The wait is over: Slayer has finally confirmed a release date for the band's 10th studio album, 'World Painted Blood.' Initially, the hope was for a September release, then October was mooted, but now there is an absolute official date -- as absolute as these things can be, that is -- and the record will be released Nov. 3 in North America, with the rest of the world getting the goods one day earlier. The album comes almost a year after the first single, 'Psychopathy Red,' was officially leaked digitally as a little taster for fans.

"We issued that just try to get the ball rolling," drummer Dave Lombardo tells Noisecreep. "Generate a little excitement. We wanted fans to know we were working. Just keep them in the loop." The song went down well during this summer's Rockstar Mayhem Fest, where Slayer played in the penultimate spot behind Marilyn Manson. As that song hints, the band -- which also includes fellow original members guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya -- will deliver another hard-hitting, headbanging set which spares no gory details, quite in keeping with its legacy. If anything, though, this recording session resulted in greater camaraderie and interplay as musicians.

"We've only developed that recently, this interplay," Lombardo says. "Maybe it's me, I'm just listening more. Making it a point to look at them and listen. Them recognizing that I am listening to them, it brings us to a different level of understanding of our own music. It makes it more exciting," he says.

It seems Lombardo, who took a ten-year hiatus during the 1990s, has perhaps come to appreciate Slayer's music more. "Yes," he ponders. "I hadn't thought of it like that. But I think it's true."

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