About.com Heavy Metal Guide's Chad Bowar has issued an interview with SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo. The following is an excerpt:

Q: How do you measure the success of an album these days? It used to be a platinum or gold album, but with sales down across the board and so much illegal downloading, those numbers don’t mean the same as they once did.

A: "Without looking at all that stuff you just said, I think the reaction of the people when you’re playing the songs is another way to evaluate whether the record is good or not. For this one, when we opened with 'World Painted Blood', the reaction of the people when the song ends was very positive. I think the feedback from the kids is important too, through the internet or even the press. A lot of little things like that.

Q: Are you finding that younger fans are discovering Slayer in different ways, perhaps through video games or YouTube?

A: "Absolutely. That’s a whole new publicity channel or marketing channel. Video games are amazing. There are a lot of bands I’ve discovered through video games, like SKINDRED or KASABIAN. It happens to me, so I’m sure it happens to kids, too. They look them up, then go screw it up by downloading the songs for free."

Read the full interview at this location.

Slayer's new album, World Painted Blood, has entered the official ARIA Top 50 Physical Album Chart (Australia's Official Music Chart) at #9. Clicl below to view the chart. More worldwide chart positions will slowly emerge this week.

According to Hits Daily Double, World Painted Blood is headed for between 35-40,000 units in sales in the US, guaranteeing the band another Top Ten album on the Billboard charts. Slayer's last album, Christ Illusion, hit #5 in the US in August 2006, improving on its previous highest charting album, Divine Intervention, which had debuted at #8 in 1994.

BraveWords.com spoke with Slayer drummer Dave Lomardo recently about World Painted Blood - check out the chat here.