With the title and release date just announced for Slayer’s Repentless, due out September 11th (Nuclear Blast), today the thrash icons announce their heaviest release ever – literally – Repentless, Metal Eagle Edition. Made of aluminum alloy, measuring 15″ X 17″ X 3″ and weighing in at a hefty seven pounds, the Metal Eagle Edition will house a deluxe digipak of the new Repentless CD plus exclusive bonus content to be detailed soon. The limited (only 3000 copies worldwide) and numbered Metal Eagle Edition will be a direct-to-consumer item and available exclusively via the Nuclear Blast mail-order online stores. Pre-orders are available now, so log onto nblast.de/SlayerRepentlessEagle for purchasing info.
The highly-anticipated Repentless is Slayer’s 11th studio album, the first since 2009’s critically-acclaimed, Grammy-nominated World Painted Blood and the first with producer Terry Date (Pantera, Slipknot, Soundgarden). The band – Tom Araya/bass, vocals, Kerry King/guitar, Paul Bostaph/drums, and Exodus/Slayer touring guitarist Gary Holt, who recorded lead guitar parts for about a half-dozen of the album’s new tracks – started recording Repentless in March 2014, and made the track Implode available as a free download in April of that year. The band continued to record between September 2014 and mid-January 2015 at Henson Studios in Los Angeles. For the album, Implode was completely re-recorded from the ground up, and When The Stillness Comes, used as an instrumental track in a Scion commercial, got a revamped intro and all new vocals.
Repentless also includes Piano Wire, an unfinished song from the World Painted Blood sessions written by Hanneman. About the track, Rolling Stone wrote that it “…begins with an eerie guitar line before evolving into a full-on-doom (and classic Slayer) riff onslaught…” King put it this way, “When I hear it, I think ‘Jeff.’ It sounds like a Jeff Hanneman song.”
The 12-track Repentless is, according to those who have heard it, a sonic assault of brutal, ominous, lightening-fast and heavy-as-hell music with lyrics that unmask what Slayer knows best – the terror, the corruption and the societal turmoil that dominates our world.
“The new album sounds like Slayer,” said Araya. “In the past, our fans have always known what to expect, this time they don’t. But we really like it, and I don’t think the fans are going to be disappointed.”
As is expected from Slayer, the band will support the release of Repentless with extensive touring across the globe, beginning this summer when the band headlines the Mayhem Festival. That tour begins June 26th at Sleep Train Amphitheater in San Diego, CA. The complete tour schedule is posted below. To watch a video teaser for Repentless, please click here.
June:
13 Bonnaroo, Manchester, TN
16 Paramount, Huntington, Long Island NY
17 Paramount, Huntington, Long Island NY
19 State Theatre, Portland, ME
20 Amnesia Rock, Montebello, Montreal
(Mayhem headline dates):
26 Sleep Train Amphitheatre, San Diego, CA
27 San Manual Amphitheatre, San Bernardino, CA
28 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA
30 White River Amphitheatre, Seattle, WA
July:
1 Idaho Center Amphitheatre, Boise, ID
3 Ak-Chin Amphitheatre, Phoenix, AZ
4 Isleta Amphitheatre, Albuquerque, NM
5 Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Denver, CO
7 Harrah’s Council Bluffs, Council Bluffs, IA
8 Eagles Ballroom, Milwaukee, WI
10 Kilpsch Amphitheatre, Indianapolis, IN
11 DTE Energy Amphitheatre, Detroit, MI
12 First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Chicago, IL
15 Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, Toronto, ON CANADA
17 Susquehanna Bank Arts Center, Camden, NJ
18 First Niagara Pavilion, Pittsburgh, PA
19 Xfinity Theatre, Hartford, CT
21 PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ
22 Meadowbrook (Bank of NH Pavilion), Gilford, NH
24 Jiffy Lube Live, Bristow, VA
25 Xfinity Center, Boston, MA
26 Nikon at Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY
29 Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood, Atlanta, GA
31 Whitewater Amphitheatre, San Antonio, TX
August:
1 Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Houston, TX
2 Gexa Energy Amphitheatre, Dallas, TX
2 Responses
No Dave, no Slayer. Period.
Slayer have been through a lot. They lost Jeff (R.I.P.) then Dave left the band again. I read posts on the other news threads on this website and I agree that the screaming, off the wall extreme metal vocals is a turn off for me, But I love Slayer and have never put them in that category simply because not only does Tom have a great voice but they’ve always had great hooks to their songs, however aggressive they are. I’ll support them but musically speaking, I’m not going to immediately accept what they put out. I’ll have to listen to the entire album before I make a judgement. They’ve let me down before. The 90’s were a weird time for Slayer and it showed. I’ve never cared how blasphemous their lyrics were or how controversial they were. I looked at it like going to see a great horror movie: it’s art, however over the top it was. But what grabbed me was the songs and the vicious performance of the music. I was 16 when REIGN IN BLOOD came out and I LOVED IT! I still love that album. The attack and tightness of the music was jaw dropping. They did so much within what was a very dense and confining approach to thrash. The key to Slayer, in my opinion, has always been Dave Lombardo. Case in point, listen to the albums he’s not on. No offense meant to Paul Bostaph, because he’s a great drummer, but Dave is one of a kind. He’s this crazy, off the wall, jazzy drummer that kept that band on it’s toes and his absence was very noticeable until he rejoined for the CHRIST ILLUSION album. That album, in my opinion, is the best start to finish album since SEASONS IN THE ABYSS. I’ll keep an open mind when the new album comes out, but it has a lot to stand up to.