RIP Jeff Hanneman of Slayer

Per the metal thread, he really does deserve his own thread of memorial.

Such crappy news. RIP, Jeff, and thanks.

RIP :(

terrible news. amazing amazing musician!

!!! oh fuck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNswXvOWBa8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36KXjxfTjNI

Ade's got some quick thoughts up

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/headbang-blogpost.aspx?post=d62e1648-ec2c-4c8e-8375-9317309a2f1a

crappy news, RIP

so far 2013 has been less of a fucker for musician deaths than past years but this is a rotten one

what why how?

Ugh. Seriously gutted by this. Hearing a badly dubbed copy of Reign In Blood for the first time aged 13 really did change my life

liver failure.[1]

Really awful news. King and Hanneman were the most inhuman sounding guitarists in metal, and that's a compliment.

RIP.

"liver failure.[1]"

Brought on by the effects of a degenerative illness caused by a spider bite, per the Quietus obit. Yeesh.

FUCK. rip

XP: I don't want to split hairs but this is what we said: The 49-year-old who had left the group due to a degenerative illness brought on by a spider bite, suffered terminal liver failure while in hospital in California this morning.

I don't think there would be a link between the illness - which is very similar to gangrene - in his arm and liver failure.

holy shit

x-p
Yeah, I guess you're right, but I immediately associated the two. I know snake bites can cause health problems of various kinds for many years after the bite.

Yeah, I probably shouldn't have put those two facts in the same sentence but I was pretty shocked when I heard the story. I've edited it to make clear that there's no suggestion as of yet that the two things are linked.

Fuck :( RIP

RIP

Metal's only noise guitarist. A sort of genius. Terrible loss. RIP.

devastated I never got around to seeing Slayer live

yeah I feel like I missed my chance. iirc my bro saw them play in LA (w/Suicidal Tendencies opening) on the eve of Gulf War I

Hanneman had been on hiatus from Slayer since 2011 ever since contracting necrotizing fasciitis, likely from a spider bite

!!!

RIP great guitar playing dude

tremendously sad

xxp ha that sounds like the most perfect context to see them in

I don't know about "only" noise guitarist in metal anymore, but certainly the original.

I've seen Slayer live many times, including the show that's on the live disc in the Soundtrack to the Apocalypse box set and the Big Four appearance in Indio last year, which I guess was his last onstage appearance with the band? Never disappointing.

Got to see them three times - once with Paul Bostaph drumming, twice with Lombardo. When they first brought Lombardo back, they brought some really old songs back with him - when I saw them at Roseland, they played "Die By The Sword" and "Evil Has No Boundaries." Hanneman was an amazing innovator within thrash - this is a huge, huge loss.

awful news, RIP - I did not know he was sick. FUCK YOU CANCER

was thinking elsewhere that I'd call Hanneman the Gren Ginn of metal, except it feels more right to me to say it the other way around

"I don't think there would be a link between the illness - which is very similar to gangrene - in his arm and liver failure."

Thing about infections like that is that they can cause cascade results from other health issues. Some infections can be a bitch to treat and to get rid of the problem the drugs they use to fight them can be very hard on the body.

this fucking sucks. I had just written Slayer on a motel room "thank you for staying with us" thing this morning. One of the most important figures ever in metal in my opinion and jeez the age at which "that's so young to go" gets bigger every year but 49, Jesus.

this clarifies a little better, I think

http://www.thegauntlet.com/article/391/27807/Jeff-Hanneman-Most-Likely-Died-From-Alcohol-And-Not-The-Spider-Bite-#.UYMLwMpk58F

You might remember a couple months ago when The Gauntlet posted a story about Jeff Hanneman not wanting to come back to Slayer and pretty much being out of touch with the band members. We received several reports from friends of Jeff that he was in a bad place and stopped taking physical therapy seriously. Earlier this week, Jeff's behavior caught up with him and he was admitted to the hospital in Souther California where his liver later failed.

Our sources today tell us "Jeff was drinking Heineken and vodka for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The spider bite was no longer an issue with him, it was his drinking. He just never stopped. Jeff was in a dark place and no doubt did this to himself. It is such a sad day for metal. He was Slayer."

Slayer broke the news of his death today and also stated he was survived by his wife Kathy. "You have to wonder who wrote that statement" another source tells us as "Jeff Hanneman divorced Kathy almost two years ago. Either some publicist wrote the statement and they aren't the words of the band or the band itself was really that out of touch with what was going on in Jeff's life lately."

Regardless, The music community lost a true pioneer. Jeff was metal.

aww shit. RIP. I saw Slayer in '88 in a small club on the "South of Heaven" tour. One of the best shows I've ever seen. They were angry as hell.

xpost -- Yeah, I've been seeing shorter versions of that already going around from people who would know, but I guess now that it's being posted it has to be addressed, and explains the mention of his liver in specific. What rotten news to hear if that's true.

