, and the simple but effective T-style LTD TH-400, all of which arrive with EMG 81/85s and other tidy specs for sub-$1K prices, it continues to offer plenty of value for money.

See ESP for more.

Kerry King may be one of thrash metal’s most iconic electric guitar players and hardmen, but he’s admitted there’s one particular Slayer song that still intimidates him.

Sitting down recently with Metal Hammer to answer fan-written questions, King singled out the hardest song from the band’s repertoire to play – and the song that people shouldn’t expect to grace Slayer setlists any time soon.

“I could go a number of ways with that [question],” he admits, before narrowing his choice. “I’ll say Dittohead for the sheer speed of it. That’s probably our fastest song, and it’s not one I’m looking to play live any time soon!”

He was then asked to pick his favorite riff written by his late guitar partner, Jeff Hanneman, whose wife recently gifted a rare ESP prototype to young sensation Maya Neelakantan.

“That’s difficult,” King replies. “I have to say Raining Blood [from 1986’s Reign In Blood],” he answers. “It’s not just one riff in that song, but a whole showcase. If you pushed me, I’d say the intro too, as people still sing along to that guitar line.”

King released his first solo album, From Hell I Rise, earlier this year, following 12 LPs with the hard-edged thrashers. He’s confessed to Guitar World that life without Slayer “sucks”, and that releasing a solo album was the only way he knew to keep busy.

Slayer continued for six years after Jeff Hanneman’s passing in 2013, though much of the band's fierce reputation rested upon the guitar partnership of Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, and so they called it a day in 2019.

The band reunited for three US festivals over the summer, but there are currently no plans for more shows to follow in their wake.

Fresh off the America's Got Talent stage, Maya Neelakantan is busy further establishing herself in the metal and hard rock scene. While the Gibson Dave Mustaine Flying V EXP was her axe of choice for her primetime TV spot, she's now adding another guitar to her arsenal. This time, it's an ESP LTD Jeff Hanneman Tribute 2014, gifted to her by Kathryn Hanneman, the wife of the late Jeff Hanneman.

“It was amazing talking with her and before we left, she said she has something special for me and brought out an ESP guitar case!” recounts Neelakantan.

“Inside was an ESP LTD Jeff Hanneman Tribute 2014 in an amazing Urban Camo color! She said that this model was made shortly after Jeff Hanneman passed away in 2013 and this was a very, very limited edition since they only made 666 of this guitar.”

However, the guitar given to Neelakantan was even more special, as it was the first prototype and the one given to Kathryn just a few months after the Slayer guitarist's passing.

“Although we have been friends for a couple of years, we met for the first time and she gave this to me – I just can’t explain what that means to me. I’m honored, grateful, overwhelmed, and very thankful for all this,” adds Neelakantan.

From going viral with her rendition of Papa Roach's Last Resort to being granted permission to use Metallica's track on America's Got Talent and having Slayer and Exodus' Gary Holt fly down to Los Angeles to meet her, the 11-year-old guitarist has had quite a year.

She recently continued ticking off her bucket list with a surprise appearance at a Testament show, where she joined the band on stage to trade solos with Alex Skolnick.

Born in Long Beach California in 1964, Jeff Hanneman was a founding member of metal band Slayer in 1981. Sadly Jeff passed away in 2013 aged just 49, but his name lives on as a pioneering guitarist of one of the big four thrash bands.

Jeff’s unique riffing and soloing style featured on 12 studio releases including classic albums such as Hell Awaits, Reign In Blood and Seasons In The Abyss to name a few. In this lesson, we will look at some riffing and soloing approaches that stem from both punk and metal genres, but are also unconventional and share certain similarities with modern classical music.

Our first example uses a fast flurry of chromatic notes to create the effect of organised chaos. Mathematically, this is a repeating five-note legato pattern phrased within septuplets, but it may be easier to think of it as four even downstrokes played across three downbeats, with the three-finger legato finger pattern squeezed evenly in between.

The riff is harmonised in perfect 5ths on the backing track, so listen intently to the accompanying guitar in order to match the phrasing.

Riff number two is another chromatic idea, this time using interval skips within one octave. The concept here is an Arnold Schoenberg-style series of 12 notes, with no repetitions until all the notes have been played (Serialism).

This angular style is emphasised by the aggressive attack of consistent palm-muted downpicking. This style of picking is notoriously tough on the forearm, but with daily practice your accuracy and stamina will become stronger and stronger.

Example 3 ventures into lead territory with a lick in E Locrian (1-b2-b3-4-b5-b6-b7). The Locrian mode is rarely used but its diminished, unresolved quality makes it perfect for Slayer solos which are often more akin to free jazz self-expression than more typical metal solos rooted in blues tradition.

Next is a tapping idea using E diminished half-whole scale (E-F-G-G#-A#-B-C#-D), which is a symmetrical pattern of alternating tones and semitones that works well over the static riffs often used by Slayer. Use the open second string and 9th fret as book-ends and move your fretting hand up and down the scale in between.

Example 5 uses the familiar minor pentatonic shape 1 to create an unsettlingly evil Locrian sound. To achieve this we superimpose the scale over a different root note. Rather than starting the shape with the first note on the root, move it down two frets and start on the b7 of the key. So although the shape may be familiar, in reality the intervals are (b2-b3-4-b6-b7).

Following this is the type of alternate picked run that Jeff played with intensity and power. Jeff’s aggressive sound is achieved by digging the pick into the strings for a heavy, loud attack and, although it may feel counter-intuitive, to maintain this level throughout a whole song we need to maintain a relaxed technique.

Play each example slowly to begin with, focusing on accuracy, timing and economy of motion before gradually increasing the tempo until you’re comfortable at speed.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 7, Bass 2, Middle 6, Treble 7, Reverb 0

Throughout his career, Jeff used BC Rich, Jackson and for the most part ESP guitars. For riffing, the EMG 81 bridge humbucker pickup provides the tight, powerful punch and the EMG 85 neck pickup provided a warmer sound for melodic parts. Amp-wise Jeff used the classic Marshall JCM800. Go for a tight, gainy, bridge pickup tone and either very little or no reverb.

Example 1

Use first, second and third fingers to hammer-on and pull-off the opening five-note phrase and shift it up and down the fretboard while picking the initial notes. On beat 4 use palm-muted downstrokes to play the open E root note. In bar 2, move the legato phrase up a 5th interval.

Example 2

Palm-mute the open sixth string and pick down-up-down in a reverse galloping rhythm. Next, use all four fretting fingers to play the chromatic, interval skipping phrase and use tight downstrokes to pick each note with a consistent attack. Although the melodic phrase in bar 2 is different, the technique remains the same.

Example 3

Start with a downstroke and use alternate picking throughout. In bar 1 the second string always starts with a downstroke and the first string with an upstroke.

In bar 2 each downbeat starts on a downstroke. Finish with a tone bend at the 20th fret, then catch the second string which is bent up a semitone.

Example 4

Tap the 9th fret with the second finger of your picking hand (m) and use first, second and third fingers to ascend the second string in a series of alternating tones and semitones, also using the open string to complete the six-note phrasing. Focus on tapping on the downbeat in order to stay in time more accurately.

Example 5

Use hammer-ons and pull-offs to ascend the opening D minor pentatonic shape, then play three-notes-per-string within E Locrian mode to ascend and descend the strings before finishing with a natural harmonic. As you play the harmonic, scoop the bar then add a wide whammy bar vibrato.

Since Slayer’s 1983 release, Show No Mercy, Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman have established a brand of sinister, frenetic thrash metal that took the world by storm.

Their fast-paced, 16th-note picking, chromatic sequences, and use of notes both inside and outside of the key make way for an energetic, adrenaline-fuelled sound laced with attitude and tension.

Despite their fair share of riffs based on unrelenting aggression, Slayer also make effective use of mid-tempo, arpeggiated chords, as in Seasons in the Abyss. This creates dynamic space while keeping the listener drenched in the mood and atmosphere of the song.

Slayer have used various tunings over the years, but for this lesson we’ll keep everything at standard pitch, as on the group’s first album.

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 6, Bass 5, Middle 6, Treble 4

For a classic Slayer rhythm tone, use your bridge pickup and the high-gain channel of your guitar amp. To get a chunky sound while keeping things focused, Slayer use less gain than expected, so push the middle frequencies, and roll off some of the treble. The bite and presence should come from the picking-hand attack.

Example 1

The opening phrase alternates between fast flurries of E notes played on the open sixth string and diminished 5th double-stops descending chromatically along the fourth and fifth string. To tighten up the faster passages, palm mute the notes on the sixth string while all other notes remain unrestricted.

Example 2

This study features fast-paced powerchords that outline the root note of each key. This establishes a tonal centre for the ear to lock on to before the chromatic motifs step outside of the key. By bookending the chromaticism with the root chord, our ears can make sense of the harmonic tension.

The old adage “never meet your heroes” usually rings true. However, for Mastodon's Bill Kelliher, meeting guitar heroes like Metallica's James Hetfield and Slayer's Kerry King were key moments in his career that pushed him to improve his guitar playing. 

“It was funny when I first met Hetfield, who's been an idol of mine. It was in Portugal or some big festival we were doing, and I shook his hand,” Kelliher says on The Rockman Power Hour podcast. “I was like, ‘Thank you for teaching me how to play guitar.’ And he was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘Like, you know what I'm talking about. You paved the way for me.’”

Meeting Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo was another surreal moment for Kelliher. “When I met Kirk and Robert, they were walking around together and they saw me, and they came running over and they're like, ‘Hey, man, what's up? Can we get a picture with you?’ I was like, this is a joke. Like, I should get pictures. Yeah, you guys are Metallica. I'm just fucking Bill from Mastodon. That's awesome. It was wild.”

Rubbing shoulders with his heroes was also important for Kelliher to realize that he needed to take his instrument more seriously. One incident, in particular, served as a true wake-up call. 

“Watching Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman warm up before a show and I'm walking around drinking a beer. ‘What are you guys warming up for? Know your fucking songs,’” he recalls. 

“And then I realized there's something to this. I started practicing guitar way, way fucking more. I was like 'You're a guitar player. You're in this really big fucking band. You should be better, like you should spend your time not drinking and playing more guitar. Get better at your craft.’”

Kelliher has previously spoken about his experiences meeting Metallica and their diligent practice routine. In a 2021 interview with Guitar World, he recalled, “Metallica practiced for three hours a night before playing onstage for another two. Meanwhile, we were sitting around drinking beer and picking our noses!”

Mastodon will be heading out on a co-headline tour with Lamb of God this July. The co-headline tour celebrates the 20th anniversary of the two band's 2004 albums Leviathan and Ashes of The Wake respectively. The tour kicks off on July 19 at Grand Prairie, Texas, with Kerry King supporting on select shows. 

Jeremy Wagner, noted horror author and main riffer for death metal band Broken Hope, has been busily completing a gallery he’s aptly dubbed “Wagner World.” The 4,000-square-foot, music-studio/horror-and-rock memorabilia museum is a tribute to his favorite guitarists and includes rare instruments from the late Jeff Hanneman (Slayer) and Paul Gray (Slipknot), as well as Metallica’s Kirk Hammett. 

In this exclusive interview, Wagner offers Guitar World a peek at his latest acquisitions. He also discusses his admiration for Hanneman, his latest novel and much, much more.

What was it about Jeff Hanneman and Slayer that first appealed to you?

I still remember the moment I decided I wanted to be metal guitar player. It was when I heard Metallica’s Ride the Lightning. I was floored and couldn’t stop listening to it. I immediately went on a mission to find the heaviest music and that’s when I found Slayer’s Hell Awaits. But it wasn’t until Reign in Blood came out that I discovered Jeff Hanneman had written all my favorite songs and riffs and was an awesome lyricist. It was another turning point. The thing that drew me was the extreme nature of his writing. He had this incredible talent to take aggression and extreme guitar playing and mix it with the catchiest riffs you’ve ever heard. He was a big source of inspiration to me on all levels.

When did you start collecting Hanneman gear?

I’ve been collecting gear and different instrument for years, especially vintage Marshall heads and ESP guitars from the Eighties. During this time, I developed a close relationship with Matt Masciandaro, the president of ESP, and became aware of an auction Jeff’s widow, Kathryn, was going to have. I had the unique opportunity to buy direct from her.

Where do you keep your acquisitions?

I’ve got a renovated property near my house that sits on six acres of land. The first floor is where Broken Hope rehearses and where I have a bunch of memorabilia that I like to call the “Jeff Hanneman Museum.” It has a number of Jeff’s awards and prints of live shots of Jeff rehearsing. In that same room is a vault where I have many of Jeff’s original guitars and Eighties-era ESPs hanging on the racks. There’s also a “Paul Gray Museum.” Paul was a friend who always loved Broken Hope and the two of us would talk frequently. I’m also a fanatic about 1984-86 Metallica and have an impressive collection of horror memorabilia. 

