Dissonant, chromatic, heavy and with a lot of downpicking stamina: As a guitar duo with his Slayer colleague Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman shaped the metal guitar like a few others. Hanneman gave Slayer an important part of her identity: he brought the love of punk into play. He was decisive for some of the most important Slayer songs and made a decisive contribution to the songwriting of classics such as “Raining Blood” or “Angel of Death”. Hanneman not only shaped Slayer musically, but also in text. He wrote about mass murderers, cruel crimes and human abysses.
Jeff Hanneman: childhood and first musical influences
Jeff Hanneman was born on January 31, 1964 in Oakland, California, and grew up in Long Beach. The fact that he later used war and military issues and aesthetics at Slayer has a family background: his father had fought in Normandy in World War II, his two brothers served in the Vietnam War.
Hanneman was socialized by punk and early metal. His early influences were Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, but also Dead Kennedys and Minor Threat. Hanneman loved the raw, uncompromising, no -frills on punk – the aggression anyway. At the age of around 17, he started playing guitar himself. He taught himself songs by Judas Priest and Venom and soon developed his own style: fast, dissonant, aggressive.
Meeting with Kerry King
Fate wanted Hanneman to meet Kerry King at the age of 18. He remembered “Knac.com“:” Kerry and I got to know each other-I was hung around with a few friends who … no idea what music it was … rather so Robin Trower-like music. And for some reason, Kerry spoke to this band. Kerry and I came into conversation, both took to play the guitar and started to play with a drummer. Played, and then we said to each other: ‘Why don’t we just found our own band?’ [lacht] And me like this: ‘… fuck yeah!’ [lacht]”
Hanneman continues: “At some point – Dave [Lombardo] Lived down the street from Kerry – Dave spoke to him because he had heard that Kerry had guitars, and Zack, was in the band. Then Kerry said that he was in another band with a singer named Tom [Araya] had played – and soon it was there too. The rest is history. “
Jeff Hanneman: Founding of Slayer
So that was the birth of Slayer. The band was officially launched in 1981. At first you were a pure cover band, soon the group wrote its own material. In 1983 the band played as a supporting group of Bitch in the “Woodstock Club” in Anaheim, California. In addition to some cover versions, Araya, King, Hanneman and Lombardo also offered their own material. The founder of the then fresh label Metal Blade Records, Brian Slagel, was in the audience and so enthusiastic that he asked the band to have a song for his compilation Metal Massacre III to contribute. This is exactly what Hanneman & Co did – with the play “Aggressive Perfector”.
From the debut album to Metal history
In the same year the band went to the studio to record their debut album “Show No Mercy”. They had to procure the money themselves – Tom Araya contributed his savings, Kerry King’s father also borrowed money from the group. With “Show No Mercy” Slayer made a lot of attention in the metal scene and sold 20,000 copies in the USA. The band toured, grew bigger.
This was followed by the darker, harder EP “Haunting the Chapel” (1984) and “Hell Awaits” (1985). The greatest successes celebrated Slayers with their albums “Reign in Blood” (1986) and “South of Heaven” (1988), who are the most important metal albums of all time. “Seasons in the Abyss” was also groundbreaking. Slayer’s career was a bit abbreviated, just as much: The band published a total of 12 studio albums-on the last, Repentless (2015), Jeff Hanneman was no longer heard, even though he got songwriting credits for a song).
Hanneman: Fascinated by the Second World War – and criticism of it
Hanneman often caused controversy and allegations with his interest for the Second World War Ichemen. In the song “Angel of Death” he deals with the cruel human trials of the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele in Auschwitz-relatively pictorial and without a moral comment. Many therefore accused Slayer a trivialization of the Nazi crimes. Hanneman rejected these allegations. It was never about glorifying something – rather, the abysmality of the topic appealed to him:
“When I wrote the song, it was with the tour buses before the time – we just drove to the gigs at the time,” he recalled 25 years later in conversation Totally guitar. “There was nothing to do in the car except for reading, so I bought and thought a few books about Mengele: That would be an malignant topic that could be written about.”
That Hanneman’s fascination for the topic (he had this with Lemmy from Motörhead) often interpreted as a sympathy for the Nazi regime, but he was amazed-but he had an explanation: “I know why people interpret this wrong-they just react reflexively. Obviously? [lacht]”
Hanneman’s texts described the horror of human abysses – the topic of mass murderers also fascinated him. Morally, the other should not be there, nor was Slayer, just as little as horror films offer a moral code.
Hanneman: Disease and Slayer end
In 2011 Hanneman suffered necrotizing fasciitis through a spider bite – an infection in which the tissue decomposes under the skin. Guitar games at the physical level that Slayer required was no longer possible. He pulled back from the band, but everyone hoped for a return. Exodus guitarist Gary cocks for him. Hanneman should only be on stage with Slayer once again: 2011 at the “Big Four” concert in California with Metallica, Anthrax and Megatheth.
Hanneman wanted to return to Slayer, but Kerry King made it clear to him that he was not yet able to physically able: “One of the most difficult things I had to do was say Jeff: ‘Age, you are not yet ready to play in Slayer.’ We kept trying to install it back into the mix because he was there from the start and we wanted to have him back, ”said King im interview With “revolver”. “We said to Jeff: ‘You know, Gary plays your gig – and Gary does not make crap. If you act as you act now … apart from the facade that people see you and are enthusiastic that you are there, sooner or later you will hear what you play – and know that it is not so good.’ That was a tough entertainment, for sure. “
Singer Tom Araya said: “I saw what happened, so I turned to Jeff and said, ‘Just move your ass back on tour. We will regulate everything else.’ But I have already given up.
Jeff Hanneman: Death
Jeff Hanneman died of alcohol -related cirrhosis on May 2, 2013. Slayer wrote on Facebook: “Slayer is destroyed to have to communicate that her band member and brother Jeff Hanneman died near his place of residence this morning. He will be painfully missing.” The band continued the last years of their existence without Hanneman and continued with Gary Holt, reminded of their late friend and colleague at every show with a banner (Hanneman – Still Reigning). Hanneman had been married to his wife Kathryn since 1989, whom he met at a show. The couple had no children.