My high-school yearbooks were notable for this one guy who wore Slayer T-shirts to portrait day year in and year out, but this eBay auction of a 1983 yearbook from South Gate High is doing old Hicksville High one better, as it features pictures of the metal kings in their awkward adolescent years. That school must have had the best Battle of the Bands ever!

This is an extreme rarity. This is an annual/yearbook that features some of the earliest pictures from Slayer. This yearbook is from South Gate High School in South Gate California where Slayer got their first start and a slew of bands followed their path.

This yearbook came out in 1983, so the pictures were probably taken around 1982, making this the pre-Show No Mercy era.

There are a total of 6 pictures in this annual featuring Slayer. All the original and current members of Slayer are pictured here. Kerry King is using his Original BC Rich Mockingbird guitar before he put tar (or whatever it was) to decorate it. The fourth picture shows Jeff Hanneman with a buzz haircut (he was the punk influence in the band).

In this auction I will also include a set of flyers from the era where Slayer played around the South gate area, and features more pictures from the band at this time.

Bidding is already at $51, which makes the yearbook just a hair more expensive than it was when it was first issued. Sadly, all of the band’s members seem to have skipped senior picture day–”I chalk it up to being rebelious metal heads that didn’t want to be like the rest of the students,” the seller says.

SLAYER High School Yearbook Ultimate Thrash Rarity [eBay via Blabbermouth]