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Slayer Is Now Part of the Smithsonian

Thrash band included in “Places of Musical Innovation” series.

Slayer is officially an American institution.

Loudwire.com reports that the Smithsonian Institution has included a mini-documentary about Slayer as part of its “Places of Musical Innovation” video series at its National Museum of History. The nearly six-minute clip is called “Slayer and the Origins of Thrash.” The band is representative of the thrash movement of metal that formed in the 1980s.

Original vocalist/bassist Tom Araya and guitarist Kerry King, as well as drummer Paul Bostaph and guitarist Gary Holt, appear in the video. They comment on the musical motives behind Slayer’s formation and the early days of the thrash scene. Watch the video below:

Slayer’s new album, Repentless, arrives Sept. 11 on Nuclear Blast Records. It is the band’s first album without its other original guitarist, Jeff Hanneman, who died in 2013 of alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver.