Gruesome Covers Slayer's "Black Magic"

The cast of Gruesome (the Schuldiner-hailing collective featuring members of Exhumed, Possessed, Malevolent Creation and Derketa) today untethers a very special cover of Slayer's "Black Magic."

The band's reconfiguration of the old-school appears on the deluxe digital edition of the band's "Savage Land" full-length.

"We chose our cover tunes the same way we tried to write the album," relays guitarist/vocalist Matt Harvey. "We just did what Chuck [Schuldiner] would have done. Death was never a band particularly known for their cover song repertoire, but they did occasionally close their set with a rendition of 'Black Magic' and it's a cover that dates as far back as an old 1984 Death/Mantas rehearsal, so we felt it would be appropriate. We were considering 'The Exorcist' by Possessed, since Death started recording a cover of it during Individual Thought Patterns, but since [Gruesome guitarist] Dan [Gonzalez] is in Possessed, it was a bit weird. Again, we tried to approach the song as Death doing a Slayer cover, so... hopefully we came close to the mark."

Raise your horns to Gruesome's take on Slayer's "Black Magic," currently streaming below. You can also hear all of Gruesome's new album over at this location.