Haunting the Chapel
Encyclopedia
Haunting the Chapel is an EP
released by the thrash metal
band Slayer
in 1984 through Metal Blade
and Enigma Records
. Slayer's debut album Show No Mercy became Metal Blade's highest selling, leading to producer Brian Slagel
wanting to release an EP. Recorded in Hollywood the recording process proved difficult when recording drums in a studio without carpet, although it resulted in drummer Dave Lombardo
meeting Gene Hoglan
who was to become an influence in his drumming style and speed. However Hoglan said he gave him a bunch of tips and never really gave him lessons, he was influenced by Slayer too.
Although originally featuring three songs, the record evidences a marked evolution from the style of their previous album, Show No Mercy, and is considered the first demonstration of the band's "classic" style displayed on later albums and is often described as a "stepping stone." The songs "Captor of Sin" and "Chemical Warfare" are regularly featured on the band's live set list. "Chemical Warfare" appears in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
.
want to release an EP
. The album was recorded in Hollywood with sound engineer Bill Metoyer, in a studio with no carpet which was a problem while recording the drums. Slagel was acting as executive producer
. Metoyer is Christian
and the lyrics from Show No Mercy did not bother him. However, the first words Araya sang when recording Haunting the Chapel were "The holy cross, symbol of lies, intimidates the lives of Christian born", and other anti-religious lyrics; Metoyer thought he would go to Hell
for his part in recording the lyrics. These lyrical themes were inspired by the band Venom
, who influenced King and was also into the Satanic image.
Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo
set his drum kit on the concrete and the kit went "all over the place" while playing. Lombardo asked Gene Hoglan
to hold his kit together, while recording "Chemical Warfare", with Hoglan thinking "I hope he does this in one or two takes, because this is rough." Hoglan was coaching Lombardo how to use double-bass drums to improve his drumming ability and speed, Lombardo asserts Hoglan was "an amazing double-bass player even back then," although Hoglan played double bass since a short time then. Eddy Schreyer provided audio mastering
and digital remastering, with the cover art design created by Vince Gutierrez. Haunting the Chapel was darker and more thrash oriented than Show No Mercy, and laid the groundwork for the future direction in the band's sound.
s. Slayer and Hoglan would play Dark Angel
songs during soundchecks, which is how Hoglan eventually joined Dark Angel. Hoglan approached Dark Angel guitarist Jim Durkin: "He came up to me one day and started giving me his criticisms of the band. He said we needed to be more evil. And then he goes, 'By the way, I’m a better drummer than the guy you have in Dark Angel right now.'"
Hoglan was fired as he thought a roadie only did lighting, while vocalist Tom Araya
's brother Johnny Araya would do all roadie duties, such as moving equipment, working with sound and lights, and setting up the stage. The band performed a show in Seattle in front of a crowd of 1500, the largest show they performed at the time, supporting Metal Church
, and in Texas played with a band also called Slayer in San Antonio. However it was the San Antonio Slayer's goodbye show.
Vocalist Karl Willetts of the death metal
band Bolt Thrower asserts the record was an inspiration for the band: "When Slayer's Haunting the Chapel came out I had never heard anything like that before with that style of guitar playing. We were punks and heavy metal was alien to our upbringing. And other bands we heard like Venom
, Slaughter
and Metallica
. So we took the elements of musicianship from metal and the aggression of punk and poured it all together." Chuck Schuldiner
of the band Death said the record was "life changing at the time" asserting "That was some of the early stuff that gave me that push."
The black metal
band Perverseraph covered "Chemical Warfare" on a tribute CD to Slayer titled Gateway to Hell, Vol. 2: A Tribute to Slayer. Thrash metal band Equinox
also made an appearance on the album covering "Haunting the Chapel". Melodic death metal
band At the Gates
released "Captor of Sin" on a 2002 re-issue of their 1995 album Slaughter of the Soul
.
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
released by the thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
band Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
in 1984 through Metal Blade
Metal Blade Records
Metal Blade Records is a record label which was founded by Brian Slagel in 1982. The U.S. corporate office for Metal Blade is located in Agoura Hills, California. It also has offices in Arizona, Germany, Japan, Canada, and the UK. The label is distributed in the U.S. by Sony BMG Music...
and Enigma Records
Enigma Records
Enigma Records was a popular rock and alternative American record label in the 1980s. It was initially a division of Greenworld Distribution, an independent music importer/distributor, which it split-off from in 1985 to become its own company...
