after drummer dave lombardo of slayer left in 1992, the band was looking for a new drummer. lombardo's drum tech was filling in but kept on making errors. after auditioning several drummers and listening to hundreds of demo tapes, bostaph was recommended by slayer guitarist kerry king's guitar technician. slayer members listened to some forbidden records, however, they did not see how bostaph could fit in slayer – lombardo's style was "over the top", while forbidden was more melodic. slayer auditioned bostaph with nine songs, and he made only one error on "angel of death". bostaph had to practice a lot to improve the strength of his hands and feet; "i respected and loved dave's drumming but as a fan, if they got a new drummer and i bought a ticket to a show, i would expect to hear the stuff that dave does, that's what i would want. so, i went in and every time i had to learn a new song i would play them exactly how dave played them".