I’d really like to display it publicly someday. But I don’t collect just to acquire famous gear or to flip it for profit somewhere down the line. I’m on a mission to respect, honor and carry on the legacy of these guys. That’s why the things I have, especially with Jeff Hanneman, I feel a deep emotional connection to them. Jeff’s widow told me that Jeff would have wanted to have these things played and used. That’s why I used two of Jeff’s guitars on the last Broken Hope album, Mutilated and Assimilated. We also dedicated the entire album to him.

Out of everything you’ve accumulated, what’s your favorite piece?

The number one thing is Jeff’s iconic, punk-rock Jackson Soloist that he acquired around 1987. This guitar is hands-down the most famous guitar in metal. The story was Jackson wouldn’t give Jeff an endorsement. At the time, they were big into only giving free and custom guitars to hair metal bands. Jeff paid about $2,000 for it at the time, stickered it up and used it from the South of Heaven era all the way up until he retired it in 2011. 

Can you give us an update on Broken Hope?

This year marked the 30th anniversary of the band and we just came off a month-long tour of Europe. It was a celebration. Right now, I’m in writing mode for the next album and hope to hit the studio again in 2019.

In addition to being a guitarist, you’re also a novelist. What can you tell us about your latest book, Rabid Heart?

I’ve always been a dark-fiction writer. My first book, The Armageddon Chord, was about a guitar player who transcribed songs from different pieces of music. He winds up transcribing one from hieroglyphics that unleashes the apocalypse. My new book, Rabid Heart, is like the movie 28 Days Later meets Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road. There are rabid zombies called cujos, which are the result of a virus the government was using for military purposes. But these aren’t the dead rising from the graves. These are humans that have been transformed into violent, aggressive zombies. The main character discovers her fiancé has the virus and believes she can save him by driving them both to Florida. Along the way, she drives through this hell world of undead and human predators who believe the world is up for grabs. The reviews for it have been great.

What are you most looking forward to about this next phase of your career?

My two biggest passions are guitar and writing. So, I’m looking forward to putting out more Broken Hope albums and new books, including another novel and an authorized bio.

You can check out some of the most noteworthy items in Wagner's collection in the gallery below, with notes from Wagner himself.

Scores of extreme metal bands have been influenced by Slayer over the years, but Jeremy Wagner, guitarist for death metal legends Broken Hope, has taken his love and reverence for the band—and, in particular, guitarist Jeff Hanneman—to new heights.

The guitarist and songwriter is currently composing music for a new Broken Hope record, their second since reuniting a few years back, and he’s doing it using only guitars that were previously owned and played by Hanneman himself.

How did these instruments come into Wagner’s possession? Following Hanneman’s death in 2013 from liver failure, his widow, Kathryn, put several of his guitars up for auction, with proceeds benefitting one of Hanneman’s favorite charities, the Wounded Warriors Project. After hearing of the auction, Wagner got in touch with Kathryn and the two hit it off. “She told me, ‘Jeff would have wanted these guitars to be used, not just sit in a vault,’ ” he says.

Kathryn wound up selling four guitars directly to Wagner, with the proceeds still going to charity ($12,000 was the original asking price for each guitar in the auction; Wagner paid an undisclosed sum). The oldest and most iconic of these is Hanneman’s “punk rock” Jackson, a 1988 Soloist model that he covered with stickers from punk bands. “Jeff used it on the South of Heaven album and tour, on Season in the Abyss, and on the Clash of the Titans tour,” Wagner says. “It’s in the ‘War Ensemble’ video, it’s on the cover of Decade of Aggression…when I was a teenager, that was such a legendary guitar.”

Two of the instruments Wagner acquired are more recent models: a 1998 ESP Custom Shop model Hanneman used during the recording of Diabolus in Musica and in the video for the God Hates Us All track “Bloodline,” and a “Raiders” logo ESP that, Wagner says, “was probably one of the last custom guitars he got from them.”

But the guitar that Wagner has been using the most for composing the new Broken Hope songs is one known as “Killer.” “It’s another ESP custom model, also done up with Jeff’s personally applied stickers,” Wagner says. “It was built in 2005 and played in the studio for Christ Illusion. And I just love this thing. I’ve been riffing out on it, and the riffs are just flowing out of me.”

Wagner, who also owns one of Hanneman’s classic amps, a 1986 Marshall JCM800 2203 with a custom graphic, confirms that the new Broken Hope record will feature him playing “100 percent Hanneman guitars,” he says. “And not to sound corny, but I feel a real responsibility to Jeff and to Kathryn to use these guitars in a way that honors him. You know that phrase WWJD—What Would Jesus Do? I think about that. Only for me it’s, What Would Jeff Do?”

ESP Guitars has announced that it is assisting the estate of late Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman with the auction of a selected number of his personal custom guitars.

The Hanneman Estate will forward a significant portion of the proceeds to a charitable cause that Hanneman strongly supported: the Wounded Warrior Project. Hanneman died in May 2013.

“Jeff was a key member of the ESP artist family for many years,” says ESP Guitars president and CEO Matt Masciandaro. “We want to help spread the word about the availability of his personal instruments, which are each completely one of a kind and have great collectible value.”

Four of Hanneman’s instruments that he played on various Slayer albums, tours and videos are available for the auction. Get more info on the items available right here.

Each guitar is being offered in its original case from Hanneman’s personal collection, and the cases include anything that was found inside, which range from effect pedals to straps, cables and strings. Additionally, each guitar will include a certificate of authenticity from the Hanneman Estate.

The custom guitars available for auction include:
•ESP Custom Shop Jeff Hanneman “Raiders”
•ESP Custom Shop Jeff Hanneman “Killer”
•B.C. Rich Jeff Hanneman ST3 Custom
•ESP Jeff Hanneman USA Custom Shop.

On several of the models, Hanneman applied his own stickers and graphic treatments. The auctions are hosted via eBay, and links to each auction page are available from the ESP site at espguitars.com.

“This has been the most adverse between-records session that Slayer’s ever had,” says Slayer guitarist Kerry King of the six long years since 2009’s World Painted Blood.

It has indeed been a grueling stretch of adversity for the legendary thrash-metal band, one marked by the illness and death of founding guitarist Jeff Hanneman, and the less-than-amicable departure of drummer Dave Lombardo.

But with the help of returning drummer Paul Bostaph and Exodus guitarist Gary Holt, Slayer is finally returning with a new album—and King could not be more stoked about it.

“I would play any of these songs live,” says the guitarist of the forthcoming 12-track beast, which was produced by Terry Date (Pantera, Deftones) and is tentatively scheduled for an August release. “There’s no filler on this record—it’s great!”

Slayer fans will already be familiar with some of the new album’s material. “Atrocity Vendor” was originally released in 2009 as the B-side of the “World Painted Blood” seven-inch, while “Implode” was released last year as a free download—but both tracks have been re-recorded for the album, with “Atrocity Vendor” being significantly re-written to include new vocals from bassist Tom Araya and a longer guitar solo.

Other tracks include the ominous “When the Stillness Comes,” the punky “You Against You” and the Araya-King collaboration tentatively titled “Pride,” which King says is “really cool and super–Black Sabbath heavy.”

The as-yet-untitled album is also the first Slayer record to feature the playing of Holt, who joined the band on tour as a temporary fill-in for the ailing Hanneman in 2011, and agreed to soldier on with Slayer following Hanneman’s death from liver failure in 2013.

“I figured the best way to introduce Gary Holt on a Slayer record was to have him play some leads,” says King, who handled all of the record’s rhythm guitar chores. Though Holt didn’t contribute to any of the new songs as a writer, he did record lead parts for “six to eight” tracks on the album, according to King.

“Holt is a Slayer fan, and he’s been a good friend of ours personally for almost 30 years,” says King. “He has an opinion about what a Slayer guitar player should be like. So he didn’t come into this with a mindset of, This is an Exodus record—he came in thinking, What would a Slayer lead sound like here? It sounds like Gary, but it definitely sounds like Slayer as well.”

Despite earlier reports to the contrary, the late Hanneman does not actually appear on any of the new album’s tracks. “We ended up resurrecting one of his songs from the last record, called ‘Piano Wire,’ ” King explains, adding that Hanneman doesn’t play on it “because I played Jeff’s stuff on record since the mid-Nineties, except the leads—he always wanted to play the leads. It was really more time-effective for me to do that sort of thing. I recorded the guitar tracks for ‘Piano Wire’ at the World Painted Blood sessions, and he didn’t have a lead in it, so it’s just me.”

King says that Slayer already have the basic tracks of six songs—including another one that Hanneman wrote the music for—in the can for the next record. Hopefully, he says, there won’t be another six-year wait between Slayer albums.

“If Tom’s on board, I’d say we go out and tour hard on this record for two and a half years, go right back into the studio with momentum, finish the next record, then go out again for another two and a half years. And if that’s the end, so be it—we go out with guns blazing.”

He influenced a generation and changed the course of metal forever. Guitar World presents the complete, untold story of Jeff Hanneman, Slayer’s guitarist for more than 30 years and the man behind such legendary thrash anthems as “Angel of Death,” “South of Heaven” and “War Ensemble.”

CAST

•

Tom Araya

: Slayer frontman/bassist

•

Kerry King

: Slayer guitarist

•

Dave Lombardo

: Former Slayer drummer

•

Kathryn Hanneman

: Wife of Jeff Hanneman

•

Gary Holt

: Longtime friend of Jeff Hanneman and current Slayer fill-in guitarist

When news broke in the early evening of May 2, 2013, that longtime Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman had succumbed to liver failure at age 49, a shockwave of atomic force rippled its way across the metal community that left many stunned.

As Facebook and Twitter became overrun with postings of shock, grief and recollections from fans who had spent the better part of their lives following Slayer like Rottweiler puppies, you could feel it—this one was different. This one hurt.

To anyone who came of age in the mid Eighties wearing a denim jacket and studded wristband, Slayer was their introduction to aggressive speed metal, with riffs that cut like a buzzsaw blade and dark lyrical themes that often crossed into objectionable territory—and Hanneman was the primary force behind it.

“By all accounts, he was the band,” says Slayer frontman and bassist Tom Araya.

For those who had spent a lifetime in a perpetual state of whiplash from headbanging to such Hanneman-penned Slayer anthems as “Angel of Death,” “South of Heaven,” “Chemical Warfare” and “Raining Blood,” the reason he meant so much to so many was simple: because you could always count on Jeff to be Jeff, in the same way you could always count on Slayer to be Slayer.

He didn’t say much, but he didn’t have to. He wrote the lion’s share of the band’s most beloved songs and lived to come out from behind a wall of Marshalls every time the band took the stage, raise his fist triumphantly to the rafters, and destroy. For nearly three decades, Jeff Hanneman was a fixture of that stage—a blonde symbol of young headbangers who fell in love with satanic-infused heavy metal aggression and never looked back well into their adulthood.

“I’m amazed at how many people he touched,” Araya says. “They hardly knew him, but he affected a lot of people. And he didn’t even realize it.”

But for all the love the heavy metal community had for Jeff Hanneman, there was a dark side to the guitarist that confused many of those who came into contact with him. Unlike, say, Dimebag Darrell, Jeff wasn’t everybody’s “bro.” He didn’t pose happily for pictures, glad-hand his way across the NAMM convention floor every January or help needy children. He had no love for the media.

He also had a morbid fascination with Nazi Germany and derived a perverse sense of joy from proudly—and controversially—displaying Nazi iconography on his guitars. And he drank. A lot.

“If he didn’t like you, he wouldn’t be hanging with you,” says Araya from his family farmstead in Buffalo, Texas. “He could pick at you and make you feel like crap. But if you tolerated it and stuck it out and showed that you could deal with the bullshit, then that’s how you became friends with him.”

Slayer’s origins date back to 1981 in the South Gate and Huntington Park areas of Los Angeles. King and Hanneman met at a warehouse complex after King had gone there to investigate a band that was holding auditions for a guitar player.

“As I was leaving, I saw Jeff just kinda standing around playing guitar, and he was playing stuff that I was into, like Def Leppard’s ‘Wasted’ and AC/DC and Priest. So I started talking to him and just said, ‘Hey, you want to start a band?’ I already knew Dave [Lombardo, drummer] and we had been playing together in his parents’ garage a bit, and so I brought Jeff in, then went to Tom [Araya, vocalist/bassist], who I was playing with in another band, and said, ‘Hey man, I have a different band if you’re interested.’ And that was it.”

Lombardo remembers the first time he met Hanneman: “Kerry brought him to rehearsal in the garage one day. He had a small Fender Twin and the black Les Paul that’s on the back of

Show No Mercy

, and he was kinda quiet.

Jeff hadn’t been playing for very long at that point, and everything he did know he basically taught himself. But something about it just felt right from the get-go. It worked.”

This fearsome foursome was now a unit, hell-bent on fusing elements of Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Dead Kennedys and Venom into an aggressive style of thrash metal that would ultimately alter the course of music. They were four youngsters with a shared vision, though Hanneman did stand apart from his cohorts in one respect: he didn’t drive.

