Monday, January 17, 2011

Slayer Band, Racist, Pro Nazi? You Decide.



The eagle combined with the swastika is a very powerful symbol and Adolf Hitler and the Nazi leadership already knew it in the 1920s. During the Third Reich (1933 - 1945) it was the symbol of German renewal as well as the Nazi state, and was known in German as the Hoheitszeichen or Hoheitsabzeichen (“National Emblem”).














A known Slayer band logo with a Nazi eagle and with a five double-edged swords forming a pentagram. Many German youths admire Slayer, maybe because of the song Angel of Death

Slayer used the controversy created by "Angel of Death" to use the Eagle atop swastika as their logo in the 1990s to gain further publicity

The song drew accusations of racism, although the band denied these claims. In addition, the band's producer and close friend Rick Rubin has Jewish ancestry, their vocalist/bassist Tom Araya is Chilean, their drummer Dave Lombardo is Cuban, and King had a guest appearance on the Jewish hip hop group Beastie Boys' song "No Sleep till Brooklyn". The band members are often asked about the accusations in interviews, and have stated numerous times that they do not condone racism and are merely interested in the subject.

Capitalizing on the publicity generated by the controversy, the band utilized Nazi imagery by adapting a logo to one similar to the eagle atop swastika, during the Seasons in the Abyss period. Hanneman placed SS stickers on his guitar, and wrote "SS-3" a song about Reinhard Heydrich, the second in command in the Schutzstaffel organization.





The SLAYER'S gateway to Metaldom performing the song Angel of Death



I Did this writings about Slayer not because I'm a big fan of them, As a musician I really not admire or embrace such images a band is trying to portray, I am more on how they perform as band, their talent, the melody and the awareness to the society. And I think that's how Slayer should be describe. I believe their are just a mirror of the society and somehow also takes their music to what people can digest including taking the opportunities along the way to gain popularity and controversy and as a result more selling of their records, Slayer is a professional band their music is there bread and butter their life their passion.

2 comments:

  1. "Infamous butcher" "Sickening way to achieve the Holocaust"

    These lines from Angel of Death have never seemed very pro-Nazi to me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm interested in serial killers. That doesn't make me one. Or does it? Lol

    ReplyDelete