Recording
Undisputed Attitude was recorded at Capital Studios in Los Angeles, California with producer Dave Sardy, while Reign in Blood producer Rick Rubin served as executive producer. Recorded in three to four weeks, the reason behind the album's creation was due to the interest of guitarist Kerry King, stating the songs were by bands that "made Slayer what it is", and to keep Slayer in the public eye. The album initially featured material from heavy metal artists that had influenced Slayer, including Judas Priest, UFO, and Deep Purple. However, after several rehearsals King believed "things didn't pan out" with heavy metal covers, so the band decided to cover punk songs.
Slayer considered covering 1960s psychedelic rock band The Doors as they were an influence to vocalist and bassist Tom Araya. When asked which track they considered recording, Araya responded, "Maybe 'When the Music's Over', 'Five to One', something like that." A cover of Black Flag's "Rise Above" was suggested by Rubin, although was shelved after the band was not sure how to arrange it musically.
Guitarist Jeff Hanneman had written four unreleased songs in 1984–1985, while in the side project Pap Smear with Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and Suicidal Tendencies guitarist Rocky George. The band chose the best two, namely "Ddamm (Drunk Drivers Against Mad Mothers)" and "Can't Stand You". "Gemini" was written by King and Araya several months before entering the recording studio. King asserts it is the only Slayer song on the album. The song begins as a sludge/doom number, before becoming a more typical Slayer song.
Slayer's cover of Minor Threat's "Guilty of Being White" raised questions about a possible message of white supremacy. The controversy surrounding the cover involved the changing of the refrain "guilty of being white" to "guilty of being right", at the song's ending. This incensed Minor Threat frontman Ian MacKaye, who stated "that is so offensive to me". King said it was changed for "tongue-in-cheek" humor as he thought the racism at the time was "ridiculous".
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“I didn’t have to think up so much as a comma or a semicolon; it was all given, straight from the celestial recording room. Weary, I would beg for a break, an intermission, time enough, let’s say, to go to the toilet or take a breath of fresh air on the balcony. Nothing doing!”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)
“Too many photographers try too hard. They try to lift photography into the realm of Art, because they have an inferiority complex about their Craft. You and I would see more interesting photography if they would stop worrying, and instead, apply horse-sense to the problem of recording the look and feel of their own era.”
—Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870–1942)
“Write while the heat is in you.... The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)