BW&BK;'s "Metal" Tim Henderson spoke in-depth to SLAYER frontman Tom Araya recently about a number of topics including the band's recent tour with MARILYN MANSON, rumours of his retirement, the worldwide state of heavy metal, the roots of Reign In Blood and the band's newly-released Unholy Alliance Tour DVD/CD. Part I of the chat is as follows:

Thanks for filming your new DVD in Canada!

Araya: "Take a wild guess why it was done in Canada? The cost factor. But I'm just glad we did it. But yeah, the reason why it was done in Canada for one was that we hadn't played in Vancouver for a while. You say to yourself, 'ok, we want to do a live recording - where haven't we played in a while? Where is our strongest audience.' Just like anything else, you want to sell the big show, so you pick a venue that you know is going to do really well, and you do the statistics. If it looks like a really packed show ... in all honestly, Vancouver wasn't our biggest show (laughs) - that was in San Antonio where we had between ten and fifteen thousand. A lot of stuff comes into play when you decide where you want to record or where you want to do things. The same with movies 'we need this location - okay, we found two locations; one is ten times the price, the other is nothing. So let's go with the place that costs nothing and see how we do there.'"

What type of input does you or the band have when setting up such a massive project?

Araya: "You hire a camera company, you tell them how many cameras you want. You put together a bid, a contract and you throw it out to companies that film/record. And the one that comes in with the best bid is the one that's hired. You pick the company to do what it is you're asking. Then you figure out your cameras - where you want them, how you want your shots. That's a big part we are involved with. We tell 'em how we want the angles, where we want the angles and where we want the shots from. And then they record the whole show from those areas. And later on you pick and choose what you like. And the person who is directing the show puts together an initial show, we may stick with that. You get involved, because every process that comes up, they send you something and you look at it. Then it comes back to you after all the fixes. It's a very tedious process and we have to be a part of it because we have to make sure we like what we see."

The other bands on the package - LAMB OF GOD, MASTODON, CHILDREN OF BODOM, THINE EYES BLEED - are each given their fair share of the spotlight, even when it came down to the packaging. It's great to see Slayer in touch with the newer wave of metal.

Araya: "Everybody benefits. We know what it's like to be treated like crap. We've been in situations where we've been treated like shit. You learn through these experiences and you tell yourself we're not going to be that kind of band. And we've struck to the premise that everybody gets a fair shake. Nobody is going to get any fair breaks. Everybody is allowed to use the equipment, or whatever. You have everything at your disposal. We know what that's like. So, when we have these bands on, we wanted to pick bands that we thought would be great. Our manager (Rick Sales) says, 'this is a list of bands that are out there - this is a list of bands that promoters think should be on the bill.' So you dig through the bands and you realize it works. So the promoter thought that all those bands could sell tickets, but they're also good bands. On that go-around, we were able to pick from a really good crop of bands. It was just a really good package. All the bands were great, everybody played great. The whole tour was really successful as far as that went. Everybody was a part of the show. It wasn't like one main person and just four other bands."

Arguably, the Unholy Alliance Tour featured some of the hottest live bands on the planet. But given that fact, it's difficult for any band to beat Slayer on the live stage by closing the show.

Araya: "That's true, but on this go-around with Manson, he wanted to close the show. Which is fine with us because we don't have issues. He's the one that has to prove himself, he's got to sell himself. On this tour that we did, he'd been out for a while. He hadn't really done anything in several years. He's thinking, 'well, I want to headline, I'm still on top.' And we're like, 'you can think whatever you want, but are you sure you want to close the show?' 'Yeah'. But we couldn't care less, because now he really had to bust his balls."

In hindsight, did the tour work?

Araya: "I think it worked well with us. It might have worked well for him, because it allowed him to polish up his show (laughs). The first few weeks were pretty rough on him. I guess towards the end of the tour, he'd polished up his show enough, he was able to keep the audience entertained (laughs!)."

But some diehard fans (like me) boycotted the show...

Araya: "Yes, some fans didn't even buy tickets for the show. That to me was an insight because it let us know that a lot of fans didn't go to the show, but a lot of fans did go to the show. And the ones that did go to the show left after we played. It was a noticeable audience. When we played, we had nearly a full house and that let's me know that if Manson wasn't on the bill, we would've had a full house. And after we finished playing, half those people left. It didn't fill up anymore, if you know what I mean. In my opinion it was good for us. We got there, we played for 70 minutes until you got a nose-bleed and then we left. That's what you want, you want to pound, pound, pound and people walk around staggering wondering what happened."

Would you commit to Manson-style tour with another band off your fan-base's radar, such as RAMMSTEIN for example?

Araya: "We don't have an issue touring with a band that doesn't have an ego issue. Manson is somewhat that way. Funny you should mention Rammstein. We've done a few shows with Rammstein. We were in Europe and we did a few festival shows - we did one where we headlined the festival show and they opened for us. And then later on in that same summer tour, we did a show where we opened for them and they closed after us. So they were the headlining band. When we played with them and headlined the show, they had full access to the stage. We allowed them everything .. we didn't sit there and say 'no, we are the headline act, this is the space you have.' We were cool about it. Well, when it came our turn to open up for them, they would not move their gear and I had maybe five feet with a mic stand and two monitors, with a drum-riser right up my ass. So there are certain bands we might tour with, but they'd have to change that whole aspect of them, which is like in fear. To me, that's all that is is fear. Fear that we're gonna fuckin' kick your ass before you come out. So, restrict us what little space you can, so we come across as an opening band. And that's a philosophy that we don't live by. We were really good to them and they turned around and did that. The crew were pretty pissed. They couldn't believe that they were being that way, because of how we were for them. Karma dude, karma. It will come back and haunt you. I might not be there, but it will happen. And when it does, something inside me will notice - I'll get that tingling in my spine. 'Ahhh, karma is coming back (laughs).'"