. Slayer's debut album Show No Mercy became Metal Blade's highest selling, leading to producer Brian Slagel
Brian Slagel
Brian Slagel is the owner and founder of Metal Blade Records. Slagel is known for giving Metallica their first break in 1982, with an appearance on Metal Massacre, a compilation album on Metal Blade, and has since released seminal albums by Slayer, Mercyful Fate, Cannibal Corpse, Fates Warning,...
wanting to release an EP. Recorded in Hollywood the recording process proved difficult when recording drums in a studio without carpet, although it resulted in drummer Dave Lombardo
Dave Lombardo
Dave Lombardo is a Cuban American heavy metal drummer best known for his work with American thrash metal band Slayer. He has performed with Slayer on seven albums, including their groundbreaking 1986 release Reign In Blood and their 2006 release Christ Illusion, for which he received critical praise...
meeting Gene Hoglan
Gene Hoglan
Eugene "Gene" Victor Hoglan II is an American drummer. He is acclaimed for his creativity in drum arrangements, including usage of odd devices for percussion effects and his trademark lengthy double-kick drum rhythms...
who was to become an influence in his drumming style and speed. However Hoglan said he gave him a bunch of tips and never really gave him lessons, he was influenced by Slayer too.
Although originally featuring three songs, the record evidences a marked evolution from the style of their previous album, Show No Mercy, and is considered the first demonstration of the band's "classic" style displayed on later albums and is often described as a "stepping stone." The songs "Captor of Sin" and "Chemical Warfare" are regularly featured on the band's live set list. "Chemical Warfare" appears in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is a music video game and the sixth main entry in the Guitar Hero series for the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 consoles. The game was released September 24, 2010 in Europe, September 28, 2010 in North America and September 29, 2010 in Australia...
.
Recording
Slayer's previous album Show No Mercy had sold over 40,000 copies worldwide and the band were performing the songs "Chemical Warfare" and "Captor of Sin" live, which made producer Brian SlagelBrian Slagel
Brian Slagel is the owner and founder of Metal Blade Records. Slagel is known for giving Metallica their first break in 1982, with an appearance on Metal Massacre, a compilation album on Metal Blade, and has since released seminal albums by Slayer, Mercyful Fate, Cannibal Corpse, Fates Warning,...
want to release an EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
. The album was recorded in Hollywood with sound engineer Bill Metoyer, in a studio with no carpet which was a problem while recording the drums. Slagel was acting as executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
. Metoyer is Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
and the lyrics from Show No Mercy did not bother him. However, the first words Araya sang when recording Haunting the Chapel were "The holy cross, symbol of lies, intimidates the lives of Christian born", and other anti-religious lyrics; Metoyer thought he would go to Hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
for his part in recording the lyrics. These lyrical themes were inspired by the band Venom
Venom (band)
Venom are an English heavy metal band that formed in 1979 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Coming to prominence towards the end of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Venom's first two albums—Welcome to Hell and Black Metal —are considered a major influence on thrash metal and extreme metal in general...
, who influenced King and was also into the Satanic image.
Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo
Dave Lombardo
Dave Lombardo is a Cuban American heavy metal drummer best known for his work with American thrash metal band Slayer. He has performed with Slayer on seven albums, including their groundbreaking 1986 release Reign In Blood and their 2006 release Christ Illusion, for which he received critical praise...
set his drum kit on the concrete and the kit went "all over the place" while playing. Lombardo asked Gene Hoglan
Gene Hoglan
Eugene "Gene" Victor Hoglan II is an American drummer. He is acclaimed for his creativity in drum arrangements, including usage of odd devices for percussion effects and his trademark lengthy double-kick drum rhythms...
to hold his kit together, while recording "Chemical Warfare", with Hoglan thinking "I hope he does this in one or two takes, because this is rough." Hoglan was coaching Lombardo how to use double-bass drums to improve his drumming ability and speed, Lombardo asserts Hoglan was "an amazing double-bass player even back then," although Hoglan played double bass since a short time then. Eddy Schreyer provided audio mastering
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
and digital remastering, with the cover art design created by Vince Gutierrez. Haunting the Chapel was darker and more thrash oriented than Show No Mercy, and laid the groundwork for the future direction in the band's sound.
Touring
Hoglan worked as a roadie for the band after their lighting guy did not show up one night, and performed Lombardo's soundcheckSoundcheck
A soundcheck is the preparation that takes place before a concert, speech, or similar performance, when the performer and the sound crew run through a small portion of the upcoming show on the venue's sound system to make sure that the sound in the venue's "Front Of House" and stage monitor sound...
s. Slayer and Hoglan would play Dark Angel
Dark Angel (band)
Dark Angel was an American thrash metal band from Los Angeles, California. Their over-the-top style earned them the nickname "the L.A...
songs during soundchecks, which is how Hoglan eventually joined Dark Angel. Hoglan approached Dark Angel guitarist Jim Durkin: "He came up to me one day and started giving me his criticisms of the band. He said we needed to be more evil. And then he goes, 'By the way, I’m a better drummer than the guy you have in Dark Angel right now.'"
