Jeff Hanneman - R.I.P.

Yesterday, the metal world lost another legend in the form of Slayer's Jeff Hanneman to sudden liver failure, coming as a surprise to me as well as the collective heavy metal community. Some are speculating that his liver failure may have something to do with a nasty spider bite he got in 2011, but as of right now nothing has been officially disclosed. He didn't quite have the celebrity status of second lead guitarist Kerry King, but everyone needs to remember that it was Hanneman, not King, who wrote all your favorite Slayer songs, chiefly, that one little song called "Raining Blood" which was the first Slayer song I ever heard as a kid.

I will probably always remember hearing "Raining Blood" for the first time. I remember being in my brother's room listening to the hard rock station when the sounds of rain, thunder, and death-march drums suddenly came through the speakers and grabbed my attention, and I said to my brother, "Wait, listen to this." When that instantly recognizable neo-classical riff kicked in, a huge smile came across my face as I wondered, "Who is this band?" "Is this a Metallica song I've never heard before?" It wasn't. It was an entirely different and more extreme beast, and when that ridiculously fast segment began I was left in disbelief. Never in my life have I heard music anywhere near this level of speed and intensity, and I remember just laughing as I was being pummeled by it. I remember the menacing breakdown in the middle, which erupted into Tom Araya screaming out "RAINING BLOOD!" which then transformed into an absolute storm of guitar noise at a tempo so goddamned fast it made that earlier part sound like AC/DC in comparison, then everything ends with the sound of a lonely storm pouring rain on your head, maybe trying to soothe you after being beaten so terribly. It was years later when I finally learned the name of the song and band, and now Reign in Blood sits at a high spot in my metal collection. It was Hanneman's song, just one song at that, and look at the impact its had on all of heavy metal. Pretty cool, right?

I also thought Hanneman was the better guitarist out of the two. I'd compare King and Hanneman to Downing and Tipton from Judas Priest, respectively, a band that had a huge influence on Slayer. King's solos were very outlandish and utilized a lot of noise while Hanneman's were more technical and precise and showed off more skill overall. But to end things, one would argue that Slayer has been irrelevant for years, and if that's you, you might be right. But people who knock them for irrelevance should still recognize their massive impact on the entire metal genre. I'd find it hard to believe that black metal, death metal, grindcore, or deathcore would exist today without Slayer knocking down the extreme metal door for them. Hanneman's death is the death of a songwriter who changed the game for metal forever, and for that , he will be missed.

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