We are entering an amoral and permissive era in which self-gratification in the form of high wages and a wide range of consumer goods obtained and obtainable against a background of apparently imminent universal doom will be available, if not to all, then to an increasingly large majority. In such an age the characteristic personality type must inevitably become auto-erotic, and, clinically, authopsychotic. Such a person will be for economic reasons isolated, as for personal ones the subject is today, from direct contact with the evils of human life, such as starvation, poverty, inadequate living conditions, and the rest. Western homo sapiens will become homo solitarus.
~~ John Fowles, The Magus: A Revised Edition (Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1977): 512.

During the mid-to-late 1980s, the Heavy Metal music genre was ruled by a quartet that was affectionately nicknamed "The Big Four" by the music press. Their video clips weren't shown on MTV (remember when artists refused to make clips?) and they didn't get radio airplay or lucrative endorsement deals. They filled a niche vacated by the genre's first wave of bands, which had broken up (Iron Butterfly and Led Zeppelin) or were experiencing career nosedives (KISS and Ozzy Osbourne). Financed by guerilla mavericks and independent record labels, "The Big Four" found a youthful and loyal audience through constant touring and underground tape trading: an audience that was also fanatical enough to form identity tribes.

Like a high school version of the Myer-Briggs profiling test, you could decipher a person's "deep values" and take a stab at their psychological type by discovering which tribe, usually identifiable by clothing patches, they belonged to. Metallica were the second wave's aristocracy: their neo-classical orchestration, which captured everyone's attention, peaked with Master of Puppets (WEA/Elektra, 1986) and the multi-tracked guitar symphonies of . . . And Justice For All (WEA/Elektra, 1988). Ousted from an earlier incarnation of Metallica because of substance abuse, Dave Mustaine had formed Megadeth in revenge; a band which played aggressive 'speed metal', flirted with anarchy and heroin chic, and redeemed themselves by Mustaine's sociopolitical commentary, that seethed with an intense rage. Anthrax hailed from the realist streets of New York, fused hardcore rap with heavy metal on the I'm the Man EP (Island, 1987), and after dropping vocalist Joey Belladonna's goofiness, fused into a brooding outfit. Slayer fans were unpredictable: you kept them at a distance.

Raining Blood

In marketing parlance, Metallica "crossed the chasm" with their eponymous release (Elektra, 1991), soon labelled the "Black Album" by fans, and which catapulted them into America's mainstream. Megadeth released the blistering Rust in Peace (EMI/Capitol, 1990), and, from Countdown To Extinction (EMI/Capitol, 1992) onwards, matured into an outfit that played melodic hard rock and wrote Worldwide Wrestling Federation anthems. Anthrax replaced Belladonna with ex-Armored Saint vocalist John Bush, teetered on a breakthrough with Sound of White Noise (WEA/Elektra, 1993), and then, as a result of reengineering and staff changes, lost, with Stomp 442 (WEA/Elektra, 1995), the crucial support of their major record label.

If Heavy Metal bands were the subject of Harvard Business Review and Strategy + Business case studies, then Slayer would be filed under "value migration": a term coined by analyst Adrian Slywotzky to describe why companies lose their dominant share when industry conditions change, agile competitors appear, and technological breakthroughs occur.

They navigated the music industry's flotsam and jetsam, at first, with considerable skill. Reign in Blood (Sony/Columbia, 1986), produced by Rick Rubin, generated controversy with "Angel of Death", a track that referred to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. South Of Heaven (Sony/Columbia, 1988) continued the Slaytanic Wehrmacht's sonic onslaught. Seasons In The Abyss (Sony/Columbia, 1991) expanded Slayer's ghoulish repertoire to include the Gulf War ("War Ensemble"), and paeans to serial killers Ed Gein ("Dead Skin Mask") and Ted Bundy ("Seasons in the Abyss"). Live: Decade Of Aggression (Sony/Columbia, 1992) showcased their Neanderthal live performances: the double album began with the most darkly evocative intro-tape ("Hell Awaits") ever played in concert arenas.

World domination surely beckoned.

Sex. Murder. Art.

After the strain of infighting and touring, Slayer fired drummer Dave Lombardo (who subsequently formed Grip Inc and joined Fantomas), and replaced him with Paul Bostaph. The new line-up teamed with Ice-T to cover "Disorder" for the Judgment Night (Sony/Columbia, 1993) soundtrack. At only 37 minutes in length, Divine Intervention (Sony/Columbia, 1994), guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King crammed more riffs-per-second than their colleagues, featuring blitzkrieg hymns to Jeffrey Dahmer ("213") and Rush Limbaugh ("Dittohead"). But then the band faltered with a punk covers album, Undisputed Attitude (Sony/Columbia, 1996), but returned to form with Diabolus In Musica (Sony/Columbia, 1998), which showcased their clinical speed and forensic motifs. Well, did you honestly expect bassist/vocalist Tom Araya to write a delicate ballad about Aileen Wuernos?

Having embraced a malevolent aesthetic, Slayer personified serial killer chic, a cultural micro-trend that surged with Silence of the Lambs (1991) and peaked with Natural Born Killers (1994). Slayer didn't hire a top-notch producer and PR monolith to reinvent themselves (Metallica), couldn't tone down their bludgeoning fury for the masses (Megadeth) or settle for a smaller yet passionate audience (Anthrax). Death Metal bands that were obsessed with Satanic and antinomian imagery--such as Burzum, Deicide and Morbid Angel--threaten to transmutate Slayer into a caricature of its earlier albums.

Irony has been amongst the Devil's most feared weapons. Having been accused of prompting murder (again), Slayer now faces a damages lawsuit that confirms a significant change of "deep values" across America's cultural landscape. Yes, they spawned the original Satanic Metal Heads. Just don't you dare call it a career comeback.

Fictional Reality

The motivations of the three teenage boys who murdered Elyse Pahler on a summer night in 1996, resembles a Hollywood "high-concept" scenario: "what would happen if Dr. Hannibal Lecter directed a sequel to the 1984 classic This Is Spinal Tap?"

According to a Rolling Stone report (January 24, 2001): "The killers -- Royce Casey, Joseph Fiorella and Jacob Delashmutt -- all self-professed Slayer fans, told investigators that they needed to commit a 'sacrifice to the Devil' to give their own death metal band, Hatred, the 'craziness' to 'go professional.'"

The fans-turned killers were obsessed Slayer's early albums, including Show No Mercy (Metal Blade, 1983) and Hell Awaits (Metal Blade, 1985), which created the 'speed metal' genre. Although the lyrics were closer to Dario Argento and Sam Raimi, Slayer's harsh aeshtetics were also inverse-Christian (which is different to the avowedly Promethan orientation of religious Satanic institutions).

Jeff Godwin, Jacob Aranza and Bob Larson, prominent evangelical Christians, subsequently criticized Slayer. Godwin and Larson feared that the music would fuel a wave of youth mass suicide. Pahler's murder, which is terrible, threatens to reignite a "culture war" that has been simmering for the past decade.

The Pahler family has hired the prestigious law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP to sue Slayer and co-defendent Sony Music for damages. Sony has hired First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams, a parter with Cahill Gordon & Reindell. The music press has referred to legal precedents, such as Judas Priest's trial for subliminal messages.