Slayer and Exodus guitarist Gary Holt says the two bands’ methods for recording albums are like night and day.
Holt – who joined Slayer two years before former axeman Jeff Hanneman’s death in 2013 – is working on his first album with Kerry King’s crew. And he says the process has been an eye opener – a far cry from the goat farm owned by Exodus drummer Tom Hunting and where the band usually record.
Holt tells Full Metal Jackie: “The way we make albums is drastically different, because, you know, Kerry and the guys, they just work tirelessly nonstop for months and months on the record. And personally I get real sick of making albums if I spend too long doing it.
“And Exodus, we build our own studios all the time. We’ll do the drums in a proper studio and then we recorded everything else on the goat ranch where Tom lives.
“And Slayer set up shop in a top-flight studio and set up shop there for a long time. The Slayer album is killer, though. People are gonna be blown away. I went and did nine solos on one day. I kept playing through some wrist pain in my left hand — it was, like, a stabbing pain, a pinched tendon or something — but I kept going, and by the next day I couldn’t move my wrist.
“I was glad I was done, because I couldn’t play for a few days. Then Kerry asked me if I wanted to revisit any of them before we wrapped it up, and I listened to them and thought they were killer, so that was the end of that. I guess it’s in the mixing stages right now.”
Slayer’s first title without Hanneman comes on the heels of the free 2014 single, Implode.
Exodus released latest album Blood In Blood Out last year.
