“South of Heaven” is the title track of thrash metal legends Slayer‘s fourth album, an album where they infamously abandoned their notoriously fast sound for something slower but still very heavy. No matter how slow South of Heaven was in comparison to the previous album, the legendary Reign in Blood, it was still recognizably thrash metal. And thrash metal – most metal, really – is a far cry from folk.
But LA singer-songwriter Shannon Lay doesn’t think so. For her recent appearance on Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker she performed “South of Heaven” nearly solo with just her voice and acoustic guitar and two accompanists, one on standup bass and one on quiet electric guitar.
Gone is the iconic riff from the original (well, nearly), replaced instead by Lay’s gentle fingerstyle guitar. She is soon joined by the bass and eventually the subtle electric guitar. Lay sings the lyrics instead of shouting/screaming them as Slayer lead singer Tom Araya does in the original. The result is haunting, given how relevant the theme of Araya’s lyrics feels nearly 40 years later, only this time they come as a lament about the state of the world, not a fiery warning.
The electric guitar turns up for the solo, but it is attuned to the vibe and doesn’t try to mimic the technical fireworks of the original. And, at the last moment, the three do play the iconic riff in unison to end the song, the only time they play it throughout the entire performance.
Check out this quite beautiful performance below. Not something you’d expect from a Slayer cover.
