Slayer's lyrics often describe violent acts in graphic detail, and that has landed the band in a legal dispute. Lawyers representing the family of a teen-age girl who was murdered by three self-proclaimed Slayer fans in San Luis Obispo, Calif., continue to pursue a case against the band. They claim, among other things, that the killers followed "directives" from the bands' music. A judge has twice thrown the case out of court, but the family's lawyers have since filed a third amended complaint, which is still pending.

At Rubin's empty mansion in the Hollywood Hills, guitarists Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman and singer-bassist Tom Araya recently sat down with liveDaily to talk about the latest LP, a planned box set and pro wrestling.

LiveDaily: Why did you decide to record in Vancouver?

Jeff Hanneman: There were two reasons: one, it’s a lot cheaper to record there; two, Matt Hyde had a studio there he’d worked in before. He uses all the ProTools stuff. They have great computers up there. We thought, "It will be cheaper, there’ll be no distractions." It didn’t work out that way, but whatever.

You wrote a couple songs for the record--"Deviants" and "God Send Death." Can you tell me a little bit about what they're about?

Jeff Hanneman: Those two songs are kind of related. They're about the whole idea of people killing for fun. I've read a bunch of books, and I put a lot of thought into it, and I figured out I'm really not a serial killer. I could kill somebody if they pissed me off, but I couldn't kill someone I didn't know, just for the power of it. I was really trying to get into that person's mind. Why do they get off on it? Without being angry, just killing for the sake of killing and getting off on it. I just wanted to get into that mindset.

How was working with Matt Hyde? Do you feel like he called you on stuff, pushed you?

Kerry King: Oh, I told him, right off--and I did this with the last record, too, because I can be a little intimidating--I said, "Listen, I’m going to tell you right now, anything you think I can play better, tell me. No questions asked."

How do you keep things fresh, after writing heavy music for 20 years?

Kerry King: Just make up a song as you would have 20 years ago. I still get goosebumps when I hear s--- done correctly. We get a song, I have this vision of what I think it’s going to sound like, and whether I lay down a scratch vocal or Tom comes down and nails it, when I hear it done right, if it’s what I think it is, I still get goosebumps and s---, like, "Wow, it’s cool."

You went on tour this summer with Pantera, Static-X, Skrape and Morbid Angel on the Extreme Steel tour. Did you pick the bands for the tour?

Kerry King: I’ve wanted to play with Pantera since the dawn of time. They’re probably the closest friends of mine in the business. I remember when they didn’t even have "Cowboys [from Hell]" out. We’d go see ‘em play at some little club in Dallas, we’d come through and go on stage hammered and destroy Slayer songs for a while. Yeah, they’re cool and we’ve always--since they got popular, and we’d been around for a while--wanted that tour to happen.

You recently recorded a theme for WWF wrestler Tazz. Are you a fan of pro wrestling?

Kerry King: It’s my soap. I’m about two and a half months behind, but I got all the tapes I gotta catch up on. WWF spanks all. There was a while there [when] WCW kind of took over, and then WWF started getting all their homegrown talent coming, all their young guys. They kicked ass. WWF just bought the WCW, so they’re, like, sucking up the wannabes.

You sing all the songs, but on this record you didn't write any of the lyrics. What's that like?

Tom Araya: It’s something you have to adapt [to]. I would have to work on the song and figure out how they wanted the song done, because they're such high-intensity songs. We figure that out first, then I go back and listen to it and go over and rehearse stuff with it and try to get a feel for the words. Try to put my all into it and make it sound convincing. It’s a mindset. I have to really start focusing all my energies on making sure I remember the words, making sure I have a great performance. You just keep telling yourself you’re going to have a good show. You just try and muster up this energy, this anger, this hate. People think, "He must be angry." I have to work at it. I have to sit there and really psyche myself up with this anger and pain.

Tell me a little bit about "Soundtrack of the Apocalypse," the anthology you're putting together.

Tom Araya: We didn’t want to release it before this record. We figured, work on this record, release this record, and hopefully at the end of the year, we’ll have something ready. But it’s going to contain a whole bunch of stuff. You want it to be special. You don’t want it to be a box of albums--"Here’s a box of Slayer albums that you already have. We put ‘em together in a box for ya."

We’re going to try and include a DVD in there [with] all of our videos, because we have videos that have been shown once or twice and then nevermore. They’re in a vault somewhere--we have like five or six videos. We [also] have live videos that really didn’t get too much publicity.

We’re going to try and make it more personal, include personal items. Or things we use--[guitar] picks, s--- that we use, we have sitting around. If we have enough, we’ll put one in every box. Figure out a way where we can put in [drummer Paul Bostaph's] sticks. At the end of a tour, he’s usually got piles of sticks that are all tweaked and broken, or some that he puts down even though he’s only used them a few times. Figure out a way to put those in. Special edition stuff. We’re trying to find out different things to do.