For the first time ever I'm hoping that the Westboro Baptist Church shows up at a funeral. Angry Slayer band fans ripping them to pieces would be a glorious sight to behold.

FUCK YOU CANCER

uh, whoops. still, the sentiment remains.

Good words from Mr. Doran.

http://thequietus.com/articles/12177-gone-but-still-reigning-remembering-slayer-live

this is seriously fucking me up tonight tbh

RIP. And RIB.

aww shit. RIP. I saw Slayer in '88 in a small club on the "South of Heaven" tour. One of the best shows I've ever seen. They were angry as hell.

I saw that tour, too, and when they did "At Dawn They Sleep" and the crowd started chanting "KILL! KILL! KILL!" it was awesome in every sense of the word. I think it was only the second or third metal show I had been to.

i love the demos he would do. he's responsible for so much of what i loved about the band. he wrote angel of death for crying out loud. anyway yeah jeez i don't even know what to say. so huge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkxgWIPupDE

Steven Drozd from Flaming Lips also almost died from a spider bite

wtf... nooo

Lars Gotrich is helping this early photo make the rounds and fuck if it doesn't say it all:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/316360_10201159032164699_900043278_n.jpg

All you favorite Slayer songs were more than likely written by Hanneman... He single handedly made up for King being such a douche. Such a huge loss. I'm very, very bummed.

Yeah, I didn't want to get involved in the rumour stuff but seeing as it's already out on this thread... the type of gangrene he had in his arm is actually very uncommon in healthy people and it's highly unlikely that someone with a fully functioning immune system would have become ill like he did. However the disease necrotizing fasciitis becomes less rare in people with seriously compromised immune systems such as chronic alcoholics. So inferring causality is just wrong but it's very likely that they're simply both symptoms of a deeper, longer running problem. Either way I'm gutted. Jeff: RIP and sleep well.

I made my mate a home made Slayer T shirt several years ago and he was wearing it on the way into work this morning. A total stranger saw it, got off his bike and hugged him, saying 'Take it easy bro.' Slightly choked up about it.

oh shit RIP

Guy gets a serious illness from a Spider bite
Guy has to leave band because of it
Guy gets depressed
guy drinks a lot
guy dies from liver failure

That's maybe not clinical causality, but it's certainly causal.

After my favorite current sci-fi author live blogged his bout with necrotizing fasciitis, with pictures, I live in utter terror of spider bites. Fuck you, necrotizing fasciitis.

Holy shit. I've seen pics before but not that detailed.

Horrible affliction

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/s480x480/947294_10152822581430298_1057306510_n.jpg

ugh. poor guy.

So while I am sure that his drinking didn't help, according to this it was the damn spider that did it:

Flesh-eating bacteria, by itself, doesn’t cause liver failure. But at least one type of strep bacteria can cause streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, which can lead to liver failure.

EW.com

alcoholism causes liver failure too

surely by now everyone can accept that he had been living for some time with a horrible combination of health problems and let go of the whole OMG HE DIED OF A SPIDER BITE

yeah but he likely wouldnt have got the necrotizing fascitis had his immune system not been compromised by alcoholism etc

its not like it matters either way

unless its important to determine how metal his cause of death was, but even then both are pretty metal so

it's supremely important

from what I've read, in the last few months it sounds like he was throwing in the towel. Think about it, in and around the same time you're going through a divorce, you get a gnarly thing happening to your arm and you can't do the thing that you love because of it. You try and get better, but it only get so good, not 100%.. so you drink. We've all known he likes his alcohol..
regardless, it fucking sucks that he's gone.

I really hope Slayer does the right thing and hangs it up. They've mentioned it before.. Is the cash cow too much for King and Co to stop?

I'd like to think Tom would. I can believe Kerry wouldn't.

otm

I hope they hang it up

Kerry King said in an interview a while back he would be quit happy to keep going with the new guy if Jeff didn't return but maybe his actual death might change things?

King feels this way cuz in recent years he's been doing the writing. But Hanneman's leads are crucial. Holt has a different style, one that might work, but it would be different enough to tell that a Slayer guitarist wasn't doing it. Or maybe King simply does it all, and then it still sounds like Slayer? I dunno, man. I didn't like Slayer without Lombardo, but I got use to it, but him coming back was great. Knowing that they'll never be that line-up again sucks big cocks

Entertainment Weekly - the gold standard in diagnosis.

It's gonna be "Kerry King and yer grannie on bongoes IS Slayer", I'll bet.

RIP Jeff. Your riffs will live on forever.
RE: Slayer I hope they hang it up. But if they go on maybe just keep it as a 3 piece on record and an additional guitarist for shows.

A part of me would like it if Slayer went on as just Dave Lombardo.

kill that part of you imo

:)

Speaking of which, what the fuck? Lombardo may have been fired?

http://loudwire.com/slayer-drummer-dave-lombardo-thanks-fans-for-support-after-ouster-from-australian-tour/

I had no idea.