So while everyone else was able to get to and from rehearsal via their own wheels, Hanneman—who, depending on whom you ask, either never had a driver’s license or lost it early on after various DUI infractions—needed to be shuttled back and forth whenever the band got together.

“When we started the band, Kerry would pick him up from his house in Long Beach and I would drop him off after rehearsal,” Araya says. “That was the trade-off. So we spent a lot of time in the car together, usually drinking beer. I would drop him off, and sometimes I’d hang with him at his house with his parents.”

It was around this time—April-May 1983 to be exact, nine months before the release of the band’s debut album,

Show No Mercy

—that Hanneman met a girl named Kathryn. They hooked up as teenagers—he 19, she 15—and stuck together like glue for the remainder of Jeff’s life, up until the day he died. It’s safe to say their fate as a couple was sealed by the bizarre circumstances of their introduction.

“My girlfriend and I were getting tired of going to the movies every weekend, so we decided to go see this band called Slayer at a little club in Buena Park called the Woodstock,” says Kathryn, who is now 46, from her home in southern California. “They were playing with a band called Leatherwolf. I begged my father to let us go to the show, knowing that I would be home later than my 10 o’clock curfew, and he was okay with that. There may have been 15 or 20 people at the show, so I was able to stand up front against the stage, on Jeff’s side. And before I knew it, he kneeled down, grabbed me by the hair, and started making out with me. I was blown away, and that was how we met.”

Had Hanneman attempted this act of onstage molestation with a different girl that night, he may have found himself in the back of a squad car. Instead, he found himself getting messages from the band’s manager that Kathryn—who had reached out to management to share photos she had taken that night—wanted Jeff to call her.

“I asked the manager if he could have Jeff call me, and he told me Jeff was in Vegas visiting his grandmother,” she says. “I thought that was so sweet. About three weeks later, I was at home and my phone rang one night, and I picked it up and the voice on the other end said, ‘Hi, Kathy, this is Jeff from Slayer.’ And my heart started racing. I asked him how his grandmother was, and he said to me, ‘I wasn’t visiting my grandmother. I went to Vegas to break up with my girlfriend.’ And that was what I loved about Jeff—he was honest from the get-go.”

Jeff and Kathryn’s relationship continued to grow as Slayer gained traction within the underground metal community—that is, as long they could figure out a way to travel the 20 or so miles between her home in Buena Park and his in Long Beach.

“Since neither of us drove we either had to rely on Tom to pick me up and drive me to rehearsal to see Jeff or get my mom to drive me to Long Beach to see him,” Kathryn says. “And whenever Jeff could, he would take a bus to come see me. That’s how our relationship started, and eventually we just never separated unless he was on the road. We spent as much time together as we possibly could.

“At first my dad was a little nervous when this guy showed up at our house wearing a leather jacket with black makeup around his eyes, but it didn’t take long before they were all getting along great. My parents loved him. All my girlfriends fell in love with him too. And they were always quick to say so.”

While Kathryn has always taken careful steps to shield herself from the spotlight, she did play a key role in Slayer’s early Eighties reputation as a group parents abhorred when she agreed to pose in an early band promotional photo as a bloodied, lingerie-clad corpse.

“I was around 16 at the time,” she says. “Jeff called me one evening and said they were about to do this photo shoot and that the girl they were going to use broke her toe and had to cancel, so he asked if I would fill in. And that I needed to bring some sort of black lingerie. I told him I had to get permission from my parents but that I’d be happy to do it. And since neither of us had driver’s licenses, Tom came out and picked me up and we went to the garage at Tom’s parents’ house, which is where they would rehearse, and we did the shoot. I was very shy and conservative in those days, but it was the least I could do. I was honored that they chose me.”

Contrary to internet reports of them marrying in 1997, Jeff and Kathryn wed in Las Vegas in 1989 in a simple ceremony consisting of the happy heavy metal couple and the bride’s parents. The decision to marry wasn’t difficult for either Jeff or Kathryn, as they learned over a mid-afternoon breakfast at a local Denny’s a few weeks before heading to Vegas.

“We ordered breakfast and we each ordered a beer, and Jeff was just very quiet,” Kathryn says. “I looked at him and just said, ‘I don’t know what you’re thinking—but whatever you ask me, I’ll say yes to.’ He waited, and then he looked up at me and said, ‘Okay, let’s just fucking do it.’ And I said, ‘Okay, let’s just fucking do what?’ And he said, ‘Let’s just take off and get married.’ I said okay and asked him if he was sure, and he said, ‘Yes, I’m sure. I marry you, I marry you for life.’ ”

Hanneman’s official cause of death was alcohol-related cirrhosis, a result of a lifetime of drinking. “Jeff was always a drinker,” says Lombardo, who left the band (for the third time at least) earlier this year. “He always had a Coors Light tall can in his hand. Always.”

“Jeff and I always drank,” King adds. “They called Steven Tyler and Joe Perry the Toxic Twins. We were the Drunk Brothers.” He laughs. “The difference being that I don’t wake up in the morning and need a beer. Jeff didn’t know how not to drink.”

“We partied and we partied hard,” says Exodus founder—and current Slayer touring guitarist—Gary Holt, who became friends with Hanneman in the early Eighties. “I have a million photos of us back in the day, just hanging out and drinking, beers in hand in the middle of the day at load-in.”

For Kathryn, memories of Jeff and her father bonding over martinis in the evening are still vivid. “About a year or so after we met, Jeff moved in with me and my parents, and my dad would always love to come home and have a couple martinis. And he would offer Jeff a drink and they would sit and have their martinis and play video games. So I have known Jeff to drink from the day that I met him. I never really understood it, but drinking was always very much a part of Jeff’s life.”

Hanneman’s reliance on alcohol was obvious to anyone who spent enough time with him. However, he did manage to stay away from hard drugs for most of his life, except for a few years in the mid Eighties when cocaine use became a common activity for Jeff and Tom.

“You start making a little money, and the next thing you know, it’s there,” Araya says. “It’s readily available and people are eager to provide it. After a weekend binge, you find yourself driving down the 405 at six in the morning—I’m driving, Jeff’s feeding my nose, he’s feeding his nose. And you suddenly realize how easily this could have turned bad. I remember stopping, looking all around us—nobody else on the highway—and I looked at Jeff and said, ‘Man, this is fucking crazy. Look at us. We can’t be doing this.’ And we stopped, threw what we had out the window and never touched it again. He stuck with his alcohol and I stuck with my ‘greenery,’ and we went about our existence.

“We had our vices, but we didn’t let them control our lives like you see with a lot of other bands that are just starting out. That was the one thing that I thought was really cool about us—we didn’t let those things destroy us. We had control of ourselves to some extent.”

The extent to which Hanneman had control of his alcohol intake became questionable in the mid Nineties, when it started becoming more apparent to his wife and bandmates that Jeff was no longer just a hard-partying goofball metalhead from L.A. but a serious adult drinker.

“I would express my concern, and he would back off for a few months—but then he would go right back to drinking,” Kathryn says. “A few years before his dad died in 2008, I did notice that Jeff was relying on alcohol to start off his day. But I couldn’t say much at that point, because I just knew we’d wind up in a verbal confrontation about it. And I’m not going to say I didn’t drink with him—I did drink with him, sometimes quite heavily. I figured if I couldn’t beat him, join him. But eventually I realized that I couldn’t go on like that, and that if I stopped I might be able to help him get away from it too. But I couldn’t. He just relied on it too much to get him through the day.”

His bandmates are quick to point out that Hanneman’s drinking rarely became an issue within the group, though it did creep in on occasion.

“The only thing that comes to mind,” says King, “was when we were on the Divine Intervention tour [in 1994/95], when Paul [Bostaph] was with us, and we wanted to play ‘Sex. Murder. Art.’ live. But on that album I pretty much played everything in the studio, so I don’t think Jeff had ever played that song. And he was just too messed up all the time to learn it, so Paul, Tom and I just did it as a three-piece because Jeff would not come onstage and play it. After that, we said, ‘Listen dude, like it or not, you’re a part of this band, and if we decide to play a song, you gotta play that fucking song.’ ”

On the road, particularly in later years, Jeff spent most of his time on the tour bus after gigs by himself, watching the History Channel or reading a book about World War II. “Jeff was super intelligent about history—World War II became his thing,” says King.

Hanneman, whose German-American father fought as an American soldier in World War II and brought home medals from dead Nazi soldiers that he gave to his son, was morbidly fascinated by the Second World War and Nazi Germany, collecting dozens of German soldier action figures and naming his various dogs and cats after Nazi officials and elements of WWII-era Germany. His own wedding ring was a collectable replica of a skull-emblazoned band worn by high-ranking Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich. While objects connected to this time in history are understandably offensive to many, to Jeff they were just symbols of the same darkness that energizes metal’s imagery.

“Jeff wrote what he wrote,” says Araya. “And people would analyze it and come up with their own conclusions—but to Jeff it was just a song about this or that. There was no deep meaning behind anything. And a lot of the stuff he did, he knew that it would cause a reaction—he knew it would get a response. And if you’re going to make a big stink about it, that’s your problem—that was his attitude about it.”

As the “quiet one” in Slayer, the guitarist never made socializing with fans a top priority.

“He’d stay on the bus for a long time after a show,” Araya says. “And then when the crowds would thin out and all the VIPs were gone—all the wannabes who were hanging out and partying—once they dissipated, he would make his way out and see who was still hanging out. There are people who want to hang out just because it’s cool, but Jeff didn’t want to hang out with those people, so he would wait. If he didn’t like you, he wouldn’t hang with you.”

And when it came to sightseeing, “Jeff pretty much only went to war museums, as you can imagine,” King says. “I remember the first time we went to Moscow, maybe around 1998. His whole thing was going to one of the Moscow war museums, so I was like, ‘Hey, that sounds cool,’ so I went with him. And it was just windy and cold as fuck there. But Jeff loved that stuff.”

For Kathryn, who preferred to remain at home when Jeff went on tour, all she could do was count the days until he returned. “It was extremely hard for me,” she says. “The first tour they did was a three-week tour from southern California up to San Francisco, and in those days there were no cell phones or internet, and it was difficult for him to stay in touch with me. And at first I just thought, Oh my god, I’m gonna die. When the band finally started touring Europe, he made sure to send me letters and postcards almost every day, and that was the only thing that kept me going, because I really didn’t know when I would talk to him again.”

As the years wore on, returning home from tour usually meant the rest of the band had seen the last of Hanneman for a while. “He would just go home and detach,” King says. “He might have lived only 45 minutes away, but unless you were part of his inner circle, it was hard to stay in touch with him. And it took me a few years to understand that. For a while I was just like, ‘Why isn’t this guy calling me back?’ But as I got older I just realized that that was who Jeff was.

“I don’t think Jeff and I were ever best friends,” continues King. “I think we were probably the closest in the band, but never best friends. To put it in a way that everyone could understand, Jeff and I were like business partners. Was he my friend? Of course he was my friend. But we didn’t really act like that. The last time I was at Jeff’s house was January 2003. We went to his place to watch the Raiders in the playoffs. And it sounds horrible, but it wasn’t horrible. That was just how it was.”

“When Jeff was home, Jeff liked to be home and stay home,” Kathryn says. “He was over it—over the road, over people, over everything. He just wanted to hibernate for a while, and I always respected that. When he was home he liked to sleep in and just kick back during the day. Sometimes he’d get an idea for a song and run down to his music room and start working on music.

And video games—Jeff was a huge video game buff. It started around 1983 with Intellivision, and after that it was Sega and Nintendo and everything else. If any new system came out, we went out and got it immediately. First-person shooters were his thing. He kept up to date on all of them.

“The TV was always on

Seinfeld, Frasier, Cheers, Scrubs

. And of course football or hockey. Sometimes all the TVs in the house would be on, and we’d be watching different games in every room.”

Pets, football,

Seinfeld

, video games, music—yes, home life for Jeff and Kathryn Hanneman was almost surprisingly wholesome, particularly around the holidays.

“Christmas was his absolute favorite holiday,” Kathryn says. “He loved giving gifts, and he would always get me quite a few gifts. He started me on a German nutcracker collection and a bear collection, so he was always buying me new pieces for those. For Jeff, the bigger the tree, the better. Our house has 24-foot-high cathedral ceilings, and I remember one year him coming home with a tree that was 22 feet high! [laughs] And of course I would be the one climbing up and down the ladder decorating it. Jeff liked to just sit back and watch me decorate the tree.”

When it came to playing guitar and writing songs at home, Jeff never had any kind of set structure. He would go long stretches without picking up a guitar when the band wasn’t active, and songwriting was done on the spur of the moment, whenever inspiration struck.

