Former Slayer drummer Jon Dette kicked off his series of Big 4 playthrough cover songs in October 2022. Check out his new playthrough video of Slayer's "Postmortem" below. He has previously covered Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica as well as Slayer.
Dette offers the following:
"As I said in the last video, the 80's produced some of the greatest Metal bands on the planet! And 1986 produced some of the greatest records on the planet!
Reign In Blood dropped October 1986. Just like Master Of Puppets, it completely changed my life on the drums! And in my opinion, completely moved the needle for heavy metal music overall. Dave Lombardo took heavy metal drumming to a completely new level and quickly became my biggest influence through the rest of the 80's.
Five years later in 1991, I was trying to land a gig with a band. So I decided to make a demo tape (Yes, we had actual cassette tapes back then) of myself playing drums. I went into a small recording studio in Montebello, CA and tracked the entire Reign In Blood album, in one take from memory without any playback.
I appropriately named my audition tape...."Lombardo's 5th Overture".
I had business cards printed as labels to go in the cassette cases which read:
'Lombardo's 5th Overture! The entire Reign In Blood album performed in one take on drums from memory! For best results, hum guitars and vocals!'
That tape circulated around the Los Angeles area, it even found it's way to the east coast and got into the hands of Johnny and Marsha Zazula! (RIP). Four years later, in 1995, that tape somehow found it's way to Rick Sale's office and in the hands of the late great Nick John (RIP). The rest is history!
'Postmortem' was one of my favorite tracks on the record! Thirty-six years later, I enjoy playing it as much now as I did in 1986.
As you know, none of these songs were tracked with a click so there's also NO quantizing, putting tracks on a grid, etc.
My take is the take. Flubs, clams and all! Playing along to these older tracks is all feel and at times, being like Luke Skywaker and using The Force! lol. I hope you enjoy this week's Big 4 Drum Playthrough as much as I enjoyed performing it.
Until next time, keep it heavy and see you on the next one!"
Dette is best known for his time in Slayer and Testament. Over the years, he has also been chosen to fill-in with Anthrax, Heathen, and Iced Earth. He previously covered Megadeth's "Wake Up Dead", Slayer's "Killing Fields", Metallica's "Blackened" and Anthrax's "A.I.R.".
