Tom Araya - Slayer Bassist

TOM ARAYA (born Tomás Enrique Araya June 6, 1961) is the bassist and vocalist of the American thrash metal band Slayer. Araya's family moved to the United States in 1966, and at the age of eight Araya started playing bass guitar, performing renditions of songs by the Beatles and The Rolling Stones with his older brother.

Araya was employed as a respiratory therapist in the early 1980s, and used his earnings to finance Slayer's debut album Show No Mercy. Much of Araya's lyrical content is about serial killers, a subject he finds interesting, first making his lyrical contribution on 1988's South of Heaven.



Equipment he uses:

ESP custom series Hill and B.C. Rich basses
Ampeg SVT amplification, Ampeg cabinets
EMG and Bartolini pickups
D'Addario strings
D'Andrea Picks and straps

About SLAYER

Slayer is an American thrash metal band founded by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King in 1981.Slayer paricipated in American thrash metal movement. The band is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal bands, along with Metallica, Anthrax, and Megadeth.



Slayer is known for its musical traits, involving fast tremolo picking, guitar solos, double bass drumming, and shouting vocals. The band's lyrics and album art, which cover topics such as death, deviants, genocide, necrophillia, insanity, religion, Satanism, serial killers, and warfare have generated album bans, delays, lawsuits and strong criticism from religious groups and the general public.

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