Photo Credit: Hillarie Jason

Slayer bassist/vocalist gave a recording update on the band’s eleventh studio album, due out later in 2015 via Nuclear Blast. The band recorded their new album over a four month period at Hollywood, CA studio Henson Studios with producer Terry Date (Pantera, Soundgarden, Korn).

“We’re in kind of the beginning stages of the finishing stages, if that makes any sense,”

“We’re doing the mixing and mastering now, but we still need to sit down and figure out the album title, the album cover, the song titles, and the song list. We’ve recorded 13 songs for it; we’ll probably put ten on there, but who knows? Maybe you’ll get lucky and we’ll put all 13 on there!”

The album will be the first without co-founder, guitarist and co-writer Jeff Hanneman, who passed away in May 2013 from alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver. Exodus guitarist Gary Holt and returning drummer Paul Bostaph (replacing Dave Lombardo) have joined the band and are recording the new album.

Said Araya:

“The whole process of this album started three years ago, when Jeff was still a part of it. There is one track on there that we recorded with him, that he did play on, which was completely done except we hadn’t finalized the vocals for it. So we were fortunate to have something that he had participated in.”

According to Araya, it’s been “just odd and strange” making the new album without Hanneman “because he’s never gonna be there again, you know?” he said. “Even when we were doing stuff without him while he was still alive, that felt strange. Yeah, I missed him during the process. But the way things turned out, I think he was definitely a part of it, even if he wasn’t there physically.”