Kerry King Reveals That Slayer’s Undisputed Attitude Was Made “in Rebellion to Green Day and The Offspring”
This is kinda interesting. As I probably don’t have to tell you, in 1996, Slayer made Undisputed Attitude, an album that consisted mostly of covers of punk and hardcore songs originally recorded by bands like The Stooges, D.R.I., and Minor Threat. I never really gave much thought to why the band made Undisputed Attitude beyond “Jeff Hanneman loved punk music,” a facet of the late guitarist’s personality that has been well-documented.
But according to a new interview Kerry King has given to Metal Hammer‘s monthly Spotify series, Metal Hammer: In Residence, Undisputed Attitude actually served an even more specific purpose. After admitting that he “didn’t like where heavy music was going” in the 90s, King said (via The PRP):
“I remember in particular when we did Undisputed Attitude in 1996, we did that in rebellion to Green Day and The Offspring. It’s not their fault but everyone called them punk bands and me and Jeff were, ‘This isn’t punk, guys.’ We just took offense to it and Undisputed Attitude was that coming out.”
Well, it was a little bit those bands’ faults — I don’t recall either of them ever protesting the punk label. Regardless, given Attitude‘s mixed reception, I’m not sure that Slayer inspired as many kids to check out Verbal Abuse and Dr. Know as they hoped.
Elsewhere in the same interview, King took time to throw Diabolus in Musica under the bus, ostensibly copping to accusations that the album was Slayer’s attempt to make nu-metal:
“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.”
Although Diabolus in Musica is by no means one my favorite Slayer albums, the nu-metal tag always baffled me a little bit. I get it, they tuned their guitars down. Still can’t think of a single Korn song that sounds like this:
I dunno. Sounds like Slayer to me.
