Slayer's Tom Araya talks about new songs, 25th anniversary of debut

Revolver recently spoke with Slayer bassist/vocalist Tom Araya about their upcoming album, 25th anniversary and more. Regarding their recording process

We have an idea of what we want the song to sound like; it's making it sound the way we want it to that's hard. And we're our own worst critics. If Jeff [Hanneman, guitar] puts together a song and it, to him, doesn't sound good, then he won't even bother presenting the song. The guys have to like the songs they write before we get to see and hear them. So this time [for the band's recording session in October] he had these three he liked, and we went into the studio with 'em and we knew how we wanted them, the basic idea of the songs, and we needed someone to come in and take charge. It wasn't like we went in there and started playing a bunch of riffs and said, "OK, this sounds good...

As for the 25 years since Show No Mercy:

Y'know, one day someone said, "You guys have been together this many years." "Really? Wow!" We all kind of looked at each other, dumbfounded, and stunned. It's not something where we've ever sat down and said, "We've been together five years, let's have a party! We've been together 10 years, let's have a party!'" or anything like that.

The rest of the interview will appear in the 2009 Preview issue of the magazine.