Tomás "Tom" Enrique Araya Díaz (Spanish pronunciation: [tom aɾaʝa]; born June 6, 1961) is a Chilean-American musician, best known as the vocalist and bassist of the American thrash metal band Slayer. Araya is ranked fifty-eighth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time.\n', '

Araya was employed as a respiratory therapist in the early 1980s and used his earnings to finance Slayer\'s debut album Show No Mercy. Much of Araya\'s lyrical content is about serial killers, a subject he finds interesting; his first credited lyrical contribution was the vampire-themed track "At Dawn They Sleep" from 1985\'s Hell Awaits.\n', '

Tomás Enrique Araya Diaz was born in Viña del Mar, Chile, but his family moved to the US when he was five. He grew up in Los Angeles County in the city of Maywood, California, in what he described as "a bad neighborhood that was pretty gang-oriented." His older brother, Cisco, played guitar. This inspired Araya to pick up bass at age eight. The two played Beatles and Rolling Stones songs, which he would later cite as an influence on his own music.\n', '

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