Current Lineup

The current lineup of slayer consists of Kerry King and Gary Holt on guitars, Tom Araya on bass and vocals and Paul Bostaph on drums

Kerry King

Kerry Ray King (born June 3, 1964) is an American musician, best known for being the co-lead guitarist and songwriter of Slayer. He co-founded the band with Jeff Hanneman in 1981 and is one of two members to stay with the band for its 43-year existence, along with Tom Araya.

King formed his first band with another guitarist who had been teaching him lessons, and this guitarist introduced him to Tom Araya. He discovered that he and Araya lived only a block away from each other, and they agreed to start jamming together.

In 1984, King was invited by former Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine to join his new band Megadeth. Slayer's future was briefly in doubt as King played several shows with Megadeth, though he ultimately did not join full-time due to his commitment to Slayer.

Gary Holt

Gary Wayne Holt (born May 4, 1964) is an American musician from the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the guitarist, bandleader, and main songwriter for thrash metal band Exodus, and has also been a member of Slayer from 2011 to 2019 and again since 2024, initially joining as a temporary guitarist in place of Jeff Hanneman, and as a permanent guitarist after Hanneman's death in May 2013.

On February 12, 2011, it was announced that Holt would be temporarily filling in for Jeff Hanneman in the band Slayer. Holt also played with Slayer for the Big 4 Concert in Indio, California on April 23, 2011, as well as Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas on November 6, 2011. Holt was later confirmed to be a permanent member of Slayer, following Hanneman's death on May 2, 2013, and stayed with the band until their split.

Tom Araya

Tomás Enrique Araya Díaz (born June 6, 1961) is a Chilean musician and the vocalist and bassist of Slayer. He was ranked 58th by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time. Araya, along with Kerry King, are the only members who stayed in the band since its inception.

Araya was employed as a respiratory therapist in the early 1980s and used his earnings to finance Slayer's debut album Show No Mercy (1983). Much of Araya's lyrical content is about serial killers, a subject he finds interesting

Paul Bostaph

Paul Steven Bostaph (born March 4, 1964) is an American drummer best known as a member of the thrash metal band Slayer, initially from 1992 to 2001, again from 2013 to 2019, and in 2024, after the reunion. Metal-Rules.com describes Bostaph as "a true professional and one of the best drummers on today's metal music scene".

Following the departure of Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo in 1992, the band was looking for a new drummer. Lombardo's drum tech was filling in, but constantly made errors. After auditioning several drummers and listening to hundreds of demo tapes, Bostaph was recommended by Slayer guitarist Kerry King's guitar technician.

Slayer members listened to Forbidden records, however, they did not see how Bostaph could fit into the Slayer momentum – Lombardo's style being "over the top", while Forbidden was more melodic. Slayer auditioned Bostaph with nine songs, and he made only one error on "Angel of Death".

He said himself that "I respected and loved Dave's drumming but as a fan, if they got a new drummer and I bought a ticket to a show, I would expect to hear the stuff that Dave does, that's what I would want. So, I went in and every time I had to learn a new song I would play them exactly how Dave played them".