Tomás Enrique Araya
Born: June 6th 1961
Current Age: 50
Place of Birth: Viña del Mar, Chile
Instrument: Vocals, Bass
In an interview, Araya believes that "...Christ came and taught us about love, about doing unto others. That was his preach: Accept each other for who we are. Live peacefully, and love one another." When asked if he believed in God, replied "I believe in a supreme being, yeah. But He's an all-loving God." Araya explained that he has a "really strong belief system," and Slayer's words and images will "never interfere with what I believe and how I feel.... People are not in good shape to where they have to question their own belief system because of a book or a story somebody wrote, or a Slayer song."
Araya commented about the misconception of the band labeled as Satan worshippers, "Yeah, yeah I think that’s one of the biggest misconceptions towards the band, but next to that just the fact that we’re normal." If guitarist King writes a good song, Araya puts his beliefs aside, "I'm not one that's going to go, 'This sucks because it's contrary to my beliefs.' To me it's more like 'this is really good stuff. You're going to piss people off with this.'"
Araya’s interest in serial killers inspires much of his lyrical themes, including the songs titled "213" about Jeffrey Dahmer and "Dead Skin Mask" about Ed Gein. "Why? I’m trying to see where these guys are coming from so maybe I’ll understand. It’s always kind of intrigued me…"
Araya wrote the lyrics for the Grammy winning song "Eyes of the Insane" from Slayer’s 2006 album Christ Illusion. The lyrics were inspired through an article in the Texas Monthly about the casualties of war, and soldiers experiences in having a tough time coping with physical and psychological trauma. Araya states "At points in their tour of Iraq, they need help and the military tends to ignore that, they kind of brush it under the mat and hopes it goes away. They try to make everything seem hunky dory and fine and dandy, when in actuality there is a lot of stuff going on that people can’t handle. There’s a lot of soldiers coming home with mental anguish. And the sad part is, we heard about post-traumatic stress after Vietnam and the first Gulf War and the military seems to want to wipe the slate clean with every new war."
