​VII-VII-VII: The Neighborhood of the Beast

It’s been five years since guitarist Gary Holt joined Slayer, but their latest album “Repentless” is the first time he’s had the chance to appear on one of their albums and he gave it his all, shredding so hard he blew out his left wrist. Yet even with tendinitis, he kept playing.

“I fought through it ’cause it was hurting when I was doing it, but it felt like I was in the flow and I would just keep going,” says Holt the afternoon before the start of their North American “Repentless” tour with two dates at Chicago’s Riviera Theatre. “The next morning I woke up and I couldn’t even bend it.”

Holt’s no stranger to the fast-paced riffing that’s essential to thrash metal. After learning his first chords from future Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett, he joined Hammett in thrash metal band Exodus in 1981. He’s not only the chief songwriter of the band but its longest-serving member too.

But his role in Slayer began when he took a temporary slot replacing guitarist and founding member Jeff Hanneman, who had contracted the flesh-eating disease necrotizing fasciitis from an alleged spider bite. This temporary position turned full time when Hanneman died of liver failure in 2013.

Replacing the founding member of a band as big as Slayer isn’t easy, but Holt was fit for the job. He not only has a proven track record of playing monstrous riffs but has known founding members guitarist Kerry King, vocalist/bassist Tom Araya and Hanneman since they were kids.

And it helps Holt received Hanneman’s blessings before he died.

“He gave me the thumbs up, so that means alot coming from an old friend,” Holt says. Fitting in with the remaining members has been an easy experience as well. “No one’s ever dictated one word of how I should go about performing or anything. They just let me be me, which is all I could ever ask for.”

Yet, Hanneman’s passing no doubt left a sizable gap in the eyes of hardcore Slayer fans, who have a reputation for acting crazy. But if any fan thinks Holt isn’t metal to fill those shoes, they might change their minds when they feast their eyes on his new guitar, which was painted in his own blood.

Vital Remains singer Brian Werner put Holt in touch with surrealist painter Vincent Castiglia, who specializes in using human blood as his medium and had never worked with a guitar before. So Holt sent Castiglia one of his signature ESP guitars in white. With the canvas out of the way, all he needed was the paint.

“... Vincent came out to one of the two shows Slayer had done in Huntington, N.Y., [last year] and he pulled 18 vials of blood from me and we went from there,” Holt says. The guitar features a classic portrayal of Lucifer, complete with horns, but it’s the numbers that hold a special meaning for Holt.

When Castiglia asked him if he wants any symbols or anything on it, he knew right away he wanted his and his wife’s lucky numbers: VII-VII-VII.

“It’s kind of like the neighborhood of the beast,” he says, noting how stereotypical it would’ve been if he put 666 on there. “Also, 777 in numerology represents creativity in art and there’s even some deep — if you wanna dig really hard, there’s some serious Aleister Crowley references to be found, but I don’t have the patience in digging it that deep.”

The guitar is believed to be the first guitar to be painted entirely in human blood and will make its debut during their “Repentless” North American tour. And in case anyone’s curious, Holt says the blood alcohol content of the guitar is quite low since he doesn’t drink that hard anymore, but “there’s some hops in there.”

“It’s a work of art. It’s nothing anybody’s ever seen before.”

With “Repentless,” the metal legends were able to check off a number of firsts. This isn’t just the first album without Hanneman and the first with Holt, but it also marks the first time drummer Paul Bostaph has played on a Slayer album since 2001’s “God Hates Us All.”

The album’s also Slayer’s highest-charting release, debuting at number four on the Billboard Top 200 — a feat for a three-decade-old band that switched from a 28-year relationship with producer Rick Rubin and American Recordings to German independent-metal label Nuclear Blast.

This time around they were able to work with major rock and metal producer Terry Date (Pantera, Soundgarden, White Zombie, Deftones). “Terry did a killer job,” Holt says. “I wasn’t around for any of the prior albums so I have no working relationship or knowledge of Rick Rubin or [Greg] Fidelman, but Terry is just so laid back.”

“Repentless” features everything one would expect from Slayer. It’s fast paced, heavy, angry and full of violent imagery. For a visual, the music video for the title track has actors Danny Trejo (“Machete”), Tony Moran (“Halloween”), Tyler Mane (Rob Zombie’s “Halloween”) and other horror movie actors partaking in a very bloody prison riot. This is a band that’s not letting death hold them back from doing what they do best: raising hell.

While Holt’s still the main man behind Exodus, Slayer has become more or less his main gig and though he didn’t receive writing credits on “Repentless,” aside from contributing some wicked solos, he feels that’s a bridge they’ll cross in two or three years. “Who knows when that’ll be? I can’t even guess,” he says. “And hopefully this one won’t be as long of a gap as between ‘World Painted Blood’ and 'Replentless'

IF YOU GO:

Slayer, with Testament and Carcass

Saturday, March 12, 7 p.m.

Fargo Civic Center, 207 Fourth St N

Tickets are available online at ticketmaster.com or at the Fargo Civic Center box office