Christ Illusion - Marketing and Promotion

Marketing and Promotion

Being Slayer's tenth studio album, Christ Illusion was originally scheduled for release on June 6, 2006, the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the 2000s decade. This connotation with the Book of Revelation's Number of the Beast was being used as a marketing ploy to hype a number of media releases at the time, most notably the remake of the horror film The Omen. King said the idea was scrapped because of the number of other bands that had the same idea, but USA Today reported that the release date was thwarted because the band had failed to secure sufficient studio recording time. Having missed the "Satanic" date, the release was pushed back to July 25; however, this date was not met either. Despite this, an exclusive T-shirt, limited to 666 units and only available via the band's store, was released in commemoration of "the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year". Five thousand copies of the limited edition EP "Eternal Pyre" were also released on this date, and made available via Hot Topic stores in the US. The EP previewed the song "Cult", and the track was made available for streaming on the band's official website the same day. Issued in Europe on June 23, the EP landed at number 48 on the Swedish charts and number 2 on the Finnish charts, while on June 30, Nuclear Blast Records released a 7" vinyl picture disc version limited to a thousand copies.

Not all media attention surrounding the group on June 6 was favorable. National Day of Slayer, LLC, which describes itself as a "a non-profit corporation in the State of Wyoming", requested on their website that Slayer fanatics participate in "The National Day of Slayer" by coming together and listening to the group's tracks. However, vandals attacked St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, New York, by spray-painting a large pentagram in front of the doors, black inverted crosses in two columns in front of the main entrance, and the number six on three steps leading into the Seminary. The words "Reign in Blood" were scrawled on the seminary landing, while the phrase "Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven", taken from Book 1 of John Milton's poem "Paradise Lost", was found inscribed on two inside columns. The National Day of Slayer website took credit for inspiring the perpetrator(s), and a media investigation discovered that the site had left instructions that fans "spray paint Slayer logos on churches, synagogues, or cemeteries".

Fans were given an exclusive preview of further tracks culled from the upcoming album before its release. In addition to "Cult", the tracks "Jihad" and "Eyes of the Insane" were made available for streaming on the Spanish website Rafabasa.com in late June. A listening party event for the album took place on July 22 at Duff's Brooklyn in New York City's Williamsburg neighborhood. Filmed on the set of "The Henry Rollins Show", a live rendition of "Disciple" (taken from Slayer's 2001 album God Hates Us All) was posted online, followed by "Cult"'s live performance which aired on the Independent Film Channel a few days later. BBC Radio 1's "Mike Davis Rock Show" gave "Skeleton Christ" a premier airing on August 1, and by August 4 the full album was available for streaming via Slayer's official MySpace profile. AOL Radio complimented this by launching an "All Slayer" station in anticipation of Christ Illusion's release, playing all of Slayer's previously released songs and tracks from the upcoming record.

In late July 2006, bus benches in several Californian cities were decorated with promotional artwork for Christ Illusion. City officials in Fullerton, California, demanded the artwork be immediately removed from seventeen bus benches located throughout the city, and contacted the hired company which had originally put the adverts in place to assume the task. The officials disliked the band's name, which they felt referred to a murderer. They also took offense to the antichrist and skull logo adorning the bench artwork. Eventually, the artwork was removed. However, various Orange County, California areas surrounding the city of Fullerton still had benches sporting the cover artwork.