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After the somewhat divisive 1998 album Diabolus in Musica, Slayer entered The Warehouse studio in Vancouver with producer Matt Hyde, bristling with a renewed sense of purpose.
With a working title of Soundtrack to the Apocalypse, the band’s 13-song effort sounded leaner, hungrier, and more pissed off than they had in recent memory.
“I think we refocused on God Hates Us All,” King said on the Metal Hammer: In Residence podcast in 2016. “I think in the ’90s, me and Jeff Hanneman just didn’t pay any attention to anything.
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“I didn’t like where music was going and I let it get to me for the only time in my career – and that was basically the 90s,” he added. “I couldn’t understand why things were popular and it just bummed me out completely, and I had to forget about it and refocus because it was just bringing me down.”
Their 1996 punk covers album, Undisputed Attitude, was, according to King, a reaction to the pop-punk explosion led by the likes of The Offspring and Green Day.
“It’s not their fault, but everyone called them punk bands and me and Jeff were like, ‘This isn’t punk, guys.’” said King. “We just took offence to it and Undisputed Attitude was that coming out.
“For me especially, it took 1998’s Diabolus In Musica to come out and get past that and then say, ‘This ain’t what Slayer’s about, we gotta redefine and show everybody that Slayer’s still here and not trying to be somebody we’re not.’ I think that’s what God Hates Us All was.”
The title Soundtrack to the Apocalypse was eventually shelved for later use (a career-spanning box set would bear its name in 2003) and, after hanging out with Pantera, it was decided that God Hates Us All would be a more appropriate title for their new album. Taken from a line in the song Disciple, their ninth studio recording was set for a July 2001 release.
“I played the songs for Pantera and they were like, ‘Man, God Hates Us All would be a great shirt!’” King told Ink 19. “I was like, ‘That would be a great title for the record!’”
The scheduled summer release was nixed, thanks in part to mixing issues and a change in record label distribution. The heavy-handed, problematic artwork, a bloodied Bible with nails driven through it, didn’t help matters either. King later admitted that the cover “looked like a seventh grader defaced the Bible”. A slipcase, featuring a a series of gold crucifixes arranged in a pattern, was created to allow the album to be sold in larger, more family-friendly outlets.
The album was met with largely positive reviews. “Don’t worry – eight albums into their reign, Slayer still sound like Slayer,” said Spin, while Rolling Stone reckoned it was the band’s most brutal record since 1986’s immortal (or undead) Reign in Blood.”
With everything in place, God Hates Us All was set to come out in the second week of September 2001.
Slayer’s autumn was tightly scheduled. The day after the band’s record release party at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on September 10, they planned to fly from Los Angeles to Ireland. There, they would play the inaugural Tattoo the Planet show in Dublin on September 13.
Slayer were set to co-headline with Pantera on a bill that also featured Cradle of Filth, Biohazard, Static-X, Vision of Disorder, and Raging Speedhorn.
Then on September 11, America woke up to horrifying news.
At 8:46 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:03 a.m., a second plane, Flight 175 was flown into the South Tower. Every passenger died along with an unknown number of casualties inside each building,
Another aeroplane, Flight 77, hit the side of the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. A total of 184 people died at the scene. An hour after the second tower was hit, passengers overpowered the plane’s hijackers and crashed the aircraft in a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
Millions of people would witness the Twin Towers collapse live on television, while news outlets would later report that 2,996 people had died, including the terrorists who had hijacked the aeroplanes.
International travel was thrown into chaos and uncertainty; North American airspace was closed completely until September 13.
Pantera, who were already in Europe preparing for the tour , announced that they would no longer participate in the Tattoo the Planet dates and would return as soon as possible.
“There are no words worthy to express the sorrow we feel for those who lost loved ones in yesterday’s terrible tragedy,” the band said in a statement. “We have made the decision to cancel our participation in the upcoming Tattoo the Planet tour of Europe that was scheduled to begin tomorrow, Thursday, September 13. We apologise to our international friends and fans that we planned on jamming and partying with, but there is absolutely nothing in the world worth compromising their safety or ours.”
“It was kind of the end for them as a band, so maybe it was a relief in some way, maybe deep down they didn’t want to do it,” King told Metal Hammer. “But that wasn’t an option for us.”
Araya told Irish magazine Hot Press why they would continue to perform: “I think we’d be letting our European fans down if we cancelled. We all have families and are aware of the potential dangers. But many kids in Europe have experienced attacks and assaults and terrorism throughout their lives, so I think Slayer should make the effort to go over there and play for them.
“As a band, we simply refuse to play into the hands of these terrorists. We won’t allow them to disrupt our lives any further.”
Slayer eventually made it to Europe, having already lost “a lot of money” keeping their crew on standby until the shows began.
The first show took place on September 22, at the Kongresshalle Böblingen, Ida-Ehre-Platz, alongside Cradle of Filth and Destruction.
Traditionally, the show must go on, which is a stupid thing to say. But that, in a nutshell, is what’s going on.
Kerry King
“Traditionally, the show must go on, which is a stupid thing to say. But that, in a nutshell is what’s going on,” King told Ink 19. “We have a new record out; if we won’t tour, the new record dies. It’s reality – it’s what business is nowadays. You just need to tour to sell your albums. If you don’t tour, you cannot expect to sell huge numbers of your albums either. It was both a business and an economical decision and we wanted to play anyway. We just wanted to get out for the tour when it was safe enough for us.
“[I didn’t feel] as safe as I did before for some obvious reasons,” he added about their journey to Europe, “but it’s probably the safest time in recent history, with all this passing through tight security and stuff.”
While a national tragedy hung heavily over the release of God Hates Us All, its intensity, coupled with the band’s resilience in the weeks following the attacks, resonated with their fans, marking a return to form after a creatively unsteady period.
The band later sparked controversy on their 2006 album Christ Illusion, when they were inspired to write about the 9/11 attacks from the perspective of terrorist ringleader Mohamed Atta. On the song Jihad, written by Hanneman and Araya, the outro lyrics were based on a document belonging to Atta.
