Music

Slayer guitarist's new axe is painted with his own blood

by Jeremy Mersereau

January 27, 2016

It's painted with an image of Satan in blood. Most metal guitar ever?

Guitarist Gary Holt wanted something a little more eye-catching than the average sunburst when he was looking to custom paint his signature model ESP guitar, so he naturally enlisted an artist who works exclusively in the medium of blood to craft an image of Lucifer. What did you think a member of Slayer and Exodus would want, a lame steampunk design or something?

Unveiled at a National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show in Anaheim, California, the guitar was painted with 18 vials of Holt’s own blood, drawn backstage after a Slayer show. Blood artist Vincent Castiglia, who incidentally is the first American to be feted with a solo exhibition at the H.R. Giger museum in Switzerland, personally extracted the blood from Holt and painted the guitar with an incredibly detailed image of Satan/The Father of Lies/Bad Boy Beezy.

This marks the first time a functional guitar has been painted entirely with blood, as Castiglia told The PRP:

“The piece is historical in that, to my knowledge (or the knowledge of Google), this is the first functional guitar in human history to have been created entirely in the musician’s blood. That puts it in a unique position, as it’s a functional piece of fine art that memorializes Gary Holt’s life’s work with his lifeblood, my mind and hands having been the vessel for its creation. It was an honor to work so intimately with Gary Holt and ESP on this project, which was literally, ‘Bonded By Blood.'”