“He would never ever say, ‘I need to go and write a song,’ ” Kathryn says. “It would just hit him out of nowhere. He never planned it or was preoccupied with it. If we were at a restaurant, he would ask me if I had the recorder with me, and I’d pull it out and he’d basically hum the riff or speak the lyric into the recorder. And if we were home in the middle of watching TV, he’d get up and run down to the music room and start laying out the drums. That’s how many of his Slayer songs came about.”

Hanneman established himself as Slayer’s principal songwriter early on. By the late Eighties and early Nineties, he had formed a close working relationship with Araya, who handled lyrics for many of Hanneman’s most iconic songs, including “South of Heaven,” “War Ensemble” and “Seasons in the Abyss.”

“We seemed to connect on ideas and themes,” Araya says. “He would have an idea that was half-written, and I’d read it and work on it and disappear and put thoughts together and then I’d say, ‘What do you think?’ and he’d say, ‘This is great. This is exactly what I was hoping you’d come up with.’ He was very encouraging about me putting my ideas down and the two of us working together. I always liked working with Jeff because he allowed me to do things that came naturally. There was a lot of freedom between the two of us when we wrote music and created songs. I think I’m really going to miss that.

“Of all the songs that we’ve ever written as a band, the two songs that ended up getting Grammys—‘Eyes of the Insane’ and ‘Final Six’—were songs that Jeff and I worked on together. That’s something I’m really proud of and something I always tried to make him proud of. I would say, ‘Look, you wrote two Grammy-winning songs. You can’t get any better than that. That’s a milestone.’ ”

Lombardo, too, had great respect for Hanneman as a songwriter and admired the fact that Jeff would present his songs with a basic drum-machine beat already in place. “So many guitar players can’t program a drum machine or play along with their own songs,” says Lombardo, who is currently performing and writing with his band, Philm. “Doing it the way he did takes a lot more talent because you’re thinking of all the instrumentation in a song rather than relying on other people. He heard everything in his mind before anyone else did.

“The ‘vibey’ quality of Jeff’s songs allowed me to create these crescendos and decrescendos, making the song dynamically louder or bringing it back down with the drums. His songs were never just a constant roar of guitar playing—they were dynamic, and it gave me the opportunity to decorate the songs a little more in a form that made sense.”

While news of Hanneman’s death in May came as a shock to all but his closest friends and family—“Was I surprised by how he died? No,” King says. “Was it a surprise that it was that quick? Yes.”—there were events that occurred in the previous few years that could be viewed as contributing factors in the guitarist’s downward spiral. One was the death of his father in 2008.

“That’s when things really started to go downhill for him,” Kathryn says. “It was probably the hardest thing he ever had to face in his entire life. When I met Jeff he didn’t have all that great of a relationship with his father. But as time went on they became very close. So that took a toll on him. He was never quite the same after that. I just don’t think he cared anymore.”

It was also around this time that Jeff was quietly battling an arthritic condition that had been progressing over many years and was now beginning to worsen to the point of interfering with his playing. “His ability to play was slowly deteriorating,” Araya says, “but he didn’t let anybody know that. We could just tell that things were going wrong. It was becoming hard to get stuff out of him. He was very proud and didn’t want to make anyone worry about anything. Jeff would show up and play, and he didn’t want anyone to know or worry about what else was going on with him. He tried to be really strong and sometimes that can weigh you down.”

“You would notice it in his hands and a little bit in his walk,” Lombardo says. “It seemed like he was struggling with his playing—it wasn’t fluid. You could hear it in the leads. His playing just wasn’t as tight as it could have been.”

According to Kathryn, uric acid buildup from alcohol consumption no doubt contributed to Jeff’s arthritis, but there wasn’t much she could do about either problem that was plaguing the guitarist. “We took him to a specialist and got him diagnosed,” she says. “But as you can imagine, Jeff didn’t want to deal with any medication to help the problem. Jeff wasn’t a pill popper. When I would see him take an Aleve, I would know that he was in extreme pain from the arthritis and the Aleve would help him get through rehearsal or whatever he had to do. He dealt with that for many, many years.

“Doctors wanted him to stay away from three of his favorite things—beer, red meat and peanut butter—but Jeff was going to do this his way, and he would just deal with the pain on his own terms.”

In January 2011, an incident occurred that many would later assume was the cause of his death but wasn’t. Jeff was bitten on his right arm an insect that was carrying a flesh-eating disease called necrotizing fasciitis. Reports circulated that it was a spider that bit Jeff, but that was never confirmed. Whatever bit him, it was enough send the guitarist’s life into a tailspin.

“Jeff had been visiting a friend in the L.A. area,” Kathryn says. “He was in the Jacuzzi one night relaxing, and he had his arm over the side, and he felt something, like a bite or a prick. But of course he didn’t think anything of it. He came home about a week later, and he was pretty well lit when he came through the front door. He wasn’t feeling well, and he just wanted to go upstairs and go to sleep. Before he did he said, ‘Kath, I need to show you something, even though I really don’t want to.’

"And he took off his shirt, and I just freaked out when I saw his arm. It was bright red and three times the normal size. I said, ‘Jeff, we need to go now. We need to get you to the ER.’ But all he wanted to do was go to bed and sleep, and I knew that I was trying to rationalize with a very intoxicated person. So there was nothing I could do that night. But the next morning I convinced him to let me take him in. He didn’t have a lot of strength, but I was able to get him into the car.

“When we got to the hospital in Loma Linda, they took one look at him and they immediate knew what it was, so they took him right in. Jeff told me to go home because we both knew he’d be there for hours and neither of us thought it would be a life-or-death situation. About three or four hours later, Jeff called me and said, ‘Kath, it’s not good. They may have to amputate. I think you need to come back here.’

"When I got there, Jeff was on the stretcher waiting to go into surgery, and the doctor put it in perspective for me. He said, ‘I need you to see your husband. He may not make it.’ The doctor looked at Jeff and told him, ‘First I’m going to try to save your life. Then I’m going to try to save your arm. Then I’m going to try to save your career.’ And looking at Jeff on that stretcher and possibly saying goodbye, knowing that I may never see him again…”—she pauses—“…was one of the hardest moments of my life.”

The next few days for the Hannemans could only be described as nerve-wracking. Jeff was in the ICU in an induced coma after the initial surgery and breathing through a tube, his arm, for the most part, intact. Doctors attempted to remove the breathing tube at one point, but Jeff was unable to breathe on his own. Finally, after about the fourth day, the tube was removed and Jeff was breathing again. Her husband was alive, but as soon as they removed the bandages from Jeff’s arm, Kathryn knew the road to recovery would be long.

“I’ll never forget it—I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” she recalls. “All I could do was look up at the doctor and say, ‘How the hell do you fix this?’ And he said, ‘You know, Mrs. Hanneman, you’d be very surprised.’ And at that moment I had all the faith in the world that this doctor could fix his arm.”

Back home soon afterward, Jeff could begin the process of rehabilitating his arm in the hopes of regaining his ability to play guitar. The next few weeks saw more surgeries, staples and multiple grafts using skin from his left thigh. Wound-care suction devices were on hand to draw out the infection and help the skin grafts take. Physically, Jeff’s arm was on the mend. Emotionally, however, he was struggling. Depression was setting in.

“I couldn’t get Jeff to go to rehab or therapy,” Kathryn says. “I think he was letting the visual of his arm get to his emotions, and it was messing with his mind. It was hard to keep him upbeat at that point.

“I think he thought he could do this on his own—that he would just to go rehearsal and play, and that that would be his rehab. But I think he started to learn, once he tried rehearsing, that he wasn’t playing up to his ability and that he wasn’t able to play guitar at the speed he was used to. And I think that really hit him hard, and he started to lose hope.”

The incident with Jeff’s arm couldn’t have come at a worse time for the band. A European tour was booked for March and April 2011, and the legendary Big 4 tour, which saw Slayer sharing a stage with fellow thrash pioneers Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax, was on the schedule between April and September. These shows were immensely important for the band, but it was becoming increasingly obvious that Jeff wouldn’t be able to participate.

“For me it was really difficult to make the decision to go on without Jeff,” Araya says. “They started naming names to take his place, and I’m like, How can you guys even think about this? We can’t do this without Jeff. But we had to do something. Slayer, aside from being band members and really tight-knit, we are a business. Those are aspects of what we do that fans have a tough time understanding. So we had to make decisions because we were obligated to do these tours.”

Of all the possible replacements for Hanneman being bandied about, everyone was most comfortable with Exodus mainstay Gary Holt, a longtime friend of the band’s.

“I remember when the tour came up, Jeff said to me, ‘No. No. There’s no way in hell this band is going out without me,’ ” Kathryn says. “He was definitely hurt by the fact that, for the first time ever, the band had to go on without him, but eventually he became okay with it, and a lot of that was because it was his friend Gary that was going to fill in for him. He knew the band had to go on.”

“Gary was a friend, he wasn’t an outsider,” Araya says. “We’ve known him for 30 years and he was a good friend of Jeff’s. When we first met Exodus, he and Jeff were inseparable.”

Fans were hopeful that Hanneman was well on his way to a full recovery when the guitarist joined his bandmates onstage for two songs—“Angel of Death” and “South of Heaven”—at the Big 4 show in Indio, California, on April 23, 2011, four months after the bite on his arm. Behind the scenes, however, a different story was emerging.

“He wasn’t at his best that night, but he was able to come out and do those two songs,” Araya says. “It was after that that I think he realized that he could only play for a little bit and then had to stop. He would come in to rehearse and he would jam out some parts and then he’d stop and just kind of fiddle with his guitar. He did that a few times, but then he just stop coming to rehearsal.

“We told him, ‘Listen, we understand that you’re having a tough time playing your guitar, having a tough time coming back 100 percent, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t be a part of what we do, which is write songs. You are still Slayer, you are a big part of this band, you can still write music and you can still put ideas together. Sit in the studio and work with us, make us what we are.’ He was a big part of this band. I knew it and realized it a long time ago.”

“We were holding out hope until the day he died,” King says. “If he ever came to us and said, ‘Okay, I can do this,’ there was no question. This was his gig. Now, did I think that would actually happen? No, I didn’t.”

“I think part of him knew that he wasn’t going to be back in the band,” Kathryn adds.

As the realism about his situation began to set in, Jeff was forced to accept the fact that his livelihood was being stripped away, no doubt fueling his alcohol-induced decline over the next year and a half. Factor in Hanneman’s uncommunicative, reclusive nature, and there wasn’t much his bandmates could do but carry on.

“People have to make their own decisions about how they want to live their lives,” Araya says. “You can’t start dictating to people how they should live because it just pushes them away. It doesn’t help anything. It wasn’t easy but it’s not like we were blind to what was going on. We knew. And there were points that we tried to help and encourage him to come back—tell him he could still be a part of what we do, even if it wasn’t full time.

“But I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that he didn’t want to let us down. He didn’t want to disappoint us. He was very prideful and wanted to make sure he could come back at 100 percent. I think when he was having real difficulty over that last year, he just didn’t want us to know about it. He kept saying that he needed more time. And the isolation didn’t help much either. I think that no matter how things would have worked out, the end result would have been the same.”

“It eats you up because you think, Why can’t I fix this guy?” King says. “And it’s not that he didn’t want to be fixed. I mean, he didn’t want to die. But he also couldn’t help himself before it was too late.”

On May 2, 2013, the sudden news took the metal community by storm: Jeff Hanneman had died. Araya recalls his final communications with his longtime friend and bandmate: “I had been texting with him, and he even sent me a song that he had been working on. So it seemed like he was doing okay. But when I got the call that he was back in intensive care, I became concerned. Eventually he stopped responding to my texts. It was like a one-sided conversation.

“I was home with my family when I found out he had died. The phone rang and my wife answered it, and she had this look of dread on her face. She handed me the phone and didn’t say anything, and it was our manager, Rick [Sales], and he told me. I hung up the phone and went to my room and I cried.

“It hit my family hard, because they really liked Jeff, they knew him really well. My mother was really upset, my sisters really loved Jeff, and my brother too—he was Jeff’s tech for a long time. Everyone in my family knew him and loved him a lot.”

Currently, the future of Slayer is uncertain. Upcoming short tours of Europe and South America will go on as planned, but what happens after that is anyone’s guess.

“I plan on continuing,” King says. “I don’t think we should throw in the towel just because Jeff’s not here.”

As for Lombardo, even though his split from the band a few months ago was publicly acrimonious, he says his door is open for any future discussions with his former bandmates. “If they want to talk, I’m here. I don’t want any kind of animosity between us. Life is too short and we’re too old for that shit. I’m ready and willing, so we’ll see what happens.”

Araya, on the other hand, has no idea what the future holds for this band. And it’s a decision he’s currently struggling with.

“After 30 years, it would literally be like starting over,” he says. “To move forward without Jeff just wouldn’t be the same, and I’m not sure the fans would be so accepting of that drastic a change. Especially when you consider how much he contributed to the band musically. And you can have someone sit in for him, but there’s no one on this planet that can do what Jeff did.

“There’s no replacing him.”

This feature is from the 2013 issue of Guitar World magazine. For more information, visit the Guitar World Online Store.

