One of the fouding members of Slayer has passed on

Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman Dead at 49

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By Billboard Staff | May 02, 2013 6:11 PM EDT

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Jeff Hanneman of Slayer performs onstage during The Big 4 held at the Empire Polo Club on April 23, 2011 in Indio, California.

Slayer guitarist and founding member Jeff Hanneman died earlier today of liver failure. He was 49.

"Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11AM this morning near his Southern California home," the band's longtime publicist said in a statement. "Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure."

Hanneman co-founded the thrash metal greats with Kerry King in 1981; their breakthrough came in 1986 with the brutalist album "Reign in Blood." Hanneman wrote or co-wrote the set's standout tracks, "Angel of Death" and "Raining Blood."

Slayer's first three studio albums hold the distinction of being their biggest. "Reign in Blood" (1986), "South of Heaven" (1988) and "Seasons of the Abyss" (1990) account for over 2 million of their 4.9 million albums sold in the SoundScan era (1991-present). Their highest charting album on the Billboard 200 to date is 2006's "Christ Illusion," which debuted at No. 5.

Their top-selling song is the Hanneman-penned "Raining Blood":

Watch this not get stickied, either.

Damn so young. RIP.

They really did change the face of modern music. Maybe Metallica was bigger and Megadeath were more technically precise. But Slayer was the sound of pure hell. They raised the bar for sheer GNARLINESS.

Dude I hope there is a part of heaven that resembles hell so you can still play in a proper setting.

Rest piece by piece.

RIP

bobzilla77 said:

They really did change the face of modern music. Maybe Metallica was bigger and Megadeath were more technically precise. But Slayer was the sound of pure hell. They raised the bar for sheer GNARLINESS.

Dude I hope there is a part of heaven that resembles hell so you can still play in a proper setting.

Rest piece by piece.

Plus, they came out of my hood

bobzilla77 said:

They really did change the face of modern music. Maybe Metallica was bigger and Megadeath were more technically precise. But Slayer was the sound of pure hell. They raised the bar for sheer GNARLINESS.

Dude I hope there is a part of heaven that resembles hell so you can still play in a proper setting.

Rest piece by piece.

THIS!^

You know a band is good when Robert Christgau likes them--and he hates most heavy metal music!

"Reign in Blood [Def Jam, 1986]
I'm not about to check out the complete works of Venom to make sure you can't do better, but anyone who wants to know what gets Washington ladies hot should steal, tape, or purchase this piece of speed satanism quote unquote. Rick Rubin focused, CBS passed, guitar's quicker than a theremin on reverb, and "Jesus Saves" mauls the enemy. Who ain't Jesus--or, damn right, Satan either. B+"

RIP

Liver Failure? Moderation on the drink folks.

2freaky4church1 said:

You know a band is good when Robert Christgau likes them--and he hates most heavy metal music!

"Reign in Blood [Def Jam, 1986]
I'm not about to check out the complete works of Venom to make sure you can't do better, but anyone who wants to know what gets Washington ladies hot should steal, tape, or purchase this piece of speed satanism quote unquote. Rick Rubin focused, CBS passed, guitar's quicker than a theremin on reverb, and "Jesus Saves" mauls the enemy. Who ain't Jesus--or, damn right, Satan either. B+"

RIP

Liver Failure? Moderation on the drink folks.

They haven't announced yet if the liver failure was connected to the necrotizing fasciitis he's been dealing with. Possible? I don't know. But he had regularly been in a hospital, doctors office and physical rehab center over the last year and a half. If it was degenerative, as liver failure associated with drinking usual is, you'd think they would have known. Maybe they did and he just didn't care, but the announcement from Slayer the day before he died (which is pretty coincidentally sad), leads me to think otherwise. And who knows, maybe it wasn't connected to either. Maybe he just had some kind of liver disease. Or, like you say, maybe 30 years of copious amounts of drink finally caught up with him.

:devilhorns:

2freaky4church1 said:

You know a band is good when Robert Christgau likes them--and he hates most heavy metal music!

"Reign in Blood [Def Jam, 1986]
I'm not about to check out the complete works of Venom to make sure you can't do better, but anyone who wants to know what gets Washington ladies hot should steal, tape, or purchase this piece of speed satanism quote unquote. Rick Rubin focused, CBS passed, guitar's quicker than a theremin on reverb, and "Jesus Saves" mauls the enemy. Who ain't Jesus--or, damn right, Satan either. B+"

RIP

Liver Failure? Moderation on the drink folks.

I know you must be trolling if you think Robert Christgau and his opinions matter

Im in disbelief. I just checked out blabbermouth.net and seen the news. Fuck this sucks.

though its an early age to die, in that pic in 2011 he looks like he is 79, these artists gotta take care of themselves, i mean, learn something from the past, though there are rumors about how he got this disease he did have a long history of cocaine and other things and alcohol, so its a little odd. Same thing happend to STYX drummer John Pannozzo in 1996, while the band was broken up from 1984-1991, and then again from 1993-1995 he did nothing but drink, and he basically just burnt out he was 48 when he passed in 1996

lastdecember said:

though its an early age to die, in that pic in 2011 he looks like he is 79, these artists gotta take care of themselves, i mean, learn something from the past, though there are rumors about how he got this disease he did have a long history of cocaine and other things and alcohol, so its a little odd. Same thing happend to STYX drummer John Pannozzo in 1996, while the band was broken up from 1984-1991, and then again from 1993-1995 he did nothing but drink, and he basically just burnt out he was 48 when he passed in 1996

That's what surprised me, he looks so old in that picture.

Long term hard drinking will destroy a persons body.

Ive heard the rumors as well but either way, weather he caught the necrotizing disease from a spider bite or from drugs, the drinking and what it probably did to his liver was probably a major factor in his death.

Sad situation all around.

Brutally unexpected

hardly the nicest guy in the block, but one hell of a guitar player

dying from a Necrotizing fasciitis-related liver failure sounds Slayerish enough, though

RIP

RIP, a true badass

It's cool to see unrelated genres get covered on what's pretty much an R&B site. He could play him some gee-tar.

" On May 9, 2013, the official cause of death was announced as alcohol-related cirrhosis. Hanneman and his family had apparently been unaware of the extent of the condition until shortly before his death."

RIP again

JoeTyler said:

" On May 9, 2013, the official cause of death was announced as alcohol-related cirrhosis. Hanneman and his family had apparently been unaware of the extent of the condition until shortly before his death."

RIP again

Dude must have had a seriously strong constitution. Cirrhosis is usually a long, nasty, painful way to go with a long list of symptoms and complications. I fully admit that he looked different, but he didn't look like someone dieing from alcohol. In fact, I would have guessed drugs before alcohol.

Cerebus said:

JoeTyler said:

" On May 9, 2013, the official cause of death was announced as alcohol-related cirrhosis. Hanneman and his family had apparently been unaware of the extent of the condition until shortly before his death."

RIP again

Dude must have had a seriously strong constitution. Cirrhosis is usually a long, nasty, painful way to go with a long list of symptoms and complications. I fully admit that he looked different, but he didn't look like someone dieing from alcohol. In fact, I would have guessed drugs before alcohol.

Slayer are tough motherfockers

scriptgirl said:

Watch this not get stickied, either.

The Org is a R&B board

Metal is obsolete here

iaminparties said:

scriptgirl said:

Watch this not get stickied, either.

The Org is a R&B board

Metal is obsolete here

Except it was a sticky, has plenty of responses and you're two weeks late. In other words, wrong!