Slayer is an American thrash metal band, founded in Huntington Park, California in 1981 by Tom Araya (bass guitar, vocals), Kerry King (guitars), Jeff Hanneman (guitars) and Dave Lombardo (drums). Lombardo had left the band to explore varied drumming styles, notably his work in Mike Patton's Fantômas. He was replaced by Paul Bostaph. In 2001 Dave Lombardo returned to the drum stool. Hanneman and King are the group's main songwriters.

Slayer (along with Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth and others) are often credited with creating American thrash metal by speeding up the sound of New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Venom. Slayer were also great fans of hardcore punk, influenced by the likes of Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys and Misfits, and borrowed some of that music's emphasis on extremely fast tempos in many of their songs.

Though Araya has never used the low "grunt" vocal style usually associated with death metal, Slayer's music (most notably on the albums Hell Awaits (1985) and Reign in Blood (1986)) are generally regarded as having exerted a major influence on death metal and black metal. Moreover, Reign in Blood was the first of many albums to be produced by well-known and respected Def Jam Co-Founder, Rick Rubin.

They have had many run-ins with controversy. Many religious groups fight to get their music banned, resulting in their latest release "Christ Illusion" being pulled in India. Even worse, their album "God Hates Us All" was released on Sept. 11, 2001. All posters promoting the album and release date were quickly removed.

The video for their song "Eyes Of The Insane" was released on october 30, 2006. The song won a Grammy-award for "Best Metal Performance" on February 11, 2007.

There are rumours revolving around Slayer deciding wether or not to retire from the musical perfession as many of the band members are either "too old" or just "can't be bothered for studios", but on their offical website they are saying they will still make thrash as hard as ever for years to come.