The all-new August 2013 issue of Guitar World magazine is available now!

This month's issue features a tribute to Slayer's Jeff Hanneman, who influenced a generation of guitarists and changed the course of metal forever. Guitar World presents the complete, untold story of the late Slayer guitarist, who was behind such legendary thrash anthems as "Angels of Death," "South of Heaven" and "War Ensemble."

The August issue also includes Joe Bonamassa, who, on the heels of his London retrospective, shows talks about his busy career, his new album with singer Beth Hart and his ongoing love affair with the ultimate blues electric guitar, the Gibson Les Paul "Burst."

Also, on Ready to Die, Iggy Pop and James Williamson fire up a scathing indictment of a world gone horribly wrong. The godfather of punk talks to Guitar World about making Iggy and the Stooges' first new studio album in 40 years.

Plus, guitar virtuoso Steve Morse keeps Deep Purple alive and pumping on stages around the world. He discusses their new studio album, Now What?!

The issue also features:

Eric Clapton teams up with Jeff Beck, B.B. King, Gary Clark Jr. and other greats for the 2013 Crossroads Festival; 25 guitar and music apps you need to turn your smartphone or tablet into an extension of your guitar ... and much more!

Gear reviews include new products from Kemper, Blue Microphones, ESP, Budda, B.C. Rich, BBE, Danelectro and more. Check out the August 2013 VIDEOS PAGE right here

Five Songs with Tabs for Guitar and Bass!

• Slayer - "Raining Blood"
• Styx - "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)"
• Goo Goo Dolls - "Iris"
• Queen - "We Are the Champions"
• Deep Purple - "Burn"

The August 2013 issue of Guitar World is available now at newsstands and at the Guitar World Online Store.

This is an excerpt from the August 2013 issue of Guitar World magazine. For the rest of this story, plus a Jeff Hanneman poster and features on Buzz Osbourne of the Melvins, Joe Bonamassa, Iggy and the Stooges, Steve Morse of Deep Purple, Eric Clapton's 2013 Crossroads Guitar Festival, the 25 Best Guitar & Music Apps and more, check out the August 2013 issue at the Guitar World Online Store.

In January 2011, an incident occurred that many would later assume was the cause of Jeff Hanneman’s death but wasn’t.

Jeff was bitten on his right arm by an insect that was carrying a flesh-eating disease called necrotizing fasciitis. Reports circulated that it was a spider that bit Jeff, but that was never confirmed. Whatever bit him, it was enough send the guitarist’s life into a tailspin.

“Jeff had been visiting a friend in the L.A. area,” says Kathryn, his wife of 24 years. “He was in the Jacuzzi one night relaxing, and he had his arm over the side, and he felt something, like a bite or a prick. But of course he didn’t think anything of it. He came home about a week later, and he was pretty well lit when he came through the front door. He wasn’t feeling well, and he just wanted to go upstairs and go to sleep.

"Before he did he said, ‘Kath, I need to show you something, even though I really don’t want to.’ And he took off his shirt, and I just freaked out when I saw his arm. It was bright red and three times the normal size. I said, ‘Jeff, we need to go now. We need to get you to the ER.’ But all he wanted to do was go to bed and sleep, and I knew that I was trying to rationalize with a very intoxicated person. So there was nothing I could do that night. But the next morning I convinced him to let me take him in. He didn’t have a lot of strength, but I was able to get him into the car.

“When we got to the hospital in Loma Linda, they took one look at him and they immediate knew what it was, so they took him right in. Jeff told me to go home because we both knew he’d be there for hours and neither of us thought it would be a life-or-death situation.

"About three or four hours later, Jeff called me and said, ‘Kath, it’s not good. They may have to amputate. I think you need to come back here.’ When I got there, Jeff was on the stretcher waiting to go into surgery, and the doctor put it in perspective for me. He said, ‘I need you to see your husband. He may not make it.’ The doctor looked at Jeff and told him, ‘First I’m going to try to save your life. Then I’m going to try to save your arm. Then I’m going to try to save your career.’ And looking at Jeff on that stretcher and possibly saying goodbye, knowing that I may never see him again…”—she pauses—“…was one of the hardest moments of my life.”

The next few days for the Hannemans could only be described as nerve-wracking. Jeff was in the ICU in an induced coma after the initial surgery and breathing through a tube, his arm, for the most part, intact. Doctors attempted to remove the breathing tube at one point, but Jeff was unable to breathe on his own. Finally, after about the fourth day, the tube was removed and Jeff was breathing again. Her husband was alive, but as soon as they removed the bandages from Jeff’s arm, Kathryn knew the road to recovery would be long.

“I’ll never forget it—I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” she recalls. “All I could do was look up at the doctor and say, ‘How the hell do you fix this?’ And he said, ‘You know, Mrs. Hanneman, you’d be very surprised.’ And at that moment I had all the faith in the world that this doctor could fix his arm.”

Back home soon afterward, Jeff could begin the process of rehabilitating his arm in the hopes of regaining his ability to play guitar. The next few weeks saw more surgeries, staples and multiple grafts using skin from his left thigh. Wound-care suction devices were on hand to draw out the infection and help the skin grafts take. Physically, Jeff’s arm was on the mend. Emotionally, however, he was struggling. Depression was setting in.

“I couldn’t get Jeff to go to rehab or therapy,” Kathryn says. “I think he was letting the visual of his arm get to his emotions, and it was messing with his mind. It was hard to keep him upbeat at that point.

“I think he thought he could do this on his own—that he would just to go rehearsal and play, and that that would be his rehab. But I think he started to learn, once he tried rehearsing, that he wasn’t playing up to his ability and that he wasn’t able to play guitar at the speed he was used to. And I think that really hit him hard, and he started to lose hope.”

For the rest of this story, plus a Jeff Hanneman poster and features on Buzz Osbourne of the Melvins, Joe Bonamassa, Iggy and the Stooges, Steve Morse of Deep Purple, Eric Clapton's 2013 Crossroads Guitar Festival, the 25 Best Guitar & Music Apps and more, check out the August 2013 issue at the Guitar World Online Store.

A public memorial event for Slayer's Jeff Hanneman was held on Thursday, May 23, at the Hollywood Palladium, which has a capacity of about 4,000. Fans were invited to the free first-come, first-in event. Hanneman died May 2 of alcohol-related cirrhosis. He was 49.

Check out our gallery of fans who attended the memorial event below.

The guitarist helped shape Slayer's uncompromising thrash-metal sound as well as an entire genre of music. His riffs were heard in the songs he wrote, including "Angel of Death," "Raining Blood," "South of Heaven" and "War Ensemble." Hanneman co-founded Slayer with fellow-guitarist Kerry King, bassist Tom Araya and drummer Dave Lombardo in Huntington Park, California, in 1981.

For more than 30 years, Hanneman was the band member who stayed out of the spotlight, rarely did interviews, amassed an impressive collection of World War II memorabilia, was with his wife Kathy for nearly three decades, shut off his phone and went incommunicado when he was home from tour, did not want to be on the road too late into any December as Christmas was his favorite holiday, and, from the time he was about 12, woke up every, single day with one thing on his mind: playing the guitar.

It was once suggested to Slayer that if they would write "just one mainstream song that could get on the radio," they would likely sell millions of records and change the commercial course of their career, similar to what had happened to Metallica with 1993's "Enter Sandman."

Hanneman was the first to draw a line of integrity in the sand, replying, "We're going to make a Slayer record. If you can get it on the radio, fine, if not, then fuck it."

In tribute to the thrash metal legend, we're honoring Jeff's legacy with the following issue. Click here for more information on this special issue.

On Thursday, May 9 — exactly a week after Slayer's Jeff Hanneman died of liver failure at age 49 — the band released an update on the facts surrounding the guitarist's death.

The statement revealed Hanneman's official cause of death: alcohol-related cirrhosis, an irreversible scarring of the liver.

"While he had his health struggles over the years, including the recent necrotizing fasciitis infection that devastated his well-being, Jeff and those close to him were not aware of the true extent of his liver condition until the last days of his life," reads the statement.

"Contrary to some reports, Jeff was not on a transplant list at the time of his passing, or at any time prior to that. In fact, by all accounts, it appeared that he had been improving. He was excited and looking forward to working on a new record."

In the same press release, Slayer announced that a public memorial in Hanneman's honor will take place later this month at a still-to-be-determined date and location.

Here is the remainder of the message on the band's website:

"While the details are being worked out now, Slayer wants its fans to know that there will be a celebration of Jeff Hanneman's life sometime later this month, along with Jeff's family and friends, the public will be invited to attend. More information will be posted here [slayer.net] soon.

"Kerry King and Tom Araya are trying to deal with the loss of their brother by remembering some the good times they shared.

KERRY: "I had so many great times with Jeff ... in the early days when we were out on the road, he and I were the night owls, we would stay up all night on the bus, just hanging out, talking, watching movies ... World War II movies, horror movies, we watched Full Metal Jacket so many times, we could practically recite all of the dialogue."

TOM: "When we first formed Slayer, we used to rehearse all the time, religiously, 24/7. Jeff and I spent a lot of time hanging out together, he lived in my father's garage which was also our rehearsal space. When he got his own apartment, he had an 8-track and I would go there to record songs I'd written, not Slayer songs, other stuff I'd written. At a certain point, you still have the band but you start your own lives outside of the band, so that 24/7 falls to the side, you don't spend as much time together as you once did. I miss those early days."

KERRY: "He was a gigantic World War II buff, his father served in that war, so when Slayer played Russia for the first time — I think it was 1998 — Jeff and I went to one of Moscow's military museums. I'll never forget him walking around that place, looking at all of the tanks, weapons and other exhibits. He was like a kid on Christmas morning. But that was Jeff's thing, he knew so much about WW II history, he could have taught it in school."

TOM: "We were in New York recording South of Heaven. Jeff and I were at the hotel and we had to get to the studio — I think it was called Chung King, a real rundown place. So we left the hotel and decided to walk, but then it started raining. We walked maybe five blocks, and it was raining so hard, we were totally soaked, so we decided to get a cab. Here we are, two dudes with long hair and leather jackets, absolutely soaked, thumbing to the studio. No one would stop. We had to walk the entire way. Jeff was a lifeline of Slayer, he wrote so many of the songs that the band will always be known for. He had a good heart, he was a good guy."

Photo: andrewstuartphotos.com

Originally published in Guitar World, November 2009; photos by Travis Shinn

Slayer continue their quest for global domination with World Painted Blood, their annihilating new album. Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King talk about working hard, playing fast and living life on the dark side.

"Have you ever seen someone and the thought comes in your head that you just want to... kill 'em?”

Coming from most any other human, this line of questioning might be surprising. But when the human in question is Slayer’s Jeff Hanneman, it’s par for the course. He is, after all, the dark-spirited counterpart to Kerry King, his co-guitarist in Slayer. “But why would you do it? Why would I do it?” Hanneman continues, as he cracks open a second Corona. “I think about that more than I should.”

Hanneman is airing his most sinister thoughts as we settle into our booth at a Mexican restaurant in Chino, California. Paradoxically, he happens to be very happy, and with good reason. Slayer have just put the finishing touches on their 10th full-length album, World Painted Blood, and by all accounts the record is a thrashing tour de force that continues in the vein (no pun intended) of Christ Illusion, the group’s 2006 return to form.

“Christ Illusion was the first album of pure attitude we did since [1990’s] Seasons in the Abyss,” says King, who credits Christ Illusion’s success to the return of original drummer Dave Lombardo following a decade-plus break. “We messed around and kept our bit of fame, but when Dave came back was when we really started getting big again.” More than 25 years into their career, at a time when most bands their age are simply reheating the hits on nostalgia tours, Slayer are bigger and more vital than ever. Christ Illusion debuted at Number 5 on the Billboard charts, and fans worldwide came out in droves to see the original lineup—which includes vocalist/bassist Tom Araya—tear it up on multiple headlining tours, big-ticket gigs with Marilyn Manson and the mega-metal Unholy Alliance Tour.

It was on the wave of this success that Slayer entered the studio in October 2008 with producer Greg Fidelman (Metallica, Slipknot, Marilyn Manson) to begin tracking World Painted Blood. “Dave was in a real ‘Slayer’ mood,” Hanneman says. “He was on fire and loving what he was doing. Plus the band was getting along better than in previous years. Not that it’s been bad, but because Dave was in a good mood we’d go into practice with an idea, jam it out and have fun.”

Those initial sessions resulted in three Hanneman-penned tracks, including the break-neck single “Psychopathy Red,” which was released as a limited seven-inch vinyl disc in conjunction with national Record Store Day on April 18. Afterward, the band took a break for the holiday. When Slayer met back up with Fidelman in March 2009 at L.A.’s Pass Studios, they hammered out the rest of World Painted Blood, taking a more spontaneous approach than they had for Christ Illusion. King says, “With Christ Illusion, we were ready for so fucking long before [the record company] even allowed us to record. This time, we weren’t prepared at all. At the beginning of the week, Jeff would come in with a new song to record, and we hadn’t even played it yet.”

