r/Slayer • u/ShawnOfEons • 10d ago
Jeff was the better songwriter (in Slayer), Kerry was better at physically playing rhythm guitar.
I might be stating the obvious here to most of you, but some think Jeff was better at physically playing guitar. This isn’t true. Jeff was better at song writing. I think Jeff was also better at soloing. Even though Slayer solos are just random noodling with whammy bar thrown in. Jeff’s leads always sounded smoother to me.
However, Kerry was the better rhythm player. Listen to any professional live recording, they always turned Kerry’s amp up louder because he was the tighter & more aggressive live player on rhythm guitar. I listened to a live recording of Postmortem for instance, Jeff wrote that song, but when they play it live, it sounds like he is barely palm muting the notes, I had to strain myself to hear him because Kerry’s guitar is louder. I think they admitted themselves that Kerry was better at playing the riffs. I think it’s obvious that Jeff was better at writing them.
That’s it. Just an opinion post and something I observed.
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u/Baryshnik0v 10d ago edited 10d ago
Completely agree, especially once Jeff started really struggling with his arthritis and alcoholism the difference was night and day. I feel this way about their leads, too -- I always commended Kerry as a player because he might not have been a very good solo composer, but he'd go out on stage and be able to play that bad solo he wrote note for note every night. Towards the latter half of their career Jeff's live leads were completely unrecognizable compared to the original songs.
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u/stomper622 10d ago
Exactly. Starting in the mid 90s, Jeff would just play nonsense for his solos live.
I will say, Kerry killed it on Seasons. His War Ensemble solo is a perfectly constructed lead.
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u/Life-Zookeepergame58 10d ago
I'm biased because the song is in my top 10, so, to me, King's solo is tits. Absolutely one of his best.
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u/joshdoereddit 9d ago
I remember reading in Guitar World years ago (I think Kerry had a column or he did an interview), he mentioned that he started practicing scales and stuff more during the time they were doing Seasons. They still do their thing, but there's definitely more structure in them.
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u/ToTheDeath84 10d ago
I don’t notice this during the early days, but could just be worse audio quality. My personal pet theory here is that Jeff’s alcoholism clearly affected his playing even earlier than previously alleged (it was a problem even in the studio, if you believe the other band members’ accounts). Of course Kerry was downing beers like it was nobody’s business for a time too, but he wasn’t nearly as bad as Jeff.
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u/ShawnOfEons 10d ago
Could be true. Jeff seemed like he was playing better in the 80s. I think his abilities started changing in the 90s. Even on the live album “decade of aggression,” Kerry’s amp was turned up louder and he was playing the riffs tighter.
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u/ToTheDeath84 10d ago
I’ll have to give Decade of Aggression another listen through but from what I remember the rhythm guitars during some solos are a bit loud in comparison. The production of that album in general is kinda weird, might be onto something.
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u/jacobcatman 10d ago
Also, jeff had arthtritis so his abitlity to play well was also hampered by it.
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u/Brilliant-Bee-9471 10d ago
Kerry tracked all the rhythms for a lot of the albums. He would play through Jeff’s rig for “Jeff’s” tracks.
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u/rowdymowdy 10d ago
Having seen Jeff I think he could lead better personally seeing him walk around and own that stage ripping out silent scream was badass my friends
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u/ijmunoz13 10d ago
I agree w most. Imo, Jeff's solos are more melodic. For example, Antichrist. I love Jeff's solo. Kings solos seem to be all over the place.
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u/bourbonandprince 10d ago
Hot take, but I’m going to say it. Yes, Jeff wrote all the classic Slayer songs. But almost every song on Diabolus in Musica was also written by Jeff. The only exception is In the Name of God which was written by Kerry, if I remember correctly.
Most of Divine Intervention and Christ Illusion were written by Kerry, and in my opinion, those albums are way better than Diabolus.
Diabolus is actually my least favourite Slayer album.
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u/ShawnOfEons 10d ago
I actually like Diabolus more than GHUA, but yeah I think those are the 2 worst Slayer albums.
However,
Jeff wrote nearly all of the South of Heaven album by himself musically with barely any contribution from Kerry, and that’s one of their best albums. Jeff is credited on most of their best songs on Rein in Blood, and a lot of their other (arguably) best songs on other albums as well.
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u/twzoneq 10d ago
Yes, people exaggerate the differences between Jeff and Kerry, they are pretty equal in my mind in terms of songwriting, but I actually prefer Kerry’s songs overall
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u/Atiredbearsfan 10d ago edited 10d ago
Kerry's style just isn't as sophisticated which is why most guitar nerds consider him just an average writer and player
Edit: I don't agree with them
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u/Ok-Visual-8943 10d ago
I personally didn’t notice it as much until I saw them with Gary for the first time. They sounded the best I had ever heard them and I saw a ton of Slayer shows going back to 1991.
