The Metal Crypt - Slaughter Interview

Interviews

Interview with bassist Terry Sadler
Interview conducted by Michel Renaud

Date online: November 3, 2001

NO this is not the US glam band but the one and only Slaughter, the Canadian thrash metal legends from the 80s! Without having released much material officially back in their days, this band nevertheless influenced the underground thrash metal movement with its raw and crazy music. After having disappeared from the scene more than 10 years ago, their material has been reissued (or simply issued, as some of that stuff was never officially released before) and the guys are once again getting the underground metal world's attention... or are they really? Terry Sadler, the band's bassist and all-around cool guy (hey, he's Canadian, we're nice - and if you disagree, fuck you!!) has agreed to answer some questions about the band's past and present... Read on to find out more about this 80s cult band...

Alright please give us the details as to how Slaughter came to be - the who the what the when the why! :)

We first formed in August of 1984 after we all met through my brother. We formed in Toronto, Canada. At that time there was either, only heavy metal, thrash or punk bands, but no other bands ever mixed all this stuff together into the noise we first called SLAUGHTERHOUSE and later changed the band name to SLAUGHTER! Dave Hewson decided that he wanted to play guitar and Ron Sumners decided that he wanted to play drums. I had been a lead vocalist and drummer in other metal and punk bands but I wanted to learn bass guitar. We rehearsed every hour of the day,recorded demo tapes and sent them out,for free,to other metalheads into the tape trading scene. Most people loved it and word spread and we got an album deal and gigged around Canada.

What are you guys doing nowadays? (jobs etc...) Are you all in the Toronto area?

We all live in the Toronto area and all have regular jobs now. We all quit the thieving,music industry back in 1989/1990!

I think you've been pretty much out of the metal scene for about 10 years.. What about the other band members? Were they involved in any band during that period?

Dave Hewson carried on for a while with new members in a band called STRAPPADO and then they disbanded and Dave and one other guy (Bobby Sadzak) formed an industrial band called INNER THOUGHT. Dave quit that band and the music biz in 1994!

There's been a lot of Slaughter reissues lately: The Strappado pic LP, the Surrender or Die demo on CD, and now Nuclear Blast with the Strappado and Paranormal CDs. How did this come to be? Slaughter had been inactive for many years and suddenly you reappear...

I put together a website in October 2000 for SLAUGHTER and discovered that many of the old fans and a ton of younger fans were still crazy about our noise. Dave had already put together a CD re- release of our 1985 "Surrender Or Die" demo and it did well,so I shopped for a record deal for our "Strappado" album to be released on CD with bonus stuff at the best,lowest price possible and the best distribution. I got in contact with an, old SLAUGHTER fan, who now works for Nuclear Blast Records in Germany, named Zwini. We put together 2 DIGI CD's with every studio recordings we could find! We figured that this would be a good treat for all the fans from the past 17 years and something new for younger metal fans. It would also bring closure for the band! The Strappado picture LP was put together back in 2000 for a collectors thing. There are only 666 copies and I think they can only be found on eBay now! A few years ago there was a bootleg CD of the "Strappado" LP and "Not Dead Yet" demo on Headache Records and the sound was horrible,so we thought that these re- releases would be a better deal for the fans.

The reissues on Nuclear Blast were set for release in August but it took some time before they started showing up in stores (online and real stores). Do you know the reason for the delay? Were NB busy jerking off or something? :)

I think it was during everyone's vacation time in the summer!

In light of this, are you guys reuniting? New shows maybe? New album????

We thought of reuniting but we decided that we couldn't put the dedication and effort it would take to recreate a form of music that we played back in the early '80s. We want the memories and the legend of the band to remain as it was! Also we still hate the record business!! (can't blame you for that! - ed) Too many bands from the 1980's are reuniting and flooding the scene with music that does not live up to their past. To me it is bullshit...

Have you started getting any feedback about the Slaughter reissues yet?

Yes,everyday! I was hoping for a few,bad reviews but everything is coming back positive. SLAUGHTER used to thrive on being hated by critics and we in turn loved to hate them back. What's going on here? Hehehe!!

I'm aware of some live bootlegs around (I've got to find some of those!). How's the sound/image quality in the ones you have? Do you think this could possibly be used to release some sort of video?

We have a few videos floating around but only for fans to trade around the underground scene. All mine are in rough shape but eventually we would like to have them put on our website for all to see,but I don't know how!