For years, King and Hanneman have been Slayer’s primary songwriters, and they remain so. While they used to collaborate closely, the songwriting process has become an increasingly solitary one for the guitarists since 2001’s God Hates Us All. It has less to do with artistic friction than it does with simple logistics. “It’s not because there’s something bad between us,” King explains. “It’s because we’re maturing and growing. We also live further apart, and by the time we go into the studio the shit’s already done.”

Hanneman adds, “In the old days Dave was hard to get a hold of, too. We’d say, ‘Come to practice at five,’ and he’d show up at seven. So Kerry and me would sit there and work stuff out together. But nowadays everybody’s more professional, so we tend to write on our own.”

The guitarists’ songwriting process may have changed, but the good-natured competitiveness that fueled some of metal’s most memorable riffs is still alive and well. “In the early years there was a lot of competition,” Hanneman says, with a laugh. “Now I don’t really feel that I should be playing to beat Kerry, but I definitely want to impress him. It’s not about winning or losing, because we’re on the same team.It’s healthy form of competition.”

Slayer may be entering their most productive, responsible and affable period, but one listen to World Painted Blood reveals that the guys haven’t lost their signature hardcore metal edge. It’s more like they’ve honed it. Written against a backdrop of economic collapse, the swine flu epidemic, foreign nuclear threats, protracted war and a general sense of increased global unrest, World Painted Blood’s tormented sounds, pit-inducing riffage, logic-defying solos and demented lyrics are as relevant, and vicious, as ever. From the determined marching-beat of the midtempo “Americon” to the ripping thrash punk of “Hate Worldwide” and “Psychopathy Red,” the album is a terrifying collection of squealing and distorted classic thrash. In other words, it’s Slayer just the way we like them.

When Guitar World arrives at Slayer’s rehearsal studio in Chino, King and Hanneman are geared up and raring to go. The band has finished all tracking and punch-ins, and Fidelman is completing final mixes for World Painted Blood. The guys have just wrapped up two weeks of intensive rehearsals and are about to kick off a short tour, dubbed Canadian Carnage, with coheadliners Megadeth before jumping on this summer’s mammoth Rockstar Mayhem Fest with Marilyn Manson, Killswitch Engage, Bullet for My Valentine, Trivium, Cannibal Corpse, Job for a Cowboy, Behemoth and others.

In the following interview, Hanneman and King dig deep into their pasts to reveal the at times dark details that ultimately led them to their latest, bloodiest creation.

GUITAR WORLD To kick things off, I’ve always wondered about your first guitars and amps. Do you remember the first instruments you picked up?

JEFF HANNEMAN I think it was a Fender Reverb amp, because that’s all I could afford. It wasn’t very big and it didn’t even sound that great. I mean, it wasn’t a Marshall. My first guitar was a Les Paul that I bought off a friend for 500 bucks. I worked a long time to save up enough money for it. I did telephone solicitations for the marshals—you know, the police. I would call old ladies and say, “Can you give us money?” [laughs] And I was actually good at it! I was selling that shit, because I wanted that Les Paul. Then when I had enough money to buy it, I immediately quit.

GW Kerry, what were your first instruments?

KERRY KING Man, I think my dad lived vicariously through me. He would get the [local classified paper] Recycler all the time to see who was selling what. I played whatever caught his eye in the paper, because back then I didn’t know what I wanted to play.

My dad had a Gibson ES-175 lying around the house, and I learned to play on that for a while. He also had a Fender 1963 L Series Strat with a tobacco sunburst finish, which is probably worth a ton of money right now [roughly $30,000]. But we traded it for the B.C. Rich Mockingbird that I eventually used on our first album, so it served its purpose well. Thank you, Mr. L Series Strat.

When I started doing shows, I had a Fender Super Showman, but it didn’t take me long to get the Marshall thing going. My practice amp back then, which I still have today, is a Fender Super Champ. Those things are awesome.

GW Did you take lessons?

KING I took lessons for the first 18 months. My teacher was this doctor of music theory, which to this day is a topic I know nothing about. But he taught me how to structure leads with whatever rhythms are behind you. I went back to the same teacher before Seasons in the Abyss. If you listen to the leads on South of Heaven and compare them to Seasons, it sounds like a different guy. South of Heaven is a guy who didn’t care and just made up some horseshit leads. But I started seeing my name in guitar polls and I thought, If I’m in these polls, I’d better at least know what I’m doing. So I started paying more attention and putting respect into what I was doing with my instrument. I’m sure I still don’t do it “right,” but it makes sense to me.

HANNEMAN I took a few lessons, but I really sucked at it because I didn’t want to be taught by anybody. Kerry and I actually met at that place where I was doing the phone solicitation job. He was in the building trying out for a band. Because I was always working there I knew the musicians and I would hang out and play guitar with them once in a while. So Kerry was there and he looks over at me and goes, “You wanna start a band?” And I’m like, “Yeah, why not.” Kerry had been playing a lot longer than I had; I was still learning. I knew right then and there that I had to learn how to play guitar really quickly or I wouldn’t be able to be in the band. As Tom likes to say, “The next thing you know, Jeff’s writing all the songs.” [laughs]

GW Jeff, were your parents influential in helping you get into music?

HANNEMAN Kerry had the supportive dad and got all the money and stuff from him. My dad was one of those hardcore guys that would say, “You’re never gonna make it.” [laughs] But there’s no bitterness there. [laughs] Fuck it, I don’t care. Kerry was just brought up differently than I was. Plus, it’s irrelevant now, isn’t it? But I just loved music: from Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, all the way to Sex Pistols and punk. Then one day, I can’t tell you at what exact age, I just realized that I wanted to play guitar because it was cool.

GW So you were listening to lighter stuff like Zeppelin and Aerosmith. Can you point to a moment in your own past that led you down the path of extreme metal?

HANNEMAN I guess Zeppelin is some happy stuff compared to us. It’s pretty hippy, too. The only thing I can put my finger on is, back when I was listening to Zeppelin and Aerosmith and whoever, I remember always liking the heavier songs. I knew that if I were ever in a band it would be all about being heavy and dark. At this point it’s an unwritten rule for us to always sing about the dark side. We just do it. But I do know that in the beginning I always hated the love songs, and the happy, hippy ones, too.

KING Sure it’s a nice, sunny day here, but the world is not all flowers. And there’s five billion bands singing about the flowers. I just like to put things in perspective…hardcore style. [laughs] And I’m not into the flowers, anyway. [laughs] I don’t know the exact thing that made me so aggro. That’s something for the psychoanalysts to figure out.

GW Were you rebellious as kids?

KING Not really, because I was always worried about ramifications from my dad. My dad is 40 years older than me, and both my parents are old-fashioned. I stayed in line or I’d get hit. My dad would make me go out and pick the tree branch that I wanted to get hit with. I’d be like, “How about that little one over there.” [laughs] Or he’d cut off a piece of the garden hose. That’s true fear, man. Now if you hit your kids it’s, “Oh, that’s wrong.” Fuck you. I got hit and I’m fine. Or maybe that’s exactly my problem. [laughs]

HANNEMAN Wow. I’ve never heard that story. My dad was very into discipline, too. But I still rebelled. Me and my dad were so much alike that we would just butt heads. I pretty much hated him from the age of 16 to 24 for no real reason. My mentality was that I’d never let him win. I remember every once in a while he’d grab me by the throat and I would be like, [assuming a defiant stance] “Come on!” But after the age of 24 he became my hero. I loved the guy to death.

GW So, Kerry, you walked a pretty straight path when you were younger. Were you good in school, too?

KING Yeah, up until my senior year when I found chicks. [laughs] Then it was all over. In junior high I got the math award for the whole school, and by 12th grade I was in math analysis. But when I found girls, numbers just didn’t make sense anymore. I didn’t get it. And I used to own that shit. It’s weird how quickly it fell apart: A’s, A’s, A’s, D’s. [laughs]

GW Let’s talk a bit about the writing for World Painted Blood. Since 2001’s God Hates Us All you guys have been mostly writing independently and bringing in tracks for the rest of the band. What are your home-demoing processes like?

HANNEMAN I have a drum machine at home that I use to work out my stuff. Then I come to practice with a CD and say, “Here’s the song idea, what do you think?”

KING I basically map out the song at home so I have a method to my madness when I come into the studio. I have this old cassette player that I got from Radio Shack. It’s the same thing I’ve been using since Slayer’s beginnings. I just never graduated to the drum machine and the four-track like Jeff. I don’t know how he has the patience to do it, because Jeff is not a patient man. [laughs] I’d rather play guitar and keep my ideas happening than have to stop and play around with the drum machine. I know in my head what I want the drums to be like, so when I go in I just convey that to Dave. It’s funny because we were rehearsing for this album and I’d be bringing in cassettes like, “Well, here’s the new song.” And they had to look around to find something to play it on. [laughs]

GW Since you’re writing guitar parts without drums, were there any instances on World Painted Blood where the riffs that you brought in didn’t work with Dave’s drums?

KING Sure. For this recording cycle, I brought in a couple of riffs that didn’t work when the beats were added. The one riff on “Snuff” is like a nine count, which was interesting to work out. It wasn’t until I showed Dave that I realized we needed to have an industrial-sounding snare that he would hit nine times, following me.

GW You and Jeff also play some crazy dual-lead sections on that song.

KING Yeah, we’ve been talking about doing more of that. Double leads are always an afterthought. I don’t know why, because isn’t that the point of having two guitarists? So this time I was keeping that more in mind, and “Snuff” is one that actually blossomed into having two big double-lead sections in it.

GW When it comes to actually sitting down at home and writing riffs, do you have certain rituals you follow?

HANNEMAN A lot of times I’ll be playing while I’m drinking beer and watching hockey or football with friends. But then I’ll get an idea and be like, “See ya!” I’ll take off down to my music room and record it real quick before I forget it. Because when I forget it, it’s usually gone. But most of the stuff that I come up with is something I’ll hear first in my head. Then it’s the process of trying to match that thought on the guitar. That’s what happened with “World Painted Blood.”

KING The best thing for me is to be in a quiet room where nothing’s happening. If I’m watching TV, I’ll be paying too much attention to that, or I’ll make up a riff and not even know that it’s good. I definitely want to have silence so I can concentrate on what I’m doing. Then I’ll just noodle around, and if something catches my ear, I’ll put that on tape.

GW What’s your preferred environment for writing lyrics?

HANNEMAN Lyrics are a different thing. For lyrics I like to get in a dark mood. I like to be alone, and I usually don’t drink. I like drinking when I come up with guitar riffs, but not when I’m working on lyrics. I’ve found that you can really reach the darker side when you’re sober. [laughs] I just sit there by myself and think about things and write down a bunch of ideas and dark thoughts. Then I put them into verse form.

KING I definitely need to concentrate, too, because you gotta think about rhyming and being poetic and that sort of thing. When I sit down to write I have my dictionary and synonym finder. I’d rather write without those things, but if I can’t think of the right word then I’ll use them. You need ideas that make sense, not just mindless, drug-infused cock-eyed shit. [laughs]

GW Do you keep a journal with all these ideas?

HANNEMAN I have a notepad that I write all my ideas in. You should see it. It’s got all kinds of crazy stuff on it that you’d recognize from the last few albums.

KING I probably use one notebook binder per record. If some ideas don’t get used, I yank them and put them in a folder for later. Sometimes I have all the lyrics before we start recording, but for World Painted Blood we were recording the entire time while I was writing lyrics. This was a very weird process for us.

GW Slayer are known for their taboo subject matter. Is there any topic that is off limits for you guys?

HANNEMAN I think the only thing we wouldn’t hit on is rape. I don’t know if you’ve ever met anyone like this, but there’s this certain type of man that just hates women. I’ve met a few of them and it’s like, “What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you hate women?” We have wives, mothers and sisters, so rape is the one thing we haven’t touched on. Except for necrophilia, which is the dead, so who cares. [laughs]

KING Huh. I don’t think there are any areas I wouldn’t explore. I mean, Jesus Christ, Jeff can write about the Holocaust but he can’t write about rape? That’s bizarre. I’m not saying it to one-up Jeff, but the topic of rape is not tootaboo for me.

GW Jeff, on “Unit 731” you dig deeper into Word War II subject matter, this time dealing with atrocities that Japan committed [Unit 731 was a covert Japanese unit that experimented on human subjects during WWII]. How did you first get interested in WWI and Nazi history?

HANNEMAN My dad. He was a military guy. He got drafted and went to Germany to fight in World War II . When he came home he had a lot of German medals that he took off dead Nazis. Years later he was cleaning out his drawers and he gave them to me. I was like, “These are kinda cool.” That’s when I started getting into medals and the World War II thing. Plus, I had two older brothers that were in Vietnam.

GW So coming from a military family, how did you manage to stay out of the service?

