Slower, the new project of guitarist Bob Balch of Fu Manchu, drummer Esben Willems of Monolord, bassist Peder Bergstrand of Lowrider, bassist Scott Reeder of Fireball Ministry, vocalist Laura Pleasants of Kylesa and vocalist Amy Barrysmith of Year Of The Cobra, are releasing a debut self-titled effort. The record consists of five fully reinvented Slayer classics with heavy atmospherics and compelling ethereal vocals from the Kylesa and Year of the Cobra frontwomen.

Slower have shared their cover of Slayer’s “Blood Red” and what is fantastic about this composition is how the instrumentation smacks the atmosphere with era bleeding sounds while the vocal performances serenades the ears with powerful tones. “Blood Red” shows how Slayer inspired them to perform soul shaking cover songs.

In the following statement Balch talks about the creation of their rendition, “When I started this project I kind of had a feeling ‘Blood Red’ would find its way onto the chopping block. The groove is undeniably heavy at any speed and the arrangement is pretty straightforward. I sent Esben some scratch tracks to jam to and he killed it as usual. Then I tracked my guitars with actual amps. We sent all of that to Amy to lay down vocals. She absolutely nailed it!! After that, I used a single coil Reverend with a whammy bar for the solos. Peder’s bass was the last piece of the puzzle. He made it so much heavier! It didn’t think that was possible haha. I wanna thank all the players involved in this one. Enjoy!”

When being asked about how Slower was formed, Balch says: “The idea for the Slower project started around four years ago. I was teaching a student how to play “South Of Heaven” by Slayer but she was a beginner so we slowed it down. I thought that sounded cool so I tuned down to B standard and tried it. I added some drums and thought “someone in the doom community should do this and name it Slower.”

Slower Tracklist

1. War Ensemble
2. The Antichrist
3. Blood Red
4. Dead Skin Mask
5. South of Heaven

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat