Slower: Self-Titled Debut From Slayer Covers Project Available to Preorder; “War Ensemble” Streaming
There’s comment from project participants Bob Balch (who spearheaded the idea), Esben Willems (who drums on the entire record) and Peder Bergstrand (who plays bass on all but one track, sharing space with Scott Reeder) below, and when you can hear from members of Fu Manchu, Monolord and Lowrider, I sincerely doubt any comment I might make matters. Those three speak below on how Slower — the conceptual covers project that, yes, dooms up select Slayer tracks both originally speedy like “War Ensemble” streaming below or, duh, slower, like inevitable closer “South of Heaven” — came together, and with Year of the Cobra‘s Amy Barrysmith on vocals for the majority and The Discussion‘s Laura Pleasants (also ex-Kylesa) taking over for the aforementioned finisher, it’d be a release of note no matter who they were taking on.
Maybe next time out they’ll do Duran Duran. Or maybe they’ll finally unveil the insistent creep at the heart of “Raining Blood.” I won’t claim to know, but given both personnel and source material, I expect this will be a beacon as the underground emerges from the generally-dead doldrums of January and takes on 2024 in earnest. Looking forward to it, in other words.
But album preorders are up now, so don’t let me keep you. Heavy Psych Sounds announced last week it had snagged the oops-kind-of-a-supergroup outfit for this release, and Jan. 26 is the listed arrival date. By all means, dive in. From the PR wire:
Heavy Psych Sounds to announce SLOWER upcoming debut album – presale starts TODAY !!!
– new super band feat. members of Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Kylesa, Lowrider, Monolord and Year Of The Cobra – SLAYER tracks in a SLOWER mood
Today we are stoked to start the presale of the upcoming SLOWER self-titled debut album !!!
RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 26th
ALBUM PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS288
USA PRESALE: https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm
RELEASED IN
10 ULTRA LTD TEST PRESS VINYL
100 ULTRA LTD SIDE A – SIDE B BLACK/ORANGE/WHITE VINYL
150 ULTRA LTD COLOR IN COLOR TRANSP. BACK. RED/SPLATTER BLACK VINYL
500 LTD NEON GREEN VINYL
BLACK VINYL
DIGIPAK
DIGITAL
TRACKLIST
SIDE A
War Ensemble – 10:39
The Antichrist – 8:13
SIDE B
Blood Red – 6:30
Dead Skin Mask – 6:08
South Of Heaven – 7:11
Bob Balch from FU MANCHU here. The idea for the SLOWER project started around four years ago. I was teaching a student how to play “South Of Heaven” by SLAYER but she was a beginner so we slowed it down. I thought that sounded cool so I tuned down to B standard and tried it. I added some drums and thought “someone in the doom community should do this and name it SLOWER.”
A few years later I befriended Steven “Thee Slayer Hippy” Hanford, best known for his work as the drummer in the influential Oregon punk band Poison Idea. He was backstage at a FU MANCHU show. Oddly enough I was wearing a POISON IDEA shirt and he told me that my shirt sucks. I asked who he was and why he was in our backstage. He told me and I felt stupid. We started drinking whiskey and talking about music. We stayed in touch over the next year or so and during Covid I told him about my SLOWER idea. He asked me to send him tracks. I waited too long because the day I sent the tracks he passed away. Totally tragic. I’m glad I got to know him even for a few years. He was a monster musician with a giant heart.
He will be greatly missed.
I shelved the project for a while after that. One day Esben from MONOLORD posted about musical collaborations. I love MONOLORD so I thought what the hell. I sent him some tracks and he killed it on drums. So I sent more. Then more. Shortly after that we started reaching out other musicians to get them involved. That’s how we ended up with this lineup. Everyone that contributed completely knocked it out of the park and I can’t thank them enough.
This project has been a long time coming and I’m beyond stoked on how it turned out. Without all of the players involved, Steven Hanford and my baritone Reverend guitar it wouldn’t have happened. Thanks to everyone involved and I hope you dig it! I’m a giant SLAYER fan so it’s been a treat to dig into these classic songs. Hopefully we can do another record in the near future. Look out for shows because they will happen!
Esben Willems – When Bob first approached me with the idea and I heard his scratch guitars, my first thought was “This is genius”. Those iconic tracks we all know by heart suddenly unveiled an unexpected dimension. I’m really proud of how this turned out.
Peder Bergstrand – “This might be blasphemous considering the circumstances, but when Bob reached out and asked if I’d want to play bass on sludged-out Slayer covers, I had to admit some of these tracks were brand new to me.
That made the experience even more special though, hearing and playing on the Slower version first, and then comparing to the original. Bob has really transformed these songs into something totally their own, and on a personal level I feel the rest of the band’s insane performances pushed me to my most inspired playing to date.
So incredibly stoked for people to hear this album.”
CREDITS
“War Ensemble” “Dead Skin Mask” “Blood Red” “The Antichrist”
Esben Willems (drums) MONOLORD
Peder Bergstrand (bass) LOWRIDER
Amy Barrysmith (vocals) YEAR OF THE COBRA
Bob Balch (guitars) FU MANCHU
“South Of Heaven”
Esben Willems (drums) MONOLORD
Scott Reeder (bass) KYUSS
Laura Pleasants (vocals) KYLESA
Bob Balch (guitars) FU MANCHU
SLOWER is:
Esben Willems (drums) MONOLORD
Peder Bergstrand (bass) LOWRIDER
Amy Barrysmith (vocals) YEAR OF THE COBRA
Laura Pleasents (vocals) KYLESA
Bob Balch (guitars) FU MANCHU
Scott Reeder (bass) KYUSS
https://www.instagram.com/slower_666/
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https://www.instagram.com/heavypsychsounds_records/
https://heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com/
http://www.heavypsychsounds.com/
Really good idea and it sounds awesome !