Abort Magazine spoke with SLAYER frontman Tom Araya recently while on the road with the Canadian Carnage tour. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Abort: We understand you have a new album on the way.

Araya: "Yes, it should be out by the end of summer."

Abort: Is there a tentative title for that release yet?

Araya: "Yeah, I think we have a title. World Painted Blood, which is a pretty fitting title because of what’s going on in Iran, and not only in Iran, but everywhere where people are protesting. They want their freedom, so that’s pretty fitting. It’s tripped out how all the songs revolve around that."

Abort: So is it thematic or a concept album of sorts?

Araya: "No, we just wrote them and Jeff (Hanneman; guitarist) said he wanted to call the album that. Then it hit me… that’s pretty fitting for the times."

Abort: And you’re happy with it?

Tom: Yeah, oh yeah, real happy with it. I think the songs will ring true for…" (someone's cell phone rings)

Abort: Slayer's tour plans?

Araya: "After we do the states we’ll probably head to Japan, Australia and South America and then back to do a US tour. We’re probably going to Europe too I think. We got a lot of stuff going on."

Read the entire interview here.

On July 27th, Slayer will shoot a video for a track off their upcoming new album. As a result of this scheduled shoot, the band's gig at the LC Pavillion in Columbus, Ohio (also scheduled for June 27th) has been cancelled.

World Painted Blood - the follow-up to 2006's Christ Illusion - is being produced by Greg Fidelman in a Los Angeles, California studio and will include the album's title track and 'Psychopathy Red' (a Jeff Hanneman-penned tune streaming below).

Slayer's upcoming Canadian Carnage tour dates with MEGADETH are as follows:

June

29 - MTS Centre - Winnipeg, MB