Dominicanedge: Hey, what’s going on Tom?

Tom: How ya doing?

Dominicanedge: Doing well. I was at the NY show recently and what occurred at the end of your set was like a dream come true. What possessed you guys to play Reign In Blood in its entirety?

Tom: Actually, this summer we did seven festival dates and we did two nights in England and when we were there we had been rehearsing all the songs and thought why don’t we play all the songs for these two shows. It’ll trip everybody out. And then we knew that this Jager tour was going to be going on. We had all that wired in and everybody was just blown away. Between the four of us, we sat there, and thought wouldn’t it be cool if we just did that as an encore for the Jager tour.

Dominicanedge: So it’s going on for the whole tour?

Tom: I don’t know. We might play Seasons… in its entirety. I don’t know. (Laughs)

Dominicanedge: Do you think that Reign In Blood’ was your defining moment or are you just doing it as a gift for the fans?

Tom: It was a defining moment, obviously, for a lot of people. That’s come to our realization. But, it’s just something we thought; let’s blow everybody away. (Laughs)

Dominicanedge: And you definitely did.

Tom: We figured who can sit there and play an album for 28 minutes? (Laughs)

Dominicanedge: We get to hear about what bands the other guys listen to. What were you listening to when you were growing up?

Tom: I was listening to radio. I grew up in a time when radio played everything. I grew up listening to everything. Everything under the sun was played on one radio station. It wasn’t like it is now where everyone is segregated. You’ve got your Metal stations; you have your hard rock, your soft rock, your country, and your hard country. It starts sub-dividing everything. Back then I heard everything. I’m a fan of a good song. Doesn’t matter what it is. I love music; I enjoy music for what it is. Some people are a little more talented than others. (Laughs)

Dominicanedge: Are their any bands now that you’re into?

Tom: I’m not at all on top of the scene, if there is a scene. As far as new metal bands that are either here or there…you hear about bands and then you don’t hear about them anymore. You have to wonder what’s going on. A band like ours you never heard from because we’re not at the top in front of everybody’s face. You have to wonder if some of these bands are still together or what’s going on. They just disappear.

Dominicanedge: And nobody even flinches.

Tom: Yeah, nobody’s says, “Hey where’s…”

Dominicanedge: Your latest record, God Hates Us All, was released on 9/11. What are your thoughts on this? A little spooky don’t ya think.

Tom: It’s just a big fucking coincidence and it’s a pretty trippy one. We did a record store singing at 12 midnight. So on September 11 we were signing autographs for the first 4 hours of that day on the West Coast. I live roughly an hour from where we were so by the time I got home it was 5:30 in the morning. My wife woke me up and was, “Tom, your sister is on the phone and its something about a plane.” So I turn the TV on and it was one of the Towers and it was smoking. I’m going like, “Whoa I wonder where this is at.” I kept looking at the screen. It said at the bottom of the screen what it was, where it was, and what had just happened. I kept looking at that and wondering where this is happening. Then like 2 hours later, I’m like, “That’s the fucking Trade Center!” When I saw the second plane hit the building I was thinking, am I watching a re-run of this or am I watching it just happen. It didn’t sink in till hours later that I had just witnessed the second one and I wasn’t watching a replay. That this was really happening. Then it hit me that we’re not going anywhere, we’re not flying anywhere.

Dominicanedge: Did you get any flack for the title in relation to the events?

Tom: No, because a lot of people didn’t…there were two people that called me that day and said, “Do you think they’re going to blame this on your record. Do you think they’re going to blame this on you guys? They think that you knew something?” It’s like, Fuck You! (Laughs) I think a lot of people, after the fact, made the connection and thought, wow that’s really trippy.

Dominicanedge: There’s another band from NYC called Agnostic Front that is similar to Slayer in that the band attracts a nazi/white power following and are both fronted by singers of Latin descent. Why do you think these types of people are attracted to Slayer and how do you feel about them as fans?

Tom: (In a faux redneck accent) Hey, it’s America. It’s a free country. That’s what we’re fighting for. (Laughs) Yeah, you know, everyone’s allowed. I’m sure there’s a lot of Slayer fans that have their viewpoints, have their opinions…and they’re allowed. They’re allowed to, just like I’m allowed to have my opinions. What can you do? People are individuals and are free to live and think the way they feel is best for them. I don’t think it really matters what it is you’re into, or how you live, or what your culture is. Slayer fans are pretty fucking crazy. (Laughs) The one thing that’s a common denominator amongst all Slayer fans is that they’re all fucking crazy.

