SDM: Talk to us about the new record. How does it stack up against past Slayer records? Give us the details.
Dave: The way this record came about, we went into the studio with five songs, songs that were pretty much done musically. After that, we wrote a lot of stuff in the studio, and I had to learn a lot of stuff in the studio, so that was different from Christ Illusion. We worked on a lot of the stuff in the studio, which is kind of cool because it kept everything fresh, I wasn't locked into a particular idea when we were recording the music; it was very spontaneous what we were doing. So that was different; other records we sat and listened to it over and over again, it was different. What came out was very improvised and spontaneous stuff.
Musically, I think this record is thought-out a little bit better. We were able to sift through the pieces and say, "okay, this goes right, this one doesn't feel right, we should only do this section three times instead of six times". There was a different approach to this record than the last one. Sonically, I think it's one of the best sounding records [drum-wise] I've ever done. The producer/engineer didn't replace my bass drums with samples or anything like the previous record. On Christ Illusion, I thought I was going to get a real drum sound, and I got maybe half of a real drum sound. They replaced the bass drums with another sound of a bass drum.
Lyrically and melodically I think it's great, because the producer, Tom, Kerry, and Jeff really worked on, "okay, what's the proper word to put in here? What would feel better? How many syllables will it have?". They really took their time to put that together. In retrospect, looking back on the whole thing because we haven't been in the studio in a couple of weeks, it's structured very well. It's unlike Christ Illusion. I think on Christ Illusion, there were a lot of loose ends. This one's tight and has worked out very well.
SDM: Are you familiar with any of the new metal drummers? Any young metal drummers stick out to you today?
A lot of the young drummers in metal today don't hit hard, they can't duplicate what they did in the studio, they don't deliver. It's also processed and ProTooled, then they play live and the guy plays like a little girl. It's just like, come on, you're playing a heavy record, put some balls into it! Don't just tap into it and hope your triggers and sound man will boost your sound, really hit hard! Maybe if our conversation goes on there will be one metal drummer who really impresses me. There are a lot of other really good drummers out there.
SDM: Any drummers outside of metal in particular that you are into?
Dave: I really like Dale Crover from the Melvins. I like Gabe Serbian from the Locust. They are a very underground kind of noise band. John Dolmayan of System of a Down is great. Musically, what that band does together is really good. There are a lot of heavy bands; I've listening to a band called Jucifer. It's a husband and wife, and the husband plays the drums, and it's great stuff! They are out there, I should just write these things down so I remember them!
SDM: You mention how maybe some young drummers don't hit hard enough or miss the boat on some things, do you realize that you're one of their biggest influences? Where did they miss the boat?
Dave: I think maybe none of them have been to a rock show or a metal show. They haven't seen me play? I don't know. Maybe they are thinking that that's the way it's supposed to be. That's the way they developed their style and that's the way they are. I think laziness is a huge part of it, just the mentality that, "Oh, we can fix it in Pro Tools!". I think it can maybe be the producer's fault; maybe he doesn't make sure the drummer gets it right in pre-production before he goes into the studio? It's really hard to say, it can be a number of factors.
SDM: What do you think of other members who have drummed for Slayer? What do you think of their drumming?
Dave: They are good drummers. They wouldn't have gotten the job if they weren't good drummers. But I have a different approach. I'm more of a punk drummer and they would be more of a schooled kind of drummer, that's the way I perceive it. I'm more chaotic, spontaneous; I catch the listener off guard. The other drummers were maybe more calculated. I don't want to knock what they did, but there's nothing that they did on the records that I didn't do prior. And if they did it, to me in my opinion it didn't seem right. It's like, "why did he do that there? Or why didn't he do it over here? Wow, that didn't feel good! What kind of roll was that!?". I have to rewind it and go, "that's a mistake! That's not right! The tempo is off!". I get very frustrated when I listen to the records I didn't do with Slayer, because it's the music that I grew up with, someone else is playing it, and I feel like getting into the record and saying, "wrong, wrong, wrong! Eh, that's pretty good". They did a good job; whenever a musician leaves and another one comes in, if he isn't a hundred times better than what was there, the drummer will find things about it [they] don't like or approve.
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