Slayer - Araya Dedicates Slayer Album To Late Sister

SLAYER frontman TOM ARAYA has dedicated the band's new album to his older sister, who lost her long battle with cancer this year (09).

Anamaria Araya died in June (09), shortly after the band wrapped work on World Painted Blood.

And the singer admits he threw himself into the recording process to help cope with the pain of watching his beloved sibling succumb to a disease she had bravely fought for 14 years.

Araya tells Metal Hammer, "At the beginning of the year, when we started recording the album, my sister had been battling cancer for 14 years. When we started recording this album she was on the way out, and I wasn't much use. But I was always in the studio: I didn't want to be alone in the hotel room."

The album's release follows a terrible 2009 for Araya, which was marred by his sister's death and a recent string of illness and injury that forced the band to cancel gigs in Australia, Canada and Europe.