SLAYER Drummer Dave Lombardo - "We're Still As Brutal As We Were As Kids"
July 30, 2009, 15 years ago
SLAYER drum-tornado Dave Lombardo spoke with Scott Mervis from Post-gazette.com recently about a number of topics including their upcoming album, World Painted Blood, which is on the way in September. Lombardo compares it to classic Slayer like Reign In Blood, South Of Heaven and Seasons In The Abyss.
"I can't impose that opinion on anyone else in the band, but as the drummer, I feel it has what made those albums special."The lead track is 'Psychopathy Red', an account of Russian serial killer and cannibal Andrei Chikatilo in the grand Slayer tradition of gruesome, controversial songs like 'Angel Of Death'.
Lombardo doesn't have any input into what Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman are writing, but he's never had a problem with it.
"It's all an art form," he says. "I don't have any problems with Stephen King or any horror movie writers or artists who depict horror or pain. If anybody has a problem, they're pretty narrow-minded to look upon music as the single source of problems in this world. It's the people who are born cracked. I mean, I play the music, I listened to the music. I'm not going out and killing anybody or trashing buildings or whatever. It has nothing to with the music."There was a time when the PMRC was all over Slayer's back, but not so much anymore.
"No, because they realize how dumb they are," he says. "Time has showed them that, hey, we're not going anywhere. You're not going to shut us up. You want a little sticker on our record? Fine, put a little sticker on our record, but it's not going to change anything."Lombardo thinks it's going to be a while before Slayer shuts up. As a drummer, he doesn't think he's slowed down at all, something that would certainly sink the band.
"Even at 43, I'm still a primed, well-oiled machine," he says. "I've seen bands where it's like 'God, please shoot me if I ever look or play like that.' With Slayer, we're still as brutal as we were as kids. They could roll up in their wheelchairs and play guitars, just as long as I'm beating the [crap] out of the drums, it's all good."Read more here.
