Meet Sleigher, A Christmas-themed Slayer Cover Band

Sleigher, a Slayer cover band (or supergroup), has rematerialised this festive season, releasing a new take on the original band's South Of Heaven with their own tune, South Of Lapland.

Featuring sleigh bells (of course) and new lyrics, Protest The Hero vocalist Rody Walker screams, "On Christmas Eve / You’ve just hung up stockings in time / Unsuspecting kids with a morning surprise / Jesus’ day of womb / Ejection is nigh / Once parents say goodnight / We must fly!"

Walker is accompanied by Haken guitar heroes Dan Goldsworthy and Charlie Griffiths, Becky Baldwin (bassist from Fury), and Dream Theater's keyboard player Jordan Rudess. The supergroup are also joined by Ray Hearne (Haken drummer, here playing the tuba), Inhuman Condition drummer Jeramie Kling on backing vocals, and an anonymous drummer known as Delta Empire. 

This isn't Sleigher's first rodeo - last year, the group released Seasons Greetings In The Abyss with Cradle Of Filth bassist Daniel Firth. Griffiths said about the rendition last year: "Injecting this song with some Christmas cheer worked better than any of us expected! 

"Apparently, Jeff Hanneman loved Christmas, so hopefully, he would approve of our tribute, and I hope we help to spread some musical merriment during yet another Christmas of uncertainty in the pandemic abyss," he added. "Thanks to all the guys for joining in with the fun and to Scott Atkins for mixing! Eternal gratitude to the all the members of Slayer, and we wish everyone a Merrytory Yuletide!"

We wrote about Slayer's most recent album, Repentless, where "the production on the album is immensely crisp, and the passing of time hasn’t detracted from the four-piece's musical ability just yet. 

"Every back and-forth between Holt and Kerry King is superbly solid, and every throaty yell from Tom Araya is delivered just as well as anything from the 90s (even if he can't headbang anymore). Furthermore, new drummer Paul Bostaph channels Dave Lombardo pretty well on this record, and considering he drummed for Exodus and Testament, the dude fits into the hateful mould of Slayer perfectly."

Check out the video for South Of Lapland (Santa's Gory Yuletide) below.