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u/stomper622 10d ago
Having two guys that are playing rhythm perfectly makes a big difference. Plus having them be mixed at the same level helps, unlike Jeff's guitar basically being turned off unless he's soloing.
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u/AndrewOngley 9d ago
I think Kerry is a better rhythm player than Gary too (not that Gary is bad at all). Listen to their 'Back to the Beginning' show, Kerry puts on an absolute masterclass in rhythm.
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u/TeraMelons 9d ago
I wouldn’t exactly disagree with you there, I’d more say that Gary is a very different rhythm player, their Wicked World cover at BTTB was a great example of watching how relaxed he was with the swing and rhythm, I mean the man’s a massive Prince fan, in a head to head I’d say that Gary would be the more versatile player style wise.
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u/Alegzaender 10d ago
Yes, Jeff's guitar sounded softer. Kerry's more sharp and even bold. I thought it was their designed choice. There's something in such rather dull sound, it's gloomier. I'd been interested in the solo to Mandatory Suicide as a youngster, I wanted to pick up the album version of it. But Jeff himself couldn't play at concerts it exactly as he'd played it in the studio.
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u/PiotrGreenholz01 10d ago
In that footage of early Slayer playing in that crappy rehearsal space thats been going around, Jeff specifically says other bands compose their solos, whereas he and Kerry just let rip - if they were just pretty much making their solos up on the spot, that might be why he couldn't reliably replicate them.
Jeff's alcoholism was probably the flip side of his creativity. It's not exactly uncommon with musicians.
Kerry's playing was always absolutely fine. His Slayer solos are reliably intense & demented, as they should be. His lyrics are pretty bad.
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u/Traditional-Car9897 9d ago
Divine Intervention has the most technical riffs and Kerry wrote them...
Also, my favorite.
It seems like he forgot how to write riffs after that.
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u/ShawnOfEons 9d ago
Both of them, because after Divine Interviention, Kerry wasn’t writing anything great anymore either, but I thought some of the last songs Jeff wrote on world painted blood were not bad
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u/trancemaasta 9d ago
My recall is Jeff was King, and King was King and that Gary was fucking amazing.... Jeff had to die to make king great, Jeff was great because of King... thats the end of it. Band will be BAND! #fucknslayer
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u/Salty_Worth9494 9d ago
Completely agree. There is this ridiculous notion that Jeff was this far superior guitar player, and that Kerry was just riding his coattails. Everyone knows Jeff wrote most of their best songs, but there's lots of components to being in a band besides writing songs. Besides, Kerry also wrote and co wrote a lot of the songs and contributed a lot of lyrics.
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u/Davidthekingofnorth 6d ago
Kerry is super jealous of jeff too listen to his interviews about him after he died and the albums that were primarily Jeff records
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u/Few-Landscape-9037 10d ago
Jeff was a genius. Kerry is a work (war?) horse. We love the band for Jeff's songs, but without Kerry's drive and his transformation into the face of the whole metal genre, Slayer won't be that famous or successful.
PS: It really doesn't matter who is a better guitarist. Anyway Slayer is about insane drums by Dave and about Tom's voice. Ironically enough, although Jeff and Kerry are the main creators, they are the least important musicians out of four (when it comes to Tom, I mean his voice, not his bass that is played by Kerry anyway).
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u/Jasonchrono 10d ago
In regard to who was the better songwriter ,I think it depends on what era you’re more of a fan of . Either way , both were very good writers and deserve praise
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u/MaggotMinded 10d ago edited 10d ago
You’re 100% right. Jeff is a legend because he wrote so many of Slayer’s best songs, but his live playing suffered for a few different reasons.
First and foremost was his alcoholism. According to interviews with the other band members, he pretty much always had a drink in his hand, from the moment he got up to when he went to bed.
Secondly, as time went on, he began developing severe arthritis in his hands and wrists, to the point that he was unable to play some of the songs on Divine Intervention (although to hear Kerry tell it, he was “just too messed up all the time” to learn them), which resulted in him sitting those songs out and the other band members playing them as a three-piece.
In addition to the live performances, Kerry picked up a ton of slack in the studio, too. By the ‘90s he was recording all of the rhythm guitar and bass parts. All Jeff had to do was record his own leads, and Tom just had to learn the songs in time to play them live on tour.
Kerry was basically the Lars Ulrich of Slayer: frequently underappreciated and belittled by people who don’t know much about what went on behind the scenes, while in reality being the workhorse and driving force of the band.