Alongside Hellhammer, Bathory, and Sodom, Slayer helped invent the raw sound of death metal, which combined the literality of hardcore with the imaginative atmospheres of heavy metal and the structural composition of progressive rock and classical.
While all members of the band contributed to its signature sound, the riffs of Jeff Hanneman — spidery, angulary, deceptively complex — built the foundation of this new genre, as did the protean song structures and abrupt dynamics in the dialogue of riffs which he built into their formative works.
By working themes from history, philosophy, and religion into his lyrics and song titles, Hanneman expanded metal from the complaints-oriented nature of hardcore and the hedonism of heavy metal into a fusion of a mythopoetic view of the human endeavor and a desire for what Plato would call “the best life.”
We pay tribute today to a great artist and thinker. Clichés like “he left us too soon” tell only part of the story; he came, he created, and his creation continues to conquer. Hail the victorious dead!
Tags: death metal, jeff hanneman, slayer
His influence on metal can’t really be overemphasized. Hail!
Also I’d throw Sepultura on that list.
No doubt, and maybe Master as well, although they were more on the punk side. Should probably toss in DRI and Cryptic Slaughter as well.
Maybe Possessed as well?
Definitely, although much of what they did still sounds like upgraded speed metal to me.
Hey Jeff, if you’re reading this can you please tell God to turn off airplane mode? Thanks man.
are we talking DM of late 80’s and early 90’s? Virtually everything DM has been shit since 92/93.
It happens.
None of the standouts/notables of that era ever sounded anything like Bathory.
Could you name me a DM band from that time that used Quorthon style tremolo picking? Not the way he played it.
Or any DM band that sounded anything like “Under the Sign”? No.
And really, the only band that ever sounded like Frost/Hellhammer was because of Trevor from Obit.
Most DM borrowed heavily from Slayer, Possessed and Chuck, that’s about it.
Entombed had grind-y influences, and the scene gravitated that way for a bit.
But I don’t hear any Sodom, Bathory or Hellhammer in any of the late 80’s early 90’s releases.
Which was the pinnacle of DM
The riff vocabulary and style developed on early Sodom, Hellhammer, Bathory, and Slayer carried on in all of death metal. You see similar riffs and song structures, rhythms and aesthetics, even if no direct lifts, which seems to be what you are looking for.
I agree that Obituary extensively promoted the Celtic Frost sound with that cover.
Then The Abyss covered “Massacra,” which also helped.
Repulsion needs credit for getting the riff style and aesthetics out there, as do Massacra and Sepultura (as someone else here noted).
If you can imagine a Slayer/Bathory hybrid, it might be that first Massacra LP…
The CF/Hellhammer influence on death metal is more around the idea of incorporating slow doomy atmospheric riffs into songs, rather than a specific sound. Those slower parts distinguished death metal from thrash metal for me as much as the vocals did.
Mercyful Fate were also a big influence in the same indirect way – the idea of non-conventional song structures, riffs weaving in and out of each other into unpredictable patterns rather than the usual verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus. Nobody did that before Mercyful Fate, although Black Sabbath hinted at it at times. Hell Awaits is based on this idea, as is Autopsy Mental Funeral, Obituary Cause of Death, Morbid Angel Altar of Madness and Entombed Clandestine.
Sodom’s influence is also around this idea of slower doomy atmospheric parts but also around the idea of gore subject matter. There is a strong Hellhammer/Sodom influence on riffing style in Autopsy Mental Funeral. CF influence is strong in obviously Obituary and Autopsy and in British bands Benediction and Cerebral Fix who were basically all about CF worship.
But in truth many late 80s/early 90s Florida/Swedish DM bands were more influenced by brutal contemporary thrash like Slayer, Dark Angel, Kreator, Sadus, Razor, Violence and Sepultura than these old mid-80s bands. Certainly in terms of the precision and aggression we associate with death metal it has more in common with this style than it does with Hellhammer/CF, Bathory or Show no Mercy. Malevolent Creation sounds more like Demolition Hammer than early Sodom; Deicide sounds more like Ignorance era Sacred Reich than it does Bathory or Celtic Frost. But this obvious overlap tends to be glossed over in favour of a more reductionist analysis which posits these bands as the font of everything.
Grindcore is also a major influence that tends not to be remarked upon too often – strange considering this is where blast beats came from. British grindcore being more punk influenced does have a stronger CF/Bathory/Sodom influence than Florida death metal. Swedish DM owes a lot to Discharge.
Possessed may have pioneered the death metal vocal style but musically Seven Churches is a Show no Mercy clone.
I don’t think Bathory influence death metal much; that’s why the black metallers rallied around the flag of Bathory so strongly, it was a “new” sound that had not been harvested yet.
Some great stuff in here, but this needs work:
Bathory and Celtic Frost were still in current listening during the whole of the death metal era, having put out formative albums in 1987 (Into the Pandaemonium) for Celtic Frost and 1990 even for Bathory (Hammerheart). If we take your argument here:
Then that would incorporate Bathory and Celtic Frost.
In my view, people tend to accumulate influences rather than outright replace them except when they have rejected them, like how underground metal tossed out glam and rock.
Musically, death metal is closest to Bathory, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Sodom, and Slayer. Speed metal after that may have injected the technique of precision, but remember that this came mostly from the huge influence of Beneath the Remains which forced bands to get “technical” (precise in rhythm) versus “progressive” (use of harmony, key, and melody).
Or even more like other speed metal…
Discharge is hardcore not grindcore. Repulsion may be the band to watch here. Napalm Death was more of an art project.
I attribute part of metal’s heritage to progressive rock in The Heavy Metal FAQ because this was common in progressive bands in emulation of either classical or jazz.
I no longer view jazz as a musical style, but instead a technique of opening up songs for perpetual or arbitrary soloing, which is basically a good way to get musicians who do not think structurally like classical musicians to think about the implications of harmony created by melodic twists and turns in the songs.
I see it more as a contributor of raw riff-writing technique. Sodom perfectly balanced the hardcore and the metal, unlike Venom who were veering all over the place, and made it a simple language instead of the art-rock of Celtic Frost.
I would, if you wanted to track this stuff, make a list of the albums listened to by those in the know — not the hipster version, but the real thing — in each year.
For example, in 1989 everyone was listening to Beneath the Remains, INRI, the Slayer catalogue, the Metallica catalogue, the first couple Testaments, Nuclear Assault Handle With Care, and even that early-1980s stuff like DRI and Repulsion, which finally had its audience catch up to it.
Black metal went back to Mercyful Fate, Bathory, and Celtic Frost in order to rediscover what death metal missed in its pursuit of technique. If you take the death metal approach to rhythm and use it as a starting point on which to graft melody, you end up with black metal, which is explained by how they incorporated 1970s ambient (Tangerine Dream) into the mix.
Holy shit did he rule Long live Jeff!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOfwWvd2rR8