If you’ve read a variety of my previous posts, you know that I’m a trading card collector. In my love of card collecting, I’ve mocked up some theoretical trading cards of my own, most often taking inspiration from existing sports card designs. That’s not the approach I’m going to be taken here.
Today, I’m going to right a wrong.
I’ve written previously about the Brockum Rock Cards set that was released thirty-two years ago, and it’s a set I hold dear to my heart. Still, while I appreciate all the variety of bands and musicians they included in the set, I feel a few unfortunate omissions were made. In my mind, one of the most puzzling things that this set did was include the sticker shown below.
For those that do not know (though the title should give a good hint), this image was taken from the album cover of Seasons In The Abyss by thrash metal giants Slayer, which was created by artist Larry Carroll. When I first saw the sticker, I naively assumed that Slayer would have some cards in the set in addition to this one. Given that the set had stickers of art from bands like Iron Maiden, Megadeth, and Testament (all bands that had cards in the main set), I scrolled through the checklist and was disappointed to not see a single card of Slayer, not of the individual members, and not even one featuring the whole band (Maiden’s cards were only of the entire band). So I decided to whip up a few of my own. As I have been taking the approach of calling these creations “Classic Lineup Cards”, I’ll be featuring those that made up what is just about universally accepted to be the definitive lineup of the band.
With that, I’ll start by with saying that I accept all incarnations of the band as authentically Slayer (not all Slayer fans are on board with that thinking). Exodus guitarist Gary Holt stepped in more than admirably for Jeff Hanneman when he began dealing with his illnesses in 2011 (first necrotizing fasciitis, and then liver failure which ultimately took his life). I’ve not heard a giant chunk of their Repentless album that they recorded with Gary, but I saw that lineup live. Their 2018 show in Toronto on their Farewell Tour was a fitting send-off to the band. In addition, the drummers that were part of the Slayer lineup at different stages (including Tony Scaglione of Whiplash, Jon Dette, and their second-longest tenured drummer in Paul Bostaph along with a few fill-ins), each are deserving of mention to be able to step in and keep the high beats-per-minute playing up to the established expectations. Still, as the original Rock Cards set is from 1991, it made the most sense for me to create cards that reflected their lineup at the time.
I hope that the Slayer fans that pulled the Seasons sticker in the first pack they opened, or possibly even the band logo hologram that came in select packs, and poured money into dozens upon dozens of packs without being able to find these thrash metal legends can take some enjoyment in seeing what such cards may have looked like.
I’ll start with one of the most missed figures in the metal community, guitarist Jeff Hanneman.
I can already hear the whining about using a pink Slayer logo. Lots of cards in this set had decidedly un-macho colour schemes, so it isn’t as if they would be the only band to fall victim to this. I also think that if I went with the blue logo it would blend in too much with that funky-looking backdrop behind Jeff. When trying to decide what colour to put logos in, the Brockum set in general had no real consistency to follow. Some cards would use the colour matching the half of the card border the logo was positioned in, others would do the opposite, and some further ones placed a different colour altogether into the mix. Jeff actually pulls off pink and those sunglasses quite well, not unlike Bret Hart. I was going to simply leave the existing border in the background from the Greg Christian card that I used as a basis for this card, but I decided to use my own gradients, so I wouldn’t consider this a perfect match.
Now for the back of the card.
With limited space, I established as much as I could about Jeff, who seemed to be one of the more silent and introverted in the band despite being one of the primary songwriters. The punk angle was very important to get across, and the genre’s influence on the band was acknowledged perhaps best of all on their 1996 studio album Undisputed Attitude. Two of the songs that were played on this punk covers album were “Can’t Stand You” and “DDAMM (Drunk Drivers Against Mad Mothers)”, songs that Jeff wrote for a side project he did with Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and guitarist Rocky George (Suicidal Tendencies) called Pap Smear. I also wanted to use the card to debunk myths about the band. Certain critics had called the band Nazis due to some of their controversial songs such as “Angel of Death”. The band has stated repeatedly that this is not the case, with a good summary of the reaction and the band’s rebuttals to these ties shared in a segment by Rock N’ Roll True Stories on YouTube, with Hanneman having stated that the song is more like a “documentary” rather than being sympathetic to Mengele and Nazis.
As far as designing the backs of these cards, I was actually surprised how straightforward it was to get the general idea across. My font choices weren’t completely accurate, and the text margins aren’t very consistent from card-to-card, but I believe I captured the spirit of the set. You’ll notice that between each card, the photos used are zoomed in and cropped from one larger photo of the band. That’s consistent with how the majority of cards in the Brockum set were. I added the name of my website at the bottom to fill some of the space, and I added some noise to my custom logo to try to make it resemble a hologram. I also followed the set’s lead by placing references to band names (and albums) in bold.
The other part of Slayer’s guitar tandem would be Kerry King, long thought of as the leader of the band. If not leader, at least the most public-facing member, handling more interview duties than everyone in the band, with bassist/vocalist Tom Araya coming in a close second place.
The Rock Cards set did not feature any black and white photos on their cards, but I kind of dig this image of Kerry regardless. Their photography team would likely have had greater access to the band to accumulate other photographic options, but I’m sticking with my decision. I used an Angus Young card to base the border colours on, and I think the three distinct colours are a lot more eye-catching than if two were used.