Dominicanedge: Do you think Satan possesses your fans to act the way they do?

Tom: Oh yeah, we get them from all sorts.

Dominicanedge: I think the fans are just as much entertainment at the show as the band. It feels like an event.

Tom: Yeah, actually I was talking to a buddy of mine and he told me the one thing he always felt about going to a Slayer show was it’s nothing like going to another show. It was kind of like an event. Weeks before the show came into town you could feel it. Everyone’s gearing up for the show. The event that’s going to happen. I think its great. When he mentioned that I thought, “Man, that’s so cool.” That it’s really cool that its not a really show or a concert, it’s an event. To use the term 'event' gives it a whole different meaning. When I heard that, I was like, "cool, really?" He was like, “Everybody knew, everybody started to wear their Slayer stuff.” (Laughs) You look around and you eye each other out, see what’s going on, you know who’s who. It was just the way he was describing it, I thought that was very cool.

Dominicanedge: How does it feel having Dave Lombardo back in the band and is it going to last?

Tom: Yeah I think it will. I think it’s going to last a while.

Dominicanedge: Are you recording a new record with him?

Tom: Yeah. Actually they’re working on new material right now, at the moment. I think we lucked out that we have two drummers that we know can carry the reins. We were fortunate enough to had found Paul and now that Paul wanted to go on and do other stuff, and do his own thing apparently; Dave was willing to come back in. And to me it’s really exciting because it just makes for an exciting time on stage. I don’t want to say it’s strange. It’s kind of a cool feeling to think it’s like the old days with a bunch of new kids. (Laughs)

Dominicanedge: I notice kids are turning to more brutal sounds and intense angry music. The last time there was a surge in heavier type sounds, metal and hardcore, was back in the Reagan era. Do you think there’s a correlation between what’s happening politically with Bush and the focus on more brutal music?

Tom: No. I don’t think it’s a response to anything other than kids trying to find something heavier. You know what I mean? You got these, I don’t want to say MTV kids, but they are MTV kids or VH1 kids. Whatever they’re watching is what they’re accepting. Some of these kids are going to get really into music. They’re going to find that there’s something heavier than this? (Laughs) And that’s where it starts. That’s one route. It’s the same with me. I get into music. I like music. You start to hunt for stuff. You’re looking for a certain type of sound; you start hunting for it. Then when you come across something that’s even heavier than what you’re looking for, you’re like, “Whoa!” It blows you away. I grew up listening to hard rock. I went to school and starting working as a respiratory therapist. At the time I was in a band but when I did that I got kicked out of a band so I just figured I’d put all my time into that. Two years later I got the bug. I had to be in a band. So I went out and auditioned to be a singer in two bands and then Kerry called me. He said they needed a bass player and I’m like, “Cool, I play bass and sing.” He said, “Here’s a list of bands we’re listening too that we want to jam. We’ll come over in a couple of days and jam with you.” I went out and bought Iron Maiden. I had never even heard Iron Maiden. I wasn’t into the music scene, period. I wasn’t involved in music so I didn’t know what was going on. I hear that and I’m like, “Fuckin' A, what the hell is this shit?” (Laughs) Dude, I was sold. That first Iron Maiden record sold me. I was like; “Damn this album is fucking great.”

Dominicanedge: And look at you now.

Tom: Yeah. I just discovered it then. Kerry kind of introduced it to me. That’s what I’m saying, kids nowadays, they’ll discover it.

Dominicanedge: It’s better that its not on TV being fed to them. It takes a little more work to find it.

Tom: They’ll find it and when they do they’ll be like, “Whoa!” It’s like me finding Judas Priest. Judas Priest and Iron Maiden were very underground and then I come to find out that Priest had toured the States on certain years and I was there passing out flyers to this Top 40 band that I was in. Just to find that out I was like “Wow, they played the fuckin'…” I can’t think of the name of the club now. Then all of sudden, fucking ten years later, they’re in arenas. They’re doing so much better for themselves. I’m like, “Fuck!”

Dominicanedge: Thanks Tom.

Tom: We’ll be seeing each other soon.

Dominicanedge: No doubt.

"OG LIVE TOM ARAYA PICS COURTESY OF JASON VITERITTI"