Slayer guitarist Kerry King discussed the groups impending new album “Repentless” with Spin.com and had some choice things to say prior to its release tomorrow, September 11th. Here’s some of his more provocative quotes:
On bands surviving by playing live shows:
“We’re still recording great albums, sure we are, but nobody’s buying ‘em. But we’re very lucky to have a fanbase that has to have every shirt we’ve ever made. So that’s pretty much how you gauge your popularity these days. It’s people coming to shows and people of all ages wearing our stuff. When we came out and we’d play clubs, before the Internet age, we would go to high schools and stuff lockers with flyers because we knew who we wanted to come see us. Metal was new, old people didn’t get it yet. Now, you could just throw away those flyers.”
On internet backlash:
“I’m preparing for that gigantically on the new record, because people online are ten feet tall and bulletproof. They just say what’s on their mind without having to have any ramifications. But I know people are gonna just hate this record because Jeff and Dave aren’t on it. And that’s fine because I know — just by people I’ve played this for in the industry — that it’s gonna be great.
And there’s gonna be people that say it sucks, period. There are gonna be people that say it sucks without listening to it. That’s just part of society. It’s a little bit different now than it was then. When we first came out, magazines hated us. But by Reign In Blood, they were all on the Slayer bandwagon. I mean, at the end of the day it’s about having thick skin and not letting one opinion get you down. It’s not like your girlfriend or wife just told you your record sucked. It’s some faceless idiot — just dipshits on the Internet.”
On the future of metal:
“Do I see any band on the radar that can raise eyebrows? I don’t. But Metal comes around. Bands like us — from the first time it was big, in the early ’90s — still hung around and were putting out records. It’s just metal wasn’t big again until the early 2000s when it kind of got kicked in the ass again. And I don’t know why. People came back around to it. It was bands like Disturbed and Godsmack.
They were a little bit metal, but I knew people would use those bands as a gateway drug to get to the heavy stuff, which is us, Metallica, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath. And right now it just seems like we’re doing fine, but I don’t see any infusion of new bands. The big bands will stay big and then hopefully five to ten years down the line there’s another infusion of metal bands that people can actually get into. I hope it’s sooner, but I don’t see anything on the horizon at the moment.”
For more from that, head to Spin.com.
