Expect this to be a busy week for Slayer.
They were just officially confirmed as the headliners of this year's Rockstar Mayhem Fest.
Also, this weekend, guitarist Kerry King appeared on VH1's That Metal Show and obviously, the hosts checked in on the progress of the album. According to King, the album is completely recorded and mixed, possibly also mastered:
“The record has been mixed—I think it’s been mastered. I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
King also revealed the band have a title for the new album, but he won't say what:
“I do, but I can’t tell anybody yet, cause it hasn’t been announced, sorry.”
During the interview, King reiterated that a track that Jeff Hanneman wrote, "Piano Wire" will appear on the new album and they're saving another Hannemen-penned track for the next album:
"[Jeff's song] on this record is 'Piano Wire', from the ['World Painted Blood'] recording session. We had [Paul] Bostaph play drums to the existing track. Tom [Araya] re-sang it. So that's Jeff's contribution to this record. And then on the follow-up — assuming there is as a follow-up — we have another one that we don't have lyrics for yet.
"It's his writing [and] I think the assumption was, [since] it's Jeff's song, [and] we recorded it for the 'World Painted Blood' tracks, [people] assumed Jeff played on it, but as everybody knows, I've done Jeff's rhythm tracks [on Slayer albums] since the '90s. And he has no lead on it, so it's only me."
King also revealed they have a head start on the next album, with six songs already written:
"What people don't know [is that] beyond [the new Slayer album], there's six more [songs] towards the next one that are already recorded. So we did a lot."
Those of you in the US who would like to watch the interview in full, you can check it out below…
[Transcribed via Blabbermouth]
