Slayer Bring Back Paul Bostaph To Replace Dave Lombardo

Metal icons Slayer have announced today that former drummer Paul Bostaph has rejoined the band on a full-time basis, replacing Dave Lombardo after a messy fall-out.

Lombardo failed to make the band's Australian tour for Soundwave earlier this year after financial disagreements boiled over.

In a statement the band – a duo before today's announcement – said, “Slayer's Tom Araya and Kerry King are very pleased to announce that Paul Bostaph has rejoined the band on a full-time basis. Bostaph will be behind the drum kit beginning June 4 when Slayer kicks off the first leg of its 2013 international tour in Warsaw, Poland. Gary Holt will continue to fill in for fallen guitarist Jeff Hanneman.”

Hanneman passed away earlier this month at the age of 49.

“Paul's a great drummer and a good friend, and we're very happy that he's decided to rejoin the band,” Araya said. “We're still pretty numb from the loss of Jeff, but we don't want to disappoint our European fans, and we need to begin moving forward… having Paul back in the band makes that a whole lot easier.”

Bostaph was Slayer's drummer from 1992 until 2001 and in that time recorded four albums with the outfit, Divine Intervention, Diabolus In Musica, God Hates Us All and covers record Undisputed Attitude.

He said today, “I'm very excited to be rejoining Slayer. We spent a very intense ten years of our lives together, had a lot of fun, made a lot of great music, so for me, this feels like coming home.”