Jeffrey John "Jeff" Hanneman
Born: January 31st 1964
Current Age: 48
Place of Birth: Oakland, CA, USA
Instrument: Guitar
Hanneman grew up in Los Angeles in a family of war veterans, and his fascination with warfare is attributed to his upbringing. His interest in the subject of war pertains to much of his lyrical material including the song "Angel of Death".
Influenced by punk music growing up, Hanneman stated that the genre influenced Slayer's sound to make and create a faster and more aggressive approach. His links to punk are also evident through his placement of a "DK" symbol from the California punk band the Dead Kennedys on at least one of his guitars. Hanneman has contributed both lyrical and musical material to every Slayer album and wrote the songs "Raining Blood", "War Ensemble" "South of Heaven" "Seasons in the Abyss" and "Angel of Death", which are played at almost every live Slayer show. He has his own signature guitar, the ESP Jeff Hanneman Signature model.
When writing new material, the band writes the music before the lyrics. Hanneman often composes riffs at his house, using a 24-track and a drum machine and then gathers opinions from the other band members; King and Lombardo make suggestions of alterations. The band will play the riff to get the basic song structure, and then figure out where the lyrics and solos go. Hanneman has stated that writing lyrics and music is a "free for all"; "It's all just whoever comes up with what. Sometimes I’ll be more on a roll and I’ll have more stuff, same with Kerry — it's whoever's hot, really. Anybody can write anything; if it's good we use it, if not we don’t."
Hanneman's lyrics for the song "Angel of Death" led to accusations of Slayer being Nazi sympathizers. Hanneman has defended himself with "nothing I put in the lyrics that says necessarily he was a bad man, because to me - well, isn't that obvious? I shouldn't have to tell you that." The band have stated numerous times that they do not condone Nazism and are merely interested in the subject.
