Jeff Hanneman, Slayer guitarist - dead

[Syt]

Slayer heavy metal guitarist Jeff Hanneman dead at 49

(Reuters) - U.S. guitarist Jeff Hanneman, a co-founder of the seminal heavy metal band Slayer, died in Southern California on Thursday, the band said in a statement posted on their website. He was 49.

"Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure," the band said.

Hanneman founded Slayer with fellow guitarist Kerry King in the early 1980s in suburban Los Angeles.

The band was known as one of the "big four" thrash metal groups of the 1980s, along with Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica.

The thrash metal genre was distinct for its extremely fast tempo, big double-bass drums and dark themes, often dealing with Satanism, war and serial killers.

Music website Allmusic.com said the band's trademark "full-throttle velocity, wildly chaotic guitar solos, and powerful musical chops paint an effectively chilling sonic background for their obsessive chronicling of the dark side."

Hanneman is best known as a writer of the songs "Raining Blood" and "Angel of Death" from the 1986 album "Reign of Blood," which is considered a landmark of the genre.

Hanneman is survived by his wife and three siblings.

[MadBurgerMaker]

  That's too bad.

[Martinus]

Did other Slayers turn on him?

[Brazen]

When I read he'd died from liver failure, I assumed it was a classic rock and roll death, but:

Since 2011, Hanneman had been suffering from necrotising fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease that he is believed to have contracted from a spider bite.

[Duque de Bragança]

Seems its time for members of the '80s metal generation to start passing away. Other articles refer to a necrotizing fasciitis caught from a spider bite (!) as having perhaps played a part in it.

RIP

PS: one of the rare times where the newspaper Le Monde(.fr) speaks of Slayer and Brazen beat me to it

[PDH]

RIP

[CountDeMoney]

The band was known as one of the "big four" thrash metal groups of the 1980s, along with Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica.

Tossing in Slayer with this group is a classic example of "which of these is not like the others".  Slayer was darker, heavier and faster than anybody else at the time.  And they made no apologies.

[DontSayBanana]

The band was known as one of the "big four" thrash metal groups of the 1980s, along with Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica.

Tossing in Slayer with this group is a classic example of "which of these is not like the others".  Slayer was darker, heavier and faster than anybody else at the time.  And they made no apologies.

Hell, to this day, Kerry King doesn't apologize for not actually tuning his guitar.

I just heard about this, and damn.   Gonna have to throw on South of Heaven in memoriam.

At least you can't go in a more metal way than contracting necrotising fasciitis from a spider bite.

[CountDeMoney]

At least you can't go in a more metal way than contracting necrotising fasciitis from a spider bite.

This is true.

[Syt]

At least you can't go in a more metal way than contracting necrotising fasciitis from a spider bite.

It certainly ranks up there with committing suicide, your bandmates taking pictures and your corpse ending up adorning a bootleg album.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayhem_%28band%29#With_Dead_.281988.E2.80.931991.29

In 1990, the members of Mayhem moved to "an old house in the forest" near Oslo.[8] They began writing songs for their next album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. On 8 April 1991, Dead committed suicide in the house owned by the band. He was found by Euronymous with slit wrists and a shotgun wound to the head. Dead's suicide note notably read "Excuse all the blood, cheers." and included an apology for firing the weapon indoors. Instead of calling the police, Euronymous went to a nearby store and bought a disposable camera to photograph the corpse, after re-arranging some items.[9] One of these photographs was later stolen and used as the cover of a bootleg live album Dawn of the Black Hearts.[10] Rumors later surfaced that Euronymous made a stew with pieces of Dead's brain[citation needed], and made necklaces with fragments of Dead's skull which he gave to musicians he deemed worthy.[11]

[Neil]

That's a little too Euro, I think.

[fhdz]

At least you can't go in a more metal way than contracting necrotising fasciitis from a spider bite.

He died of liver failure. Last I read, they were unclear if the two problems were connected.

EDIT: Although, I mean, if I had necrotizing fasciitis I would probably drink pretty heavily + hardcore painkillers too.

[The Brain]

RIP

[MadImmortalMan]

That spider may have shortened his life, but it made him a superhero first. 

[mongers]

And there I was in the other thread trying to convince Garbon that spiders are your friend.