Hoglan was fired as he thought a roadie only did lighting, while vocalist Tom Araya
Tom Araya
Tom Araya is a Chilean musician, best known as the bassist and vocalist of the American thrash metal band Slayer...
's brother Johnny Araya would do all roadie duties, such as moving equipment, working with sound and lights, and setting up the stage. The band performed a show in Seattle in front of a crowd of 1500, the largest show they performed at the time, supporting Metal Church
Metal Church
Metal Church was an American heavy metal band. They originally formed in Seattle, Washington as Shrapnel in 1980. Their first album was released in 1984, and the band's most recent work, This Present Wasteland, was released in 2008....
, and in Texas played with a band also called Slayer in San Antonio. However it was the San Antonio Slayer's goodbye show.
Reception
Although the EP did not enter any charts, Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic awarded the EP three out of five stars. Rivadavia said Haunting the Chapel was a "stepping stone" that "offers important clues about this transition period, which saw Slayer's rock-based song structures give way to the non-linear, genre-defining style thereafter regarded as thrash metal's signature sound." The tracks "Chemical Warfare" and "Captor of Sin" are played at Slayer's live shows regularly.Vocalist Karl Willetts of the death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
band Bolt Thrower asserts the record was an inspiration for the band: "When Slayer's Haunting the Chapel came out I had never heard anything like that before with that style of guitar playing. We were punks and heavy metal was alien to our upbringing. And other bands we heard like Venom
Venom (band)
Venom are an English heavy metal band that formed in 1979 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Coming to prominence towards the end of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Venom's first two albums—Welcome to Hell and Black Metal —are considered a major influence on thrash metal and extreme metal in general...
, Slaughter
Slaughter (Canadian band)
Slaughter was a Canadian death/thrash band. They formed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1984 playing thrash metal and briefly featured Chuck Schuldiner on guitar in 1986. Originally, they released two demos and two full albums...
and Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
. So we took the elements of musicianship from metal and the aggression of punk and poured it all together." Chuck Schuldiner
Chuck Schuldiner
Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist.Schuldiner was the singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the band Death, which he founded in 1983, initially under the name Mantas. He also recorded as guitarist and songwriter with his other band, Control Denied...
of the band Death said the record was "life changing at the time" asserting "That was some of the early stuff that gave me that push."
The black metal
Black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....
band Perverseraph covered "Chemical Warfare" on a tribute CD to Slayer titled Gateway to Hell, Vol. 2: A Tribute to Slayer. Thrash metal band Equinox
Equinox (band)
Equinox was a thrash metal band from Fredrikstad, Norway that started in 1987.The initial band members were Grim Stene , Ragnar 'Raggen' Westin and Skule Stene who were all ex-Rebellion members...
also made an appearance on the album covering "Haunting the Chapel". Melodic death metal
Melodic death metal
Melodic death metal is a heavy metal music style that combines elements from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal with elements of death metal. The style was developed during the early and mid-1990s, primarily in England and Scandinavia...
band At the Gates
At the Gates
At the Gates is an extreme metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden, and a major progenitor of the Gothenburg death-metal sound. Their early albums lean towards a death metal sound, but later albums sound more like melodic death metal.Initially active from 1990 to 1996, the band reformed in 2007 for a...
released "Captor of Sin" on a 2002 re-issue of their 1995 album Slaughter of the Soul
Slaughter of the Soul
Slaughter of the Soul is the fourth and final studio album by Swedish melodic death metal band At the Gates before their reunion in 2011. It is considered a genre classic by many fans, and was largely responsible for establishing the Gothenburg scene...
.
Track listing
Bonus track (re-issue)
The re-issue features a bonus track previously found on the Metal Massacre Vol. 3 compilationPersonnel
- Tom ArayaTom ArayaTom Araya is a Chilean musician, best known as the bassist and vocalist of the American thrash metal band Slayer...
- bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, vocals - Jeff HannemanJeff HannemanJeffrey John "Jeff" Hanneman is a rhythm/lead guitarist and founding member of the American thrash metal band Slayer. Hanneman grew up in Los Angeles in a family of war veterans, and his fascination with warfare is attributed to his upbringing...
- guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with... - Kerry KingKerry KingKerry King is an American lead and rhythm guitarist. He is best known as the lead guitarist and cofounder of American thrash metal band Slayer. He co-founded the band with Jeff Hanneman in 1981 and has been a member ever since...
- guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker... - Dave LombardoDave LombardoDave Lombardo is a Cuban American heavy metal drummer best known for his work with American thrash metal band Slayer. He has performed with Slayer on seven albums, including their groundbreaking 1986 release Reign In Blood and their 2006 release Christ Illusion, for which he received critical praise...
- drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....