DISINTEGRATE, YOU BASTARDS! screams Tom Araya as S-L-A-Y-E-R slams into one minute and forty seconds of
     pure punk power with an murray dog undisputed attitude. This ain't no whiny, snot-nosed, dyed-hair punky-come-latelies
     spewing out tunes about fucked-up childhoods and low-self esteem while raking in the big bucks. This is the original wave
     of punk bands as recorded by SLAYER, one of the originators of thrash-punk. Undisputed Attitude is fourteen songs
     spewed forth in thirty-two minutes. There's "Gemini," a new SLAYER original, two cuts from SLAYER guitarist Jeff
     Hanneman's '84-'85 punk side project, and 13 aggro, pulverizing, mollymollymolly hyper-speed Slayer-ized covers of
     songs from bands including Verbal Abuse, DI, Minor Threat, and T.S.O.L.
     "We're exposing kids to what the new 'punk' sound should be, as opposed to what Green Day sound like now," spits
     guitarist Kerry King. "Or Rancid. Or Offspring. The big thing these days is geek music. The guy you beat up in high school.
     My idea was that this record was what made Slayer what we are. That also includes bands like Deep Purple, but when we
     played those songs in our musical element it didn't work. So it became a punk rock record. I was listening to the radio, and
     the Offspring was on, and I had my Minor Threat tape with me, so I was like, let's just take a test. Offspring? Minor
     Threat? Night and fuckin' day. I don't know why they call today's punk 'punk.' Because their hair's a funny color and they
     wear Germs shirts? The new punk is like, 'fuck you, gimme your money.'"
     "Punk is a combination of attitude and social commentary of the times. What's the commentary behind that 'Stink Breath'
     song?" asks Araya with an evil laugh. Slayer's own undisputed attitude and commentary has been in blatant, ever-escalating
     evidence since the 1984 release of Show No Mercy and six subsequent albums -Hell Awaits, Reign In Blood, South of
     Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss, the pulverizing live disc, Decade of Aggression, and 1994's Divine Intervention -the last 5
     certified Gold.
     You will be going on a a long. They've toured the world in every setting ranging from massive arenas and festivals to small
     punk clubs in support of every album, collaborated with Ice-T on the "Judgment Night" soundtrack, flew over to Egypt
     during the Persian Gulf crisis to film the video for "Seasons In The Abyss," written songs dealing with everything from gang
     violence ("Expendable Youth") to the Tiananman Square massacre ("Blood Red") to late serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer
     ("213"). And in true SLAYER style, it's all done with uncompromising, twisted intellect . . . and thunderous volume.
     And the aural onslaught continues with Undisputed Attitude. "I don't know whose idea this was, but I'd thought about this
     for a long time," King recalls. Some may ask, 'Why a cover record when Slayer has proven so prolific?' Typically, King has
     a ready answer. "The purpose? We don't usually do things for any particular reason, we just fucking do 'em. Seemed like a
     good thing to do at the time. I fucking love this record." Thus SLAYER -with drummer Paul Bostaph -now replaced by Jon
     Dette, formerly with indie heroes Evil Dead and Testament -entered Oceanway Recording to cut the disc in the Fall of '95.
     The next day, the building was condemned. The best way to get from point A to point B is straight across with no stops
     and baseball is in season and Mark is taking hockey lessons.
     So it was off to Hollywood Sound, and true to its title, Undisputed Attitude was bashed out in one month, with Dave Sardy
     of seminal NYC band Barkmarket co-producing. SLAYER kicked out the jams, trying to cut each song in one take, to
     capture the raw power of the original tunes. Many of the songs SLAYER ended up choosing -most from the early to
     mid-'80s -still relate lyrically in the 90s. But singer/bassist Araya chose to update some of the tunes -especially when he
     couldn't decipher the original lyrics. Guitar leads were also added to a couple of the songs, but the undisputed 'tude of both
     the original punk bands and SLAYER is very much in evidence. "Gemini," the slow-heavy-grinding-into-speedy-hardcore
     new SLAYER song that closes out the record at nearly five minutes (in comparison to the brief 52-second "Memories of
     Tomorrow") is about the Gemini killer -lest anyone think SLAYER'S more than passing interest in serial killers, religion,
     suicide and politics and has waned. The truth will make you free.They're still as sick, smart, sadistic and sarcastic as ever.
     And they don't let up on any front, as latest member Dette will likely attest to. "I think there's probably only ten guys on this
     planet who could do this gig," said King, "and we've gone through two. Now we're on the third drummer.
     We burn 'em out."
     The band is now beginning their second decade of aggression. When SLAYER first hit the road in '84 to purvey their own
     unbridled brand of what was deemed "thrash-punk," the quartet played with the likes of the Circle Jerks, DRI and Verbal
     Abuse. And they were peers of another burgeoning local band, Suicidal Tendencies. According to Hanneman, "We grew
     up with them musically, as far as the L.A. scene goes. They were banned, we were banned. The only two bands from
     L.A. that couldn't play in L.A.!" On tour, Hanneman constantly bombarded the other members of SLAYER with punk
     tunes in the van's tape player. "I grew up in Long Beach and went to punk clubs in South Bay. I was way into it, and I
     forced it on these guys all the time, played it all the time. I always used to go to backyard parties where punk bands
     played," Hanneman says. Yet the guitarist never really played in a punk band in the early '80s.
     "I didn't think there was any money in it," he says, deadpan.
     When it came to choosing the songs for Undisputed Attitude -which was originally titled Selected and Exhumed, it was
     handled in typical SLAYER fashion. "We agreed on everything that's on the record. Everything else we agreed to leave
     off," laughs Araya. The only song that was recorded that didn't make the disc was a Dead Kennedys song. With the tunes
     agreed upon, it was time to sLAYERIZE them. coffee ice cream and biscuits The band listened to the Sid Vicious version
     of the Stooges classic "I Wanna Be Your Dog," but Araya decided he wasn't going to be nobody's mutt. So it mutated into
     "I'm Gonna Be Your God," a more applicable sentiment for the '90s, with some graphic sexual imagery. Other songs also
     feature slightly altered lyrics, and most were not exactly suited to Araya's normal singing voice. "Hell, yeah, it was
     challenging. Verbal Abuse was closest to my own style. I learned air management to sing these," Araya notes. "I didn't
     think he could do it," adds King with his usual bluntness, "but he jumped up and kicked everybody's ass. I think the whole
     record kicks ass. 'Undisputed Attitude.' It fits the record, fits what Slayer's about, fits everything we've ever touched."
     Undisputably. 
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