HANNEMAN I escaped it! [laughs] Nah, I was just too late. Both my older brothers were drafted. I probably would have gone, too, but I was born too late.

GW Have you added any new medals to your collection?

HANNEMAN I got a real nice German Knights Cross, but I’m not collecting anymore. I was really into it in the late Eighties. I still have them set up in my music room where I write, though.

GW “World Painted Blood” has a lot of Biblical imagery, like “Angels fall wings on fire crucified” and “Gomorrah’s dream to live in sin.” Do you read the Bible to look for these kinds of descriptions?

HANNEMAN I’m just a regular atheist. The whole Bible thing is interesting, but I don’t believe it. But I do go back and read it a little bit to refresh my memory. I think Kerry does that too. And Tom, well, I think Tom’s a Catholic, so he’s actually religious. I really like that aspect: Tom has to sing all the bad shit that me and Kerry write. [laughs]

GW You guys also dip into political subject matter with “Americon.” What’s the inspiration behind that track?

KING I’m not the most political dude on the planet, so it’s odd that “Americon” came out of me. My inspiration behind that song comes from the idea that Europeans think all of America’s wars are about oil. So I wrote about it from their perspective. And I was even thinking, Well, maybe we are actually like this. But I don’t care what anyone thinks of my government. This is one of the best places to live.

GW How do you feel about President Obama and the change in leadership?

KING I think it’s a good thing, because the Republicans fucked up a lot of shit. For a long time I thought I was a Republican, but now I think there’s things in both factions for me. If I had to tell somebody what I was, I’d say Independent. Once this election started to come around, I was telling people that our next president would be either a black man or a woman. I’m not the fairest dude on the planet, but it’s good because it gives black kids an incentive to be president. I think that’s what a president should do.

GW Can you guys talk about what you think is the difference between your styles and how that makes up the balance and tension in Slayer?

HANNEMAN I just think my style is a little darker. We both write stuff that’s fast, but I think I write the darker, more evil stuff.

KING A buddy of mine has a wife who’s a big Slayer fan, and he played her “Psychopathy Red.” And she said, “That’s not Kerry’s song.” I was like, “How the fuck did she know that!” Because it really sounds like it should be my song. Like Jeff said, people tend to think my songs are more aggro and Jeff’s are moodier. But that’s not to say I won’t write a moody song and he won’t write a fast one like “Psychopathy Red.” We are individuals whose styles are very different, but we can each do what the other guy is doing, too.

GW Guitar players often say that Slayer’s solos don’t “make sense.” What governs your approach to soloing?

HANNEMAN Nothing. [laughs] Kerry took lessons; I learned from scratch. I just picked up a guitar and started to play. I don’t know anything about scales or notes or stuff like that. When it comes to solos, I just go off. I don’t know where the proper note should be, and I don’t care. [laughs] But I think it works real well with our music. It’s just so off the wall and crazy. It’s like, “What the hell are they doing!” [laughs]

KING Like I said earlier, around Seasons I went back to my original teacher and did some brush-up shit. So for Seasons, I probably had like 80 to 90 percent of my solos mapped out. Then I was talking to Dime [Dimebag Darrell] one day and I said, “Dude, I got all these leads mapped out and they sound badass!” And he’s like, [in a gravelly southern accent] “King, don’t forget to do what you do best: line them up and just make some noise!” And I’ve done that ever since. Now I make up 75 to 80 percent of them and I wing the rest of it.

GW Do you ever write stuff that’s not right for Slayer?

KING No. Because even if I played with anybody else, what I contributed would be very much Slayer. The one time I almost played with Dime, I called him up and I’m like, “Dime, I got this idea for a song that you gotta do with me.” I told him how we should cover “Snortin’ Whisky” by Pat Travers. He learned it, and we were planning to do it, but Damageplan were doing press for New Found Power and he didn’t have time. I didn’t want to rush it, because I figured we could do it anytime we wanted. But of course, that never happened.

HANNEMAN I write tons of stuff. I’ll just get up one day and throw some drums down on the drum machine and start writing. Every once in awhile a riff comes along that’s worthy of Slayer. In fact, that’s where some of my best riffs come from: when I’m not thinking about Slayer. I’ll be jamming on some bluesy stuff, having fun, and then I arrive at something heavy. I hate sitting down and going, “I’m going to write a Slayer song.” It’s not gonna work that way.

GW Do you save those, and if so, would you ever considering putting them out as a solo project?

HANNEMAN I listen to them all the time. I’ll probably listen to those going home tonight. But I wouldn’t consider putting them out until Slayer is done. I wouldn’t mind doing something else, but I don’t know what that would be yet. Because, in case you didn’t notice, Slayer is pretty fucking cool. [laughs]

GW Let’s talk about working with producer Greg Fidelman. What did he bring to the process?

HANNEMAN He is an excellent producer and great to work with. The last producer we had, Josh Abraham, was sitting there on his laptop the whole time while we were recording. Every once in a while he’d look up and say, “Yeah, that sounds good.” Then he’d go write back to tapping the computer keys. That guy was an idiot. But Fidelman is excellent because he really gets into it. World Painted Blood was recorded so well that it captured exactly how we sound at rehearsal.

GW Did Greg’s engineering work on Metallica’s Death Magnetic influence your decision to go with him? To my ears, the production on World Painted Blood—specifically how everything is situated in the mix—has some of the same flavor as Death Magnetic.

HANNEMAN I haven’t listened to Metallica in a long time. Maybe Kerry or Tom did.

KING Yeah I listened to it, but it had nothing to do with choosing him.

GW Did you like the Metallica record?

KING It’s better than the last one… Now, that’s a very safe comment. [laughs]

GW Did you use any new gear on World Painted Blood?

HANNEMAN My gear is all the same. I got my ESP with the EMG-81/85 pickup combo and the EMG-SPC [Strat Presence Control]. I like more chunk when I get to the slow stuff, so I’ve been using a gate, which works great. For this recording, I used a Dunlop Zakk Wylde wah, a Boss RG E-10 [graphic equalizer], and two Marshall JCM800s that ran to two Marshall MF400B cabs and Greg’s Orange cab.

KING My seven-string is new. It’s a B.C. Rich Warlock with a Kahler bridge. It has a Trans-Black finish with my tribal graphic over it. It came out really cool and spooky looking. I have EMGs in it, too. My main guitar for tracking was my B.C. Rich V with an EMG-81 in the bridge and an EMG-85 in the neck, along with an EMG PA2 [preamp booster switch] and a Fernandes Sustainer. Last album I used my prototype head, but this time I played through the Marshall KFK 2203 head that anyone can go out and buy. I used that with my Marshall JCM800 “Beast” and Greg’s Marshall and Orange heads, and we mixed all the sounds together to create my main tone. For leads, I added a Boss RG E-10 EQ to the JCM800 “Beast” and used either a Zakk Wylde wah or a classic Dunlop Cry Baby wah.

GW I heard that [Dimebag Darrell’s commonlaw wife] Rita brought Dime’s original Dean from Hell down to the sessions. Did you end up using it?

KING Rita’s a good friend, and Dime was a good friend, so Rita decided to bring my boy’s Dean from Hell down to the studio for inspiration. But I didn’t end up using it, because the guitar is set up very differently than my guitars. We had everything set up to support my EMG pickups and the Kahler.

GW In the past, Kerry, you’ve tracked all the rhythm guitar parts. Why is that, and did you do that on World Painted Blood?

KING I did track Jeff’s rhythm parts, and I used his rig and guitars. The only reason is that I usually track my stuff first, so I’m already dialed in to what the track is all about.

HANNEMAN Plus we both have different styles. We play well together, but we play a little differently. I learned a long time ago that if one guy plays both guitar parts it sounds much better. I just chose to let him do it because he’s usually quicker than I am. He’s not quicker in speed; he’ll just get it recorded faster. I fuck around too much. [laughs]

GW Kerry, do you ever track Tom’s bass parts to keep things moving in the studio?

KING If Tom wants me to. [When we were tracking] this album, he didn’t even know half my songs, because we made them up so quickly. He only came in a week before we went in the studio. I already knew them, but if he wanted to play them I was like, “Sure.” My idea of a perfect bass player is [Judas Priest’s] Ian Hill, who stands back there and plays his root note. I’m a guitar player—what do you expect me to say! [laughs] But sometimes after I get the two guitars down, I’ll sit down and write a third harmony for the bass. I did that on the intro to “Atrocity Vendor,” which came out really cool.

GW I also want to talk a little about Dave’s signature style. What about Dave’s playing makes him the perfect drummer for Slayer?

KING The oddness of Dave is that he’s a left-handed drummer playing a right-handed kit. Maybe that’s responsible for some of the bizarre stuff he pulls off. Other than that, even today when we play live he’ll make up stuff on the fly, and hopefully we’ll all land on the same spot. But it’s that recklessness that keeps us focused. The only thing you hear coming out of the monitors on my side of the stage is me and Dave. No vocals, Hanneman or anything. I need to hear myself and I need to follow Dave. Any more is just extra noise.

GW You guys are obviously in full-throttle Slayer mode right now. What you like to do when you’re off the clock?

KING I’m a football fanatic, and I also raise snakes. I got my first one after our first U.S. tour, when we used to stay at fans’ houses because we didn’t have any money. We stayed with a group of people, I think it was in Houston, who called themselves the Doom Society. They had a boa constrictor and they named it Slayer. So when I went home I got one and named it Venom, because I was way into that band back then. I stopped raising snakes in the late Nineties, because it was becoming more time consuming than my band. Then years later, when I met my wife, she wanted to get a snake, and I got back into it.

GW Jeff, you have pets too, right?

HANNEMAN I’ve got two Rottweilers. They’re the coolest. They love you to death. One is called Guderian Von Himmel, after the German General [Heinz] Guderian from World War II. The other one is named Slezia, after a German territory that used to be in Poland. My wife and I do serious commands in German, because if you say “No!” they aren’t going to listen. But when you say, “Nein!” they pay attention.

GW Before you join up with Manson for this summer’s Mayhem Fest, you’re heading out on a short Canadian run with Megadeth. Kerry, I know in the past you’ve been pretty outspoken about your less-than-positive feelings toward Dave Mustaine. Have things cleared up between you two?

KING I just don’t have any respect for Dave. As far as playing goes, I can’t take anything away from him. He’s awesome. But I know things. That’s not like, “Ooh, I know things.” I just know he’s a hypocrite, and I have no respect for that kind of person. But when I see him I’ll say, “What’s up Dave?” If he’s not an asshole to me, I won’t be one to him.

HANNEMAN Oh, it’s gonna be good. [laughs] I’m looking forward to it. If nothing happens between them I’m probably gonna have to instigate a little bit. [laughs] I like Dave, and obviously Kerry, but I also like to watch a good fight.

GW It seems like you guys have refined the Slayer sound to its most powerful state on the past two albums. At this point, do you feel you’ve perfected the formula?

KING If there is such a thing as perfection, I’d say we’ve got it. I think we’ve added every aspect we want to add. When AC/DC puts out an album, I want it to sound like fucking AC/DC. We’re the thrash version of AC/DC. It’s what our fans want to hear.

GW This record is the last in your commitment with Rick Rubin’s American Recordings. Tom has stated that the band would sit down and discuss whether it was right to continue playing music. What are your thoughts on this?

KING If you asked me 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have said that I’d still be playing today. But then I go out and watch someone like Dio, who still sounds just like his records—and he’s 60 something! But I can’t imagine, even if I find the fountain of youth tomorrow, that I’ll be playing at 60. Slayer is an event. It’s not just listening or watching—it’s everything. And when it’s not able to be that anymore, I don’t want to do it. That said, I still feel young right now and I still enjoy playing. There’s gonna be a time that maybe Tom pulls the plug and says, “I don’t wanna headbang anymore. My throat hurts. I’m tired of this.” But that’s something we’ll all have to decide ourselves. But I’ll tell ya one thing: it ain’t gonna be me.

Brad Angle Google +

This story is from the Guitar World archives. Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman died of liver failure on May 2, 2013, at age 49.
Slayer's Jeff Hanneman talks to Guitar World about the early days of the band.

What inspired you to start playing guitar?

I was really into metal when I was growing up. It was just something I thought I could do and wanted to try.

What was your first guitar?

A Les Paul. I can’t remember how old I was. I got a job and saved my money until I had $500. Two months after that, I met Kerry [King], and that’s how Slayer got started. I worked in an office building at the time, and this other band practiced in one of the rooms. After work, I’d go hang out with those guys and play, just to learn the instrument. Kerry was actually trying out for that band, but we were more in tune with one another, musically speaking, so we decided to start a group. He also played with Tom [Araya] in another band, and he knew a drummer that lived on his block. So it all just fell together.

Was Kerry more advanced than you as a guitarist?

Oh, big-time. He’d been playing for five years or something. I’d been playing for two months. But I wrote our first song.

What was the first cover song you learned?