Sounds like King really is the Mike Love of Slayer!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BJiVcniCQAAjbFq.jpg:large

aw

damn, man, beers in heaven

okay, slightly south

We've just learned that the official cause of Jeff's death was alcohol related cirrhosis. While he had his health struggles over the years, including the recent Necrotizing fasciitis infection that devastated his well-being, Jeff and those close to him were not aware of the true extent of his liver condition until the last days of his life. Contrary to some reports, Jeff was not on a transplant list at the time of his passing, or at any time prior to that. In fact, by all accounts, it appeared that he had been improving – he was excited and looking forward to working on a new record.

On the more positive tip:

While the details are being worked out now, Slayer wants its fans to know that there will be a celebration of Jeff Hanneman's life sometime later this month, along with Jeff's family and friends, the public will be invited to attend. More information will be posted here soon.
Kerry King and Tom Araya are trying to deal with the loss of their brother by remembering some the good times they shared.
KERRY: "I had so many great times with Jeff...in the early days when we were out on the road, he and I were the night owls, we would stay up all night on the bus, just hanging out, talking, watching movies...World War II movies, horror movies, we watched "Full Metal Jacket" so many times, we could practically recite all of the dialogue."
TOM: "When we first formed Slayer, we used to rehearse all the time, religiously, 24/7. Jeff and I spent a lot of time hanging out together, he lived in my father's garage which was also our rehearsal space. When he got his own apartment, he had an 8-track and I would go there to record songs I'd written, not Slayer songs, other stuff I'd written. At a certain point, you still have the band but you start your own lives outside of the band, so that 24/7 falls to the side, you don't spend as much time together as you once did. I miss those early days."
KERRY: "He was a gigantic World War II buff, his father served in that war, so when Slayer played Russia for the first time - I think it was 1998 - Jeff and I went to one of Moscow's military museums. I'll never forget him walking around that place, looking at all of the tanks, weapons and other exhibits. He was like a kid on Christmas morning. But that was Jeff's thing, he knew so much about WW II history, he could have taught it in school."
TOM: "We were in New York recording South of Heaven. Jeff and I were at the hotel and we had to get to the studio - I think it was called Chung King, a real rundown place. So we left the hotel and decided to walk, but then it started raining. We walked maybe five blocks, and it was raining so hard, we were totally soaked, so we decided to get a cab. Here we are, two dudes with long hair and leather jackets, absolutely soaked, thumbing to the studio. No one would stop. We had to walk the entire way."
TOM: "Jeff was a lifeline of Slayer, he wrote so many of the songs that the band will always be known for. He had a good heart, he was a good guy."

(On the more negative tip again, note the lack of Lombardo, who I guess really has been cut)

Hanneman dies and Lombardo is shut out?
Fuck you, Kerry King.

that Lombardo shut out is old news and has to do with the terms on which Dave's willing to tour iirc

There is absolutely no reason that any agreements that were made need to be etched in stone, especially after the death of another band member.

Not that old news, really. I think it was only a few weeks ago that he got replaced for the Aussie tour, no? Smells a bit Bill Ward-y, though to be fair, Lombardo has come and gone. Though also to be fair, Lombardo rules.

I stand with both Bill and Dave

so, cirrhosis then

Name of my new band... Hannemans Liver... too soon?

Sean, "too soon"-style jokes haven't drawn laughs in a very long time iirc. They are played out.

^^^

I remember Johnny Carson doing one in the 70s. It was funny then.

whatevs... tell that to Jeff Ross, he got a TV show doing it.

oh, yeah, and another thing... Not one fuck was given from this end..

jeff ross has been doing roasts long enough to earn a crappy tv show

you are not jeff ross & this is not a comedy thread where we roast the dude from slayer WHO JUST DIED

put your claws away sweetheart, no one is roasting anyone.

Man, this place is getting stuffy.

Wait, someone from Slayer died?

shove that sweetheart up your ass, dude

What Aerosmith is saying above is "too late".

"sweetheart"

nagl - for any of us. My favourite thing about this genre post nu metal is the fact its become far more inclusive than indie or mainstream rock. Not sure how this translates to America but it's certainly the case in the UK most of the time. Personally I don't like people thinking I'm some knuckle dragging frat house wanker just because I'm wearing a High On Fire T shirt. It's none of my business how you feel about it but, y'know, some food for thought regardless hopefully.

Well, it doesn't hurt that the hard stuff like Slayer is pretty much sexless. There's no element of sleaze/skank or videos with girls in bikinis or whatever, vs. a lot of the nu-metal stuff, which was often so grossly sexist. There's a purity to Slayer's racket, and while it may appeal to a smaller subset as a whole, it probably appeals to a greater percentage of that subset, where not liking Slayer is akin to not liking bricks.

man there is a whole lot in that, Josh - good post.

yeah wow Josh, good work!

http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/decibels-jeff-hanneman-tribute-issue-now-available/

there was a mosh pit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=VsDfeNxIVyY