Free Slayer's Reign in Blood (33 1/3) by D.X. Ferris

Roll. The producer bought
Hell Awaits
. The clerk, Scott Koenig, was a passing acquaintanceof the Beasties. Rubin and Koenig started talking Slayer. Recalls Koenig:
    “Did you ever hear of this band, Slayer?” asked Rubin.
    “Yeah, they’re one of my favorite bands,” said Koenig, whose friends in bands helped him navigate backstage areas on the club circuit. “I party with them when they come to town. They’re going to play L’Amour next week.”
    “Let’s go,” said Rubin. “I want to sign them to my label.”
    “Sure,” said Koenig, then asked, “What label?“
    The night of the show, the smell of blood was in the water, and Rubin wasn’t the only shark out. Elektra had signed Metallica the year before, and metal had a building buzz.
    “There were people in the mix who were going to make something happen,” says Georges Sulmers, another future Def Jam employee, who was in the house as a friend of Brian Slagel, CEO of Metal Blade, Slayer’s California-based indie label.
    By the end of 1986, both Sulmers and Koenig would be cashing Def Jam paychecks, alongside Dakoulias, as part of Rick Rubin’s informal four-man rock department.
    Slayer had spent the summer touring Europe for the first time. The band was ripe for picking. The New York show had reps from a handful of major labels and one indie: Metal Blade still had Slayer under contract for three more albums, having extended their contract after the first album sold so well. Now, however, Slayer felt they were ready to move on. Fearing they’d be poached, Slagel flew to New York, hoping to keep his eyes and hands on his stars.
    “The writing was on the wall that [Slayer] were not happy,” says Sulmers, recalling an exchange between Hanneman and Slagel. “They had tense words after the show. They werebackstage, and Brian was really trying to sort out how to convince them to stay.”
    The show put the band—and Slagel—in Rubin’s crosshairs.
    “We were both laughing in delight,” recalls Drakoulias. “It was incredible, like, ‘I can’t believe we’re watching this.’ I think it was a fascination that something could be so precise, so fast. I remember him being really super impressed with Lombardo [and] the soloing—‘How can anybody play that fast and still swing?’”
    After Slayer played and slayed, introductions were made.
    “Scott Koenig came in and said, ‘Hey, I want to introduce you to Rick Rubin,’” recalls Araya. “He’s a really big Slayer fan. He wants to sign you guys. And he came in, and we were introduced, and he was all excited.”
    Oblivious to Slagel’s presence, Rubin chatted King up about his over-the-top wristband. King sported an ten-inch black-leather armband that he’d punched 250 two-and-a-half-inch nails through.
    “It was like, ‘Wow, he’s a nice guy who really wants to sign us,’” recalls Lombardo. “And after that, ‘Cool. You need to get a hold of Brian.’”
    Rubin left. Slagel stayed, trying to talk the band into remaining on Metal Blade. He’d be the first of many to ask the band what the hell a rap guy could possibly do for them.
    In coming weeks, Rubin was hot to do the deal, but it wasn’t a deal that Slagel was hot to do.
    “[Slagel] was our manager,” explains Araya. “And here’s somebody that’s making an offer for the band, a good offer. From what I remember, not only wasn’t he willing to give up the band, but he wanted to work out a deal with Rubin, morethan just a record deal with us. And the outcome was Rubin said, ‘No, I just want the band. I don’t want you.’”
    Weeks after the Ritz show, Lombardo received a call from a prominent California music attorney. He told Lombardo Rubin had been trying to contact the band through Slagel, and had been
very
unsuccessful.
    After some talks, recalls Araya, the lawyer suggested that Slagel’s representing both the label and band represented a conflict of interest. King appreciated Slagel’s support, but Araya had long