The song Angel of Death violently opens the 1986 thrash-metal album Reign in Blood by one of my all-time favourite bands Slayer. I’ve passionately listened to this record so many times (using headphones when my dad was home) and as a composer, have taken its energy, speed and tempo-changes just as much at heart as later those in the Rite of Spring or Pierrot Lunaire. Together with his bandmates, Slayer’s main songwriter, guitarist Jeff Hanneman, featured on my bedroom walls (if my mother didn’t take them down).
Through the grapevine it was brought to my attention that Jeff was completely ‘gobsmacked’ hearing my Symphony Golden Dragon when, unbeknown to me, he was present at its performance by the Vancouver Symphony two and a half years ago.
I never had a chance to meet Jeff, as he passed away six months later at age 49. So, this arrangement of Angel of Death for a ‘classical’ chamber ensemble is a tribute to him. Other than the song itself, I have also included elements of Postmortem, another song from the same album and written by Jeff.

From the press:

Standing Wave tests its metal

by Alexander Varty, Georgia Straight, May 13th, 2015. Full article here

Philip Glass, Nicole Lizée, Gordon Fitzell, Alfredo Santa Ana: for the most part, the contributors to Standing Wave’s Toward Chaos program will be familiar to new-music aficionados.

But who’s this Jeff Hanneman guy? And why is former Vancouver Symphony Orchestra composer in residence Edward Top arranging Hanneman’s composition “Angel of Death” for the local chamber sextet’s survey of dark and obsessive sounds?

A little research tells us that Hanneman has his fans, although not in the world of classical music. The California-born singer-guitarist is considered one of the architects of the thrash-metal genre, with “Angel of Death” being the kickoff track on his band Slayer’s 1986 breakthrough, Reign in Blood. Sadly, Hanneman died of liver failure in 2013.

All very interesting, but it still doesn’t answer the question: Why?

Standing Wave violinist Rebecca Whitling doesn’t have a ready response for that. “I grew up in Edmonton and Grande Prairie, Alberta,” she says, reached at her East Vancouver home. “But I’ve never been a metalhead or anything close to it. Of course not: I’m a violinist!”

Nonetheless, she does answer that other question: How? Initially, Standing Wave approached Top to write an arrangement for the band. After considering more orthodox source material, including a Béla Bartók string quartet, the Dutch-born composer opted to return to a teenage obsession.

“I was very passionate about heavy metal and thrash metal, and had Slayer posters all over my walls, if my mother didn’t take them down,” Top relates, in a separate telephone interview. “When I first heard Reign in Blood it was almost like hearing [Arnold] Schoenberg for the first time. I went, ‘Oh, well, I’m not too sure about this,’ but on a second hearing, I was completely hooked.”

The admiration seems to have been mutual: shortly before his death, Hanneman heard the VSO play Top’s Symphony Golden Dragon, and was reportedly moved to tears.

Tears may also be shed during Standing Wave’s rehearsals. As part of Top’s acoustic re-envisioning of the Slayer tune, he’s having Whitling and flutist Christie Reside reproduce Hanneman and coguitarist Kerry King’s hyperbolic guitar solos on violin and piccolo, respectively.

“One intimidating element of Slayer’s style was that their lyrics were about hell and the afterlife and death,” Top says. “And those guitar solos are really about that fear, or maybe intended to make you fearful of death, of being somewhere you really don’t want to be. They really wail and scream, and I hope to capture that kind of feeling. I don’t know if it’s going to translate, but we’ll see.”

Whether it’s taxing or not, Whitling is looking forward to debuting the piece—and it might be a further sign of Top’s influence that she’s also taken an interest in Metallica, citing the documentary Some Kind of Monster as essential viewing.

“It’s really quite amazing,” she notes. “There are parallels to anybody who plays in any band or string quartet or contemporary chamber ensemble.”

The violinist has no plans to reinvent herself as a headbanger, however.

“It’s not like I’m ever going to buy a Slayer album,” she says, laughing. “But it does give me an appreciation for that music, being able to approach it from Edward’s point of view.”