Rick Rubin has produced and co-produced countless albums of all different genres during the past few decades or so, including Slayer’s “Reign In Blood,” “South of Heaven,” and “Seasons in the Abyss.” Aside from them, he also worked with big metal names such as Metallica, SOAD, Black Sabbath, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, and many others, so it is kind of unusual to label Slayer as black metal. Here’s what he said to Broken Record Podcast:
“Something I noticed relatively early, working with different artists that was interesting was… one of the bands I worked with is called Slayer, heavy metal band, very… one of the inventors of black metal… very aggressive metal, and the lyrics were very dark and heavy. Some people would look at that as negative content, and then I would go to a concert and see an arena full of kids who were very much like the guys in Slayer, who were so filled with joy listening to this music. It was speaking directly to them. It was completely nourishing them…”
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!