The fact that Kerry was once in Megadeth absolutely blew my mind when I first learned of it! I believe I originally acquired the knowledge from a Slayer fan site back when I was in high school (I want to say it was Slayerized.com, but it could have been another). An entire Megadeth show with Kerry from April 15th 1984 at The Keystone in Berkeley, California has been uploaded to YouTube (watch here), though it is falsely listed as the band’s first show. According to Megadeth.com, their first-ever show was on February 17th of that year, but King was in the lineup (as was the recently deceased drummer Lee Rauch). The snake fact is something I made an assumption on, seeing that Kerry’s passion eventually led to him breeding snakes and reptiles to the point of forming his own side-business to keep him busy between tours (here’s an interview on the topic with KingSnake.com). The interest likely took root when King was rather young. The Raiders trivia I could have just as easily placed on Jeff’s card, and it seemed like a rare show if at least one of the two guitarists was not wearing some form of Raiders gear. To my surprise, Kerry still supports the team, seen recently at games (with Metal Blade Records founder and CEO Brian Slagel) despite the team’s relocation to Las Vegas. I suppose I shouldn’t have been terribly shocked as he did stick with the team from their move to Oakland and back.
Next is Slayer’s one and only front-man, Tom Araya on bass and vocals.
We’ve got a great live shot here, which adds to the variety. Not only does it capture the intensity of Tom’s face, but then you’ve got the intensity of the t-shirt. Having the F-word in clear view on Tom’s shirt would be a great way for those who made the original set to draw a hard line between Slayer and the likes of the clean-cut bands the set included like Bon Jovi and Winger. Religious folk who would get all bent out of shape over Slayer in the first place would wonder where they went wrong as parents if they found this card in their son’s shoe box under his bed among the cards of his sports heroes. Maybe if this photo were used in an actual set it would be censored with a black bar covering the offending word, with this leaked rarity reaching Billy Ripken levels of notoriety.
I made sure to specify that Araya was born in Viña del Mar to improve upon the lack that level of detail the set tended to use if a musician was born outside of the United States, such as using plain-old “England” as birthplace on Warrior Soul drummer Mark Evans’ card and “Great Britain” on Black Sabbath drummer Cozy Powell’s cards. On the other hand, Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee had a full Athens, Greece listed as his birthplace, possibly going the extra mile as he was a more popular musician. I’m crafting my card as if fact checkers did a bit more homework on such details. Tom’s increase in writing share I also felt an important point to recognize, and the fingers versus pick thing was a bit of a guess as to why he transitioned. As a bass player, it fascinates me when I watch Slayer performances from their Metal Blade days when Tom played finger-style. It sounded well enough on the albums, but I’m sure he’d be drowned in volume live much more often than not.
And on the drummer’s stool, none other than Mr. Dave Lombardo.
Many drummers have been tasked with keeping the high-paced tempo in the studio (and live) for Slayer, but Dave Lombardo has ascended into legendary status. I’ve heard many people state that while they personally do not like Slayer’s music, their drummer (referring to Lombardo) is unquestionably talented. He would leave the group on a few occasions, but always remained beloved by the fans.
The age of the photo on this one I had a bit of difficulty determining. It could be from a few years earlier than 1991, but having that studded Slayer logo in frame is something that I think would be appreciated. It may not be as epic as getting the logo carved into your arm (gory footage of which was included in the band’s Live Intrusion video, so click here if you are brave enough to watch), but I think I already pushed my luck with the F-word shirt.
It’s a shame I couldn’t add songwriter to the back of Lombardo’s card, but Slayer fans will tell you that his rhythmic touch on any track he played on was as big a contribution to their sound as anything else. While on the topic, he didn’t have any writing credit on an album track by the time he left the group in 1992, and wouldn’t have any when he returned for the God Hates Us All tour after a nine-year absence (I swear he did get a credit once, but I may be mistaken). Yet he made the most of his time away from the band in both writing and non-writing capacities with Grip Inc., Fantomas, Philm, and Dead Cross among other groups he participated in outside of Slayer. That’s creativity for you!
I squeezed his birthplace of Havana, Cuba into his profile, but opted for a fresh category for the preceding trivia. Types of trivia included across the original set are as follows: Favorite Music, First Band, Early Band, Hometown, Birthplace, Influenced By, Instrument, Interests, Pastime, Other Band, Nickname, Trademark, and First Concert. Instruments seemed a natural choice for Lombardo as he seems rather brand loyal. Aside from a brief period where he played Ludwig drums, Dave has been a Tama guy for most of his career. He’s got a long association with Paiste cymbals as well, which Paiste.com lists as having started in September 1987. As for his standout performances, everybody has their favourites, but I feel that “Silent Scream”, “War Ensemble”, and “Raining Blood” are worthy mentions.
As was done for the bands in this set, let’s bring the boys together in a group shot, shall we?
I went with yet another photo where I’m a little uncertain of its age. Based on Jeff’s bangs and Kerry’s beard just coming in, I’d say this could be anywhere between 1986 and 1988. Brockum did well in their use of relatively up-to-date photos from what I remember, but different sets were often behind in the times. I know that the MusiCards set that Pro Set also released in 1991 had used a photo on the Beastie Boys card that goes back to the Licensed to Ill era when they had long since abandoned that b-boy/frat-boy imagery. The pose works well for this card, as some others I was considering from the Seasons in the Abyss era were harder to fit in-frame. Perhaps a screen-shot from their “Seasons in the Abyss” video could have done the trick as well. Not unheard of, as it appears that Brockum had used a photo from the “Feels Good To Me” music video for their Black Sabbath card.
No surprises for the back of the card. I went with about as basic a summation of Slayer’s career to that point as you can get. Still, bigger logo!!!
What are your thoughts? Were there any other bands missing from the Brockum Rock Cards set that you wish had been included? I would have love a bigger set, but if you feel like being cruel, would you have cut any band out? 1991 seemed like such a good time for heavy music that I believe bands from almost any given hard rock or metal sub-genre (doom, death, power, etc.) could have made for a great set all in itself!
Armchair Maestro 