The group began a club tour of California to promote the album. Show No Mercy, released in December 1983 by Metal Blade Records, generated underground popularity for the band. The album was rushed into release, stocking shelves three weeks after tracks were completed. Combining the savings of Araya, who was employed as a respiratory therapist, and money borrowed from King's father, the band entered the studio in November 1983. Without any recording budget, the band had to self-finance its debut album. He was the main songwriter along with Kerry King, as well as a lyricist. Jeff Hanneman was the guitarist of Slayer for 30 years, from 1981 to 2011. Show No Mercy, Haunting the Chapel and Hell Awaits (1983–1986) The band agreed and their song "Aggressive Perfector" created an underground buzz upon its release in mid 1983, which led to Slagel offering the band a recording contract with Metal Blade. Impressed with Slayer, he met with the band backstage and asked them to record an original song for his upcoming Metal Massacre III compilation album. The band was spotted by Brian Slagel, a former music journalist who had recently founded Metal Blade Records. In 1983, Slayer was invited to open for the band Bitch at the Woodstock Club in Anaheim, California to perform eight songs, six of which were covers. For inspiration, Lombardo thought in a perspective of a murderer of how they would carve out the logo with a knife and since he's lefthanded, the logo is unintentionally slanted to the right. Rumors that the band was originally known as Dragonslayer, after the 1981 film of the same name, were denied by King, as he later stated: "We never were it's a myth to this day." According to Lombardo, the original band name was to be Wings of Fire before they settled in with Slayer. The band's early image relied heavily on Satanic themes that featured pentagrams, make-up, spikes, and inverted crosses. The group started out playing covers of songs by bands such as Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Venom at parties and clubs in Southern California. Slayer was formed in 1981 by Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, Dave Lombardo, and Tom Araya in Huntington Park, CA.
The band's lyrics and album art, which cover topics such as murder, serial killers, torture, genocide, politics, theories, human subject research, organized crime, secret societies, mythology, occultism, Satanism, hate crimes, terrorism, religion or antireligion, Nazism, fascism, racism, xenophobia, misanthropy, war and prison, have generated album bans, delays, lawsuits and criticism from religious groups and factions of the general public. In the original lineup, King, Hanneman and Araya contributed to the band's lyrics, and all of the band's music was written by King and Hanneman. Drummer Jon Dette was also a member of the band. Slayer's final lineup comprised King, Araya, drummer Paul Bostaph (who replaced Lombardo in 1992 and again in 2013) and guitarist Gary Holt (who replaced Hanneman in 2011). Slayer's fast and aggressive musical style made them one of the "big four" bands of thrash metal, alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax. The band was formed in 1981 by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, drummer Dave Lombardo, and bassist and vocalist Tom Araya. Slayer was an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California.