I’m not sure. During our first year, we were playing Priest and Maiden cover tunes all the time while we figured out what we wanted to do as a band. At the time I was getting out of metal and into punk. That’s how Slayer’s sound came together—it’s the speed of punk combined with the big riffs of metal.

What do you recall about your first gig?

I was nervous as fuck before we went on, but as soon as we started playing, I loved it, because I loved showing off. Once I got up there, I was like, Yeah! This is great!

Have you ever had a nightmare gig?

Equipment failures really piss me off. I literally start throwing guitars. That gets me upset. You’re jamming along, checking out the crowd and having a good time, and then your equipment goes down. You can’t just stop the show and say, “Oh, Jeff’s got a guitar problem.”

Do you have a favorite piece of gear?

I have two guitars I no longer play because they’re so beatup. That first Les Paul that I bought is special to me. I also have a Jackson guitar that I played to death.

Do you have any advice for young players?

Play as much as you can. That’s what I had to do because of my inexperience. And don’t get frustrated.

Photo: Joey Foley

Only two years after contracting an extremely rare skin disease, Slayer guitarist and co-founder Jeff Hanneman died Thursday, May 2, of liver failure at a Southern California hospital.

Slayer announced the news Thursday afternoon by posting this statement on the band's website, Facebook page and Twitter feed:

"Slayer is devastated to inform [you] that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11 a.m. this morning near his Southern California home. He was 49.

"Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure. He is survived by his wife Kathy, his sister Kathy and his brothers Michael and Larry, and will be sorely missed."

Hanneman, an extremely gifted thrash guitarist, has appeared on the cover of Guitar World magazine and was voted one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by Guitar World readers in 2012. In our Greatest Guitarists readers poll, he earned the No. 85 spot, just ahead of Peter Frampton.

Hanneman hasn't toured with Slayer since early 2011, when he contracted necrotizing fasciitis from a spider bite. Exodus' Gary Holt stood in for Hanneman starting that February. Pat O'Brien joined the band when Holt returned to Exodus in 2011.

After not appearing live with the band since October 2010, Hanneman joined Slayer at a Big 4 concert in Indio, California, in April 2011. He surprised the crowd of 50,000 when he walked onto the stage unannounced and played "South of Heaven" and "Angel of Death." Backstage in Slayer's dressing room, Hanneman relaxed on a couch and said, "I'm the happiest man in the world."

In 2011, Slayer updated fans about Hanneman's health:

"As you know, Jeff was bitten by a spider more than a year ago, but what you may not have known was that for a couple of days after he went to the ER, things were touch-and-go. There was talk that he might have to have his arm amputated, and we didn't know if he was going to pull through at all. He was in a medically-induced coma for a few days and had several operations to remove the dead and dying tissue from his arm. So, understand, he was in really, really bad shape. It's been about a year since he got out of the hospital, and since then, he had to learn to walk again, he's had several painful skin grafts, he's been in rehab doing exercises to regain the strength in his arm; but best of all, he's been playing guitar."

Hanneman was born January 31, 1964, in Oakland, California, and acquired a Gibson Les Paul as a teenager after saving $500.

"Two months after that [in 1981], I met Kerry [King], and that’s how Slayer got started," Hanneman told Guitar World. "I worked in an office building at the time, and this other band practiced in one of the rooms. After work, I’d go hang out with those guys and play, just to learn the instrument. Kerry was actually trying out for that band, but we were more in tune with one another, musically speaking, so we decided to start a group. He also played with Tom [Araya] in another band, and he knew a drummer that lived on his block. So it all just fell together."

In 1984, Hanneman, Dave Lombardo and Suicidal Tendencies' guitarist, Rocky George, had a brief punk side project called Pap Smear. The band was due to start recording when Hanneman was advised to avoid the side project by Slayer's producer, Rick Rubin. Hanneman took Rubin's advice, eventually using two songs from the project on Slayer's 1996 album, Undisputed Attitude.

Hanneman and King perfected a twin-lead guitar style that pushed the band to the head of the thrash metal movement of the early '80s. They have been crowned as one of thrash metal's "Big Four," along with Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth.

Hanneman had performed on every Slayer release and wrote many of the band's best-known songs, including "Angel of Death" and "South of Heaven." His compositions have been recorded by Hatebreed, Children of Bodom, Hellsongs and Cradle of Filth and sampled by Styles-P.

Funeral arrangements are still pending.

Reaction from the rock and metal world

Heavy metal Artists and fans, many of whom were gathered at Club Nokia in Los Angeles for the 5th annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards, expressed their grief over Hanneman's death via Twitter. The Golden Gods show was dedicated to Hanneman.

Here are some tweets; for more reactions from artists and gear manufacturers, head here.

SLASH: Tragic & shocking news about Jeff Hanneman. He is going to missed by so many. What a sad day for Metal. RIP man.

ALEX SKOLNICK: Sad news. RIP JH. He'll be remembered at #GoldenGods

TESTAMENT: R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman, brother in thrash.

HATEBREED: Rest In Peace Jeff Hanneman! A True Heavy Metal LEGEND!

DINO CAZARES: I'm extremely shocked and sad to hear about Jeff Hanneman. He was a huge influence on my playing when I was growing up.

CHIMAIRA: RIP Jeff Hanneman. Icon

GUS G.: Gutted to read the news. RIP Jeff Hanneman :( the music world has lost yet another one of the greats

ROBERT CAGGIANO: Wow... I just heard some really sad news . R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman

MIKE PORTNOY: WOW....I'm in shock...RIP Jeff Hanneman....wow....

JOSE MANGIN: Crushed out here in Cali about untimely passing of Jeff Hanneman @Slayer, the #goldengods will be dedicated to Jeff & his legendary riffs!

IN FLAMES: We are so devasted to hear about the passing of Jeff Hanneman. One of the greatest have passed on and please,...

EDDIE TRUNK: Tragic news of @Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman passing away

DUFF McKAGAN: Jeff Hanneman of @Slayer RIP. Wow. I'm so very sorry for your loss Hanneman family.

An untold number of heavy metal artists and fans, many of whom are at Club Nokia in Los Angeles for tonight's 5th Annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards, instantly expressed their grief over Hanneman's death via Twitter. As a tribute to the late guitarist, who died May 2, 2013, of liver failure, tonight's Golden Gods show is dedicated to Hanneman.

Here are several tweets, with more on the way:

ZAKK WYLDE: RIP brother. You will be missed.

DAVE MUSTAINE: Tonight one less star will be shining and sadly, the stage got just a little bit darker. Jeff Hanneman 1964-2013.

MACHINE HEAD: RIP Jeff Hanneman. One of the greatest songwriters in all of metal let alone music. Our hearts go out to his family and band mates.

SEYMOUR DUNCAN: A member of the Big Four has passed away. Horns up for Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman

NIKKI SIXX: Just heard the sad news about Jeff Hanneman of Slayer. My condolences to his family,the band and all his friends and fans..RIP

DEATH ANGEL: R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman. Love & respect to the Slayer family.

DAVID ELLEFSON: My condolences to Slayer and Jeff Hanneman's family today.

RANCID: Our heart goes out Jeff Hanneman's friends and family. You will be missed man.

SLASH: Tragic & shocking news about Jeff Hanneman. He is going to missed by so many. What a sad day for Metal. RIP man.

GIBSON GUITAR: RIP Jeff Hanneman. You will be greatly missed.

ALEX SKOLNICK: Sad news. RIP JH. He'll be remembered at #GoldenGods

TESTAMENT: R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman, brother in thrash.

HATEBREED: Rest In Peace Jeff Hanneman! A True Heavy Metal LEGEND!

DINO CAZARES: I'm extremely shocked and sad to hear about Jeff Hanneman. He was a huge influence on my playing when I was growing up.

CHIMAIRA: RIP Jeff Hanneman. Icon

GUS G.: Gutted to read the news. RIP Jeff Hanneman :( the music world has lost yet another one of the greats

ROBERT CAGGIANO: Wow... I just heard some really sad news . R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman

MIKE PORTNOY: WOW....I'm in shock...RIP Jeff Hanneman....wow....

JOSE MANGIN: Crushed out here in Cali about untimely passing of Jeff Hanneman @Slayer, the #goldengods will be dedicated to Jeff & his legendary riffs!

IN FLAMES: We are so devasted to hear about the passing of Jeff Hanneman. One of the greatest have passed on and please,...

EDDIE TRUNK: Tragic news of @Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman passing away

DUFF McKAGAN: Jeff Hanneman of @Slayer RIP. Wow. I'm so very soory for your loss Hanneman family.

While Kerry King stopped short of saying everything was smooth sailing when we talked to him at the Guitar World Rock & Roll Roast of Zakk Wylde in January, the Slayer guitarist seemed upbeat on what 2012 holds for thrash's most evil band.

"Before the holidays, me and Dave were already working," King said. "We got three songs down before we broke, and I sent him a fourth one, and we've got a couple we didn't use on the last record, so we're already six deep."

With King's bandmate and co-writer Jeff Hanneman still feeling the ill effects of a necrotizing fasciitis -- a flesh-eating disease he caught while on tour in Australia, likely from a spider bite -- King has taken the lead writing material for what will become the band's 12th studio album.

"I've got parts to like five or six songs I just can't finish. December was great, January's been a drought. I'm waiting for the drought to be over so I can finish them. I've got halves; I just can't marry the half to something else."

That’s not to say the follow-up to 2009’s World Painted Blood won’t feature some riffs from King’s partner in crime.

"We always said we'd never entertain the idea of doing an album without [Jeff]," King recently told Metal Hammer. “But there he is, getting those riffs ready!"

King was adamant that his comrade would be ready when the band hit the road in the late spring, but with some questions over Hanneman’s health lingering, the question remains: Will there be a new Slayer album this year?

"Absolutely," King said. "I want to be [in the studio] in March and April. I want to be done before we go on tour, which is May 25."

Originally printed in Guitar World, September 2006.

In the midst of 2006's Unholy Alliance tour, Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton took a few minutes to interview Slayer's Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King.

MARK MORTON What was your collective mindset going in to make the new record [Christ Illusion]? Were there concepts that you wanted to see come to fruition, or was it more about letting the songs come out in the moment?

KING We don’t do concepts. We don’t have band meetings. The only time we made a collective decision to do something different was with South of Heaven. We had done Reign in Blood, and we said, “Let’s give them something they won’t expect.” And it was also to make the live sets more interesting, because to go up there and just play fast, it’s a barrage that people can’t take. We wanted to mix it up and make our show more of a rollercoaster ride.

MORTON How has studio technology changed the way you write and record?

HANNEMAN Pro Tools rules. You get the opportunity to try more things because you don’t waste so much time trying to get the perfect take.

MORTON What do you do when you’re at home? Do you have any hobbies? Do you cut your own grass?

HANNEMAN I pay somebody to do that! It’s just hockey and video games for me.

KING I breed snakes. I got out of it for a while because it was taking too much time away from Slayer. When I got remarried, my wife had a snake and I got back into it. I’ve got about 50 now, and I’m starting to breed again.

MORTON What’s in your stage monitor mix?

KING My guitar and Dave’s drums.

HANNEMAN Mostly kick drum.

MORTON What’s left to do with heavy metal music that hasn’t been done? Where can we, as musicians, break new ground?

HANNEMAN Don’t overthink things. Make the next record, and keep rolling with it.

KING Just have fun. It ain’t about analyzing it. Instead of wondering, “Where do we go from here?” just fucking go. Let the Jäger lead you. [laughs]

Originally printed in Guitar World, September 2006.

In the midst of 2006's Unholy Alliance tour, Children of Bodom guitarist Alexi Laiho stopped drinking long enough to interview Slayer's Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman.

ALEXI LAIHO What do you do before the show if you’re totally hungover?

KING There’s no escaping that shit! You just have to deal with it. Get onstage, get through the first two songs, let the adrenaline kick in and you’ll be fine.

LAIHO Jeff, do you play only Jackson guitars? If so, would you be willing to try other brands?

HANNEMAN I actually have only one Jackson! ESP makes all of my guitars now. But that Jackson was probably the last one I paid for, which is why I used it so much; I had to get my money’s worth. That’s why, for the longest time, it was in all of our photos.

LAIHO What’s your favorite song to play live?

HANNEMAN “Angel of Death” or “Raining Blood.”

KING Whether you open with “Raining Blood,” close with it or put it somewhere in the middle of a set, the crowd will go fucking nuts. It’s chaos.

LAIHO Jeff, what led you to play such extreme music?

HANNEMAN Punk rock. No doubt.

LAIHO How do you guys kill time on the road?

KING Any way we can. There’s so much downtime. Neither of us would trade the time onstage for fucking anything. But the worst is the time between soundcheck and the show. You can’t leave the venue, and you can’t party too much. You’re stuck either inside or on the bus. So in between cities, Jeff and I generally stay up and play movies all night until we get to the next town. Then we crash. You make the best of your time that way. We sleep all day, wake up for soundcheck and get going.