Slayer guitarist Kerry King sat down with Talk Louder and explained why they never intended to do their shows as long as Metallica’s.
King emphasized that the intensity of Slayer’s music would make a longer show less enjoyable. “Even in the latter parts of Slayer’s career, when we considered playing longer. It’s like, we always hover in on, like, an hour and a half because anything more, it’s too much,” he said.
He continued, “Because… I’m not taking away anything from Metallica — let me start right there. But they’ve got a ton of ballads, they got a ton of slow stuff that they throw in their set. We don’t have anything like that.”
“So for a band like Slayer to play an hour-45, even just at 15 minutes, it has a completely different feel. The crowd’s dead. Like, everybody’s saying, ‘I want to go home.’ Not because they didn’t like it, but because they’ve got no more to give,” the guitarist added.
Similar to the band’s shows, Slayer’s songs are generally shorter than Metallica’s. Their hit album ‘Reign in Blood’ contains ten tracks, with the longest being the opener, ‘Angel of Death,’ at 4:51.
King also mentioned that although they kept the songs short and intense for this album, they had ideas they planned to explore on future records. “I think ‘Born of Fire’ existed musically, but I didn’t finish the lyrics for that one ’till ‘Seasons [in the Abyss].’ So, I think that was the only other one we were messing around with. I think ‘Born of Fire’ was a complete song, and I’m sure there was other riffs, but they definitely weren’t anywhere near completion,” he said.
“So, yeah, that was it. And we all felt good about it. I mean, it’s so furious that it doesn’t need anything else. And if it had anything else, it might be too much,” the rocker added.
Slayer will take part in Black Sabbath’s upcoming final performance. The show will take place on July 5 at Villa Park, Birmingham.