One of your new T-shirts has Slaughter's trademark "1,2 Fuck you" written on the back. Have your worn this in public yet? I've read a few stories of people being thrown out of malls (or even banned from malls!) because they were wearing Iced Earth's "Fuck Posers" T-shirt. Any similar story that you know of?

I wear mine to work and on the street because I love to cause some discomfort in the zombies that roam the world nowadays. I've had a few people comment that yes, they'd like to fuck me!!! I tend to still wear ripped T-shirts, army fatigues and punky clothes,so a shirt like ours fulfills my juvenile desires to still shock, titillate and offend the stuffy, conservative fat cats in designer clothes and monkey, business suits! I got thrown out of school once for wearing a evil Black Sabbath shirt and knee high, black, leather Nazi boots!

How did you come up with that "1, 2, Fuck you" thing anyway?

To be honest,I stole that phrase directly from Wendy O.Williams and The Plasmatics. A great,punk band from the late 70s/early 80s. In concert we also yelled out; "6, 7, 8, masturbate...

Back in the days, what was your reaction when the US glam rock band "Slaughter" showed up?

At that point I was getting fed up with the band and the music biz and I knew I was going to quit,so I never really cared! Their music certainly doesn't fit their name though. I heard that they wanted to sue us for the name but their lawyers discovered that we were out first with an album and they dropped it!

Ever got any feedback by error from fans of the glam band? Hairspray tips for example?

Not Yet,but it would be great! I'll tell them to shave their fucking heads!!

What studio was Strappado recorded at? How long did it take? Did you guys trash the place?

It was recorded at a studio called Future Sound. It took about 24 hours,straight through and Ron almost trashed the place when he recorded the chainsaws(which ended up not being on the record.)

I think the Paranormal/Not Dead Yet CD released last summer by Nuclear Blast was supposed to be your second album back in the 80s but was never released? Why wasn't it released back then?

Because we never finished recording and mixing them properly and we were close to splitting up.

So.. The World Trade Center attack, that sucks big time. What are your thoughts on that? Ever been there?

When I first saw the footage on TV, I thought that Nuclear War had broken out! I've never been there!!

What do you think of today's music scene compared to what it was back in the 80s?

One word....SUCKS!!!!!!!

What good stuff have you been listening to lately? Any recent releases have caught your attention?

Alice Cooper,Rush and some older bands, still grace my CD player but I hate most music after 1992 or so! I will say that I like The Tea Party, Collective Soul, Helldorado, and the new Destruction. I've always been into the more original stuff.

Is Slaughter a tr00ly evol band?

Never! We always made fun of all religion(on stage) from Christianity to Satanism. I've studied them all and know that they all consist of brainwashing and 99% bullcrap!

What's your opinion on mp3 files, online sharing (Napster etc...) and how the record industry is handling the this?

I think this is fantastic! The music is for people and the more sharing of it can only help. Record companies should put up or shut up! I want to put all our stuff and rare stuff on mp3s etc,but have no idea how to do it! (that can be arranged ;) - ed) People feel free to do it, trade it and for fuck sakes, just listen to it, minus the political shit!!!!!

I think your live shows were, to say the least, pretty crazy. Could you describe a typical show, and maybe some of the best and worst live moments?

Loud, rude, rough, tight but loose and lots of improvising. We used to play 4 or 5 new, unreleased songs at every show for people to record for themselves. It was always about the energy and aggression and nothing to do with musicianship, technical showing off or impressing other musicians. We played a song at the end of each live show, called "Bloody Karnage" that was just us making as much noise as possible and throwing things at the audience. Records(disco), microphones and baby dolls, impaled on swords were always thrown AT the audience. Sometimes we destroyed amplifiers and spat and blew our nose on the front row! One time I wasn't paying attention and accidentally stabbed my knee with my sword. I jumped off of a drum riser and smashed up my knees(which still hurt me to this day) and I hit the President Of Attic Records in the face with a baby dolls head and ruined our chance of a major record deal!

Do you have anything to say to fans of the glam rock Slaughter who could have stumbled upon this interview by mistake and are now crying for their mom?

It's about time you heard the real,fucking SLAUGHTER!!!!

You'll be glad to know I'm out of questions.. Thanks for the interview! ;) The last words are yours....

Thanks to all the fans and dirty punks who got our new,re-releases and visit our bloody web site for more unpredictable, noisy garbage! 1, 2, FUCK YOU!

Other information about Slaughter on this site

Review: Strappado

Review: Surrender Or Die

Review: Live in 85