“Blood and guts and Satan”: Rick Rubin on the artist he called the first thrash metal band
Many of the greatest artists of all time are interested in bringing something different to rock and roll. Elvis Presley had sought to bring rock and roll into living rooms around the world, and whether or not unleashing someone like Fred Durst on MTV was a good thing, you can’t deny that there were tons of people who related to his anger when they started getting their own backwards hats. Although Rick Rubin had been there through many different iterations of rock and roll, he knew that he could always get away with something a bit more controversial than everything else on the radio.
Then again, whether or not one of his songs had any airplay was almost irrelevant to him. He approached his projects as a fan of every band that he worked with, so if the masses liked it or only a handful of people bought the record, it didn’t matter as long as he could be happy with the record that he helped create.
Looking at where he started, though, it’s strange that he had built up such an impressive rap sheet over the years. He was there in the early days of punk rock in New York, so how the hell did he end up going from the harshest music imaginable to working with legends like Johnny Cash and Tom Petty? Well, the main difference between true punks and elitists was that the true punks knew a good song when they heard one.
As much as people like to think that bands need to stay true to themselves, it’s up to every artist to decide where they want to go. And even when Rubin produced some of a band’s finest works, it’s clear that he was pushing them into making the best record that they could rather than giving them specific instructions about where they should be going or whether or not they should try to be trendy.
“Metallica and they were going on at the same time, but Metallica were so different lyrically than them.”
Rick Rubin
And looking at his work with the hardcore scene, he wasn’t afraid to get a little bit dark. He already had one of the best solo records from Glenn Danzig under his belt, but considering he was primarily working with hip-hop artists on Def Jam, bringing in Slayer was like someone taking metal and throwing it into a woodchipper. Even by heavy standards, they were on a different plane, and even Rubin knew that he was dealing with something more occult than he was used to.
Whereas most thrash bands sang about destruction, Rubin felt that he had hit on the makings of a new genre working with them on songs like ‘Angel of Death’, saying, “Slayer were kind of the first death-metal or thrash band. I don’t know what the right title is. Metallica and they were going on at the same time, but Metallica were so different lyrically than them. Slayer were more blood and guts and Satan.”
That didn’t come without its own fair share of headaches too. Whereas most people with their brains shut argued up and down that rap was the antithesis of music, Slayer kicked those naysayers into overdrive, with appalled parents encouraging the band to either break up altogether or never release another record that was as graphic as something like the terror going on in Nazi concentration camps.
However, whether or not they received approval from any at-home evangelists, Slayer was not going to be stopped. They knew they needed their music to sound like a smack in the face every time they played, and getting Rubin onboard was their ticket out of the Bay Area clubs into stadiums around the world.
