SLAYER RELEASE LAST CONTRACTED ALBUM WITH RICK RUBIN, LOOK TO THE FUTURE

Ever since 1986’s hit album “Reign in Blood” Rich Rubin has been working closely with Slayer and helped the band develop their unmistakable sound that helped forge the heavy metal scene. Although Rubin has become executive producer these days giving up the daily producing duties to his protege Greg Fidelman, he still lends his talents during Slayer’s recording process. However after the release of the bands latest album “World Painted Blood”, which debuted at #12 on The Billboard Top 200 chart and #1 at Indie Retail, Slayer has officially finished the current contract with Rick Rubin’s American Recordings.

Artisan News caught up with lead vocalist and bassist Tom Araya to get his thoughts on finishing thier last contracted album with Rick Rubin.

“I gather from doing my math, in all calculations yeah this is our last record with Rick, contracted record with Rick. What happens after here you know we’d have to find someone who would be wanting to sign the band. You know what I mean, work with the band. We’ll see what happens. Because there’s so many things you can do now we don’t really…we can ask for Rick Rubin to at least assist us but there’s too many opportunities out there to sit there and let someone else do those things for us anymore.”

Araya also talked about Rick Rubin producing from the back ground these days.

“Rick Rubin really worked with us on the initial first three albums that we did. He really worked with us close. But on the past few records, the past record since ‘Devine’, he sort of just sat in the back. Then we would work with producers and once we would have a finished product, Rubin would listen to it and say ‘You need to do this, you need to do that.’ Then we would come back, get together, fix that, listen to it and then go back. ‘Cool!’ Then we would go on with the record process. But yeah, he sits in the background.”

Tom also shared his thoughts on Rick Rubin making the creative process happen.

“Rick likes to get involved. He likes to make the creative process happen, you know what I mean. At some point we didn’t allow room for that and I guess he was OK with that because he’s allowed us to work with other people. He listens and says, ‘Sounds good! Eh, could do better.’ You know what I mean? He’s always got the attitude of ‘Could be better! It’s your career!’ That’s Rick Rubin though.”

Tom Araya is currently recovering from back surgery, which caused the postponement of Slayer’s Canadian Carnage tour with Megadeth, which was set to kick off on Nov. 8. Look for Slayer to hopefully announce a new round of tour dates after Araya’s recovery in 2010.