Slayer Family Tree
This is a project aimed at making it easy to see who inspired the bands you love or even hate. For this I try not to use any influences that the band don’t claim themselves. There will be a focus on predecessors but successors will be added as they site the band. These trees become more and more interactive as new bands are added, allowing you to click any band that has a tree and jump to it.
We want our lists to be better. If you know something that belongs on this list, let us know. When in doubt we will leave it out, so we need reliable sources.
Slayer are one of the earliest thrash bands and part of the big four. They are known for their more extreme sound compared to others of the time. Their core line up consisted of guitarists Kerry King and the late Jeff Hanneman. Vocal and bass was handled by Tom Araya. Dave Lambardo was on drums for the early and most important albums. Paul Bostaph took his place through much of the 90’s. Dave Returned for two albums and Paul once again returned for their last release which also had Exodus guitarist, Gary Holt in the place of Jeff. All music writing credit is shared between Jeff and Kerry. Tom has occasionally contributed to lyrics.
Dimebag Darrel
Kerry described early Slayer as a cross between Venom, Mercyful Fate, with a bit of Judas Priest and a bit of punk.
Kerry talked about Exodus being like brothers to them, both very similar bands. He names Bonded by Blood as one of his favorite albums. He also gives credit as Metallica being the first thrash band and names Master of Puppets as a favorite album. He remembers him and Jeff seeing them in their early days when Dave Mustaine was still on guitar. Besides his metal influences he also mentions listening to Boston and Elton John.
Kerry named favorite singers as Halford, Dio, and Bruce Dickinson, in that order.
Jeff has earlier influences that are hard rock and heavy metal, his hardcore punk influences started after. He said that is where Slayer’s speed and aggression come from. On the other hand though, Kerry has stated that much of the moody or slow stuff from Slayer is written by Jeff where Kerry tends to write the faster stuff.
Tom was first inspired to play music through what his older brother was listening to and learning to play. This was 60’s rock like The Beatles and Rolling Stones. He say his big influences early on came from the radio in the 60’s stuff from Motown and pop and rock music of the time including: Jefferson Airplane, The Turtles, Steppen Wolf, Janis Joplin. He names The Doors as a big influence. He named Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin as big influences growing up/ Tom says he listens to a large array of music including Chilean folk, old country. He his a big fan of Elvis and Simon and Garfunkle, Iron Maiden, The Police.
Dave named drum heroes as Bill Ward, John Bonham, Ian Paice, Mitch Mitchell, and Ginger Baker. He was first inspired to drum through his brother who was listening to stuff like Cream, Janis Joplin and Led Zeppelin. He said he would play on boxes before having a drum set. He also says as a kid he was into Kiss, Ram Jam, Stevie Wonder, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and Doobie Brothers. Dave said that in the early days he was into punk which influenced him to play faster.
Because Paul was not part of the original line up or have writing credit with the band I won’t cover his influences here. Eventually Forbidden will probably get a family tree and his influences will be covered there.
Obviously Gary will be covered with Exodus.
Bands influenced by Slayer!
As this project advances, bands will be added here… there are many!
Sources:
https://geocities.restorativland.org/SoHo/Study/9077/slayer.html
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/slayers-kerry-king-my-10-favorite-metal-albums-197333/venom-black-metal-1982-197516/
https://guitar.com/features/kerry-king-interview-good-king/
https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/kerry_king_explains_what_he_did_at_final_slayer_shows_that_some_fans_didnt_notice_comments_on_people_saying_band_was_going_to_fold_after_hannemans_death.html
http://www.knac.com/article.asp?ArticleID=3153
https://www.revolvermag.com/music/raining-blood-jeff-hanneman-origin-legacy-slayers-defining-song
https://www.facebook.com/MITFR/photos/a.247331665301618.63511.194273063940812/376624455705671
https://web.archive.org/web/20081208043348/http://www.midwestmetalmagazine.com/interviewslayer.html
https://bravewords.com/news/slayer-guitarist-jeff-hanneman-im-in-a-weird-mood-right-now-with-music
https://web.archive.org/web/20150417081113/http://knac.com/article.asp?ArticleID=3456
https://www.fuse.tv/videos/2013/12/slayer-music-influences
https://www.wikimetal.com.br/interview-with-tom-araya-slayer/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GNCGLPWxw8
http://myglobalmind.com/2014/03/09/exclusive-interview-thrash-drum-legend-dave-lombardo-former-slayer/
https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/slayer-s-dave-lombardo-talks-about-his-early-musical-influences-with-exploremusic/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Urf29ac9bA
https://metaladdicts.com/dave-lombardo-how-dave-mustaine-behaved-in-metallica/