Paul Bostaph says he’s getting tired of Dave Lombardo’s claims that the drum tracks for Slayer’s next album were written before the co-founder was fired.
Lombardo’s third stint came to an end last year following a contractual argument. That led to Bostaph’s return, also for a third term.
The original sticksman recently insisted he’d been involved in all the creative work on the kit. But his replacement disagrees, saying the truth is that Slayer’s approach to songwriting means that most drummers would wind up writing similar parts for guitarist Kerry King’s songs.
Bostaph tells Andrew Haug: “I heard that Dave wrote all the parts. It’s funny – I didn’t see him anywhere around when I was working on the music.
“When Kerry shows you something he’s got in his mind what he wants. There’s not a lot of room for the drummer to do anything in the music, but you have to know how to colour it.
“He’s going to go, ‘I want this kind of beat here,’ or ‘double bass there.’ Maybe there’s a part of the song where he’s like, ‘I don’t really know what I want the drums to do here, so do whatever you do here.’ The songs are in a very strong format before you get a chance to dig in.”
He says of Lombardo’s comments: “I get where he’s coming from, but there’s two sides to every story. I’m getting a little tired of hearing his. I’m just going to leave it at that because I don’t take it personally. I just want to play drums. That’s all there is to it.”
King recently admitted that he knew some fans were expecting Slayer’s first album without the late Jeff Hanneman to be a poor effort. But Bostaph says: “It’s shaping up really well – it’s going to be heavy. Unfortunately we don’t have Jeff with us any more, but Kerry has really stepped up to the plate. It’s still gonna be a Slayer record.”
The follow-up to 2009’s World Painted Blood is expected early next year.
