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Slayer was an American heavy metal formed in Huntington Park, California.

History[]

Formation[]

Slayer was formed in 1981 by Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, Dave Lombardo, and Tom Araya in Huntington Park, California. The group started out by playing covers of songs by bands such as Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Venom at parties and clubs in Southern California. The band's early image relied heavily on Satanic themes that featured pentagrams, make-up, spikes, and inverted crosses. Rumors stated that the band was originally known as Dragonslayer, after the 1981 film of the same name, but these allegations were later denied. According to Lombardo, the original band name was to be Wings of Fire before they settled in with Slayer. It was he who designed the iconic logo. For inspiration, Lombardo thought in a perspective of a murderer of how they would carve out the logo with a knife and since he's lefthanded, the logo is unintentionally slanted to the right.

In early 1983, Slayer was invited to open for the band Bitch at the Woodstock Club in Anaheim, California to perform eight songs, six of which were covers. The band was spotted by Brian Slagel, a former music journalist who had recently founded Metal Blade Records. Impressed with Slayer's recent performance, he met with the band backstage and asked them to record an original song for his upcoming Metal Massacre III compilation album. The band agreed and their song "Aggressive Perfector" created an underground buzz upon its release in mid 1983, which led to Slagel offering the band a recording contract with Metal Blade.

Show No Mercy[]

With no budget set, the band had to finance its upcoming album out of their own pockets. Combined with earnings Araya made while working as a respiratory therapist and borrowing some cash from King's father, the band entered Track Record Studios in Los Angeles, California in November 1983. The band's first studio album, Show No Mercy, was released on December 3, 1983. Ten tracks were included in the release. Going on a national tour in clubs helped bolster sales for the recently released album.

In February 1984, King briefly left the band and joined Megadeth, where he played five shows before returning to Slayer. In June 1984, Slayer released an EP titled Haunting the Chapel, which contained three tracks. Shortly afterward, Slayer went on a national club tour using a Camaro and U-Haul trailer. On November 16, 1984, Slayer released their first live album titled Live Undead. It contained seven tracks.

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