Something to Ponder

I've been going through a phase where I'm currently listening to a lot of Slayer amongst other artists and genres, and it got me thinking about a few things; 1) I am super glad/lucky I got to see them with the original 4 guys twice inside of a year 2) Slayer should not play Dave Lombardo songs without Dave Lombardo, and they should not play Paul Bostaph songs without Paul Bostaph 3) towards the end of his run with Slayer Jeff Hanneman's leads were beyond not good.
Now I know that its a bummer about Jeff Hanneman, but if you listen to any of their live stuff from say...2005 until Hanneman had to bow out, his lead playing was atrocious. I know that he had arthritis and various aliments that he didn't want out in the open, I know that Slayer has an unorthodox lead style, I know that he played whatever he wanted to, BUT the leads were bad. I like noisy solos as much as the next guitar guy. The stuff you can do with a whammy bar and some delay/reverb is amazing, but he wasn't even trying. This none more apparent then when you listen to say "Seasons In the Abyss" from The Big 4 box set (which is an awesomely awesome thing BTW). Now it's not just his leads that sucked balls in that show; Kerry King is very meh as well. But the solo(s) in that song are so good. SOOOO GOOD. And during that one he just wanks chromatically all over the place. It sounds like a kid with epilepsy at Guitar Center playing. Yikes.
My next point. Yes it sucks that Lombardo is out, again. But at least Bostaph is back in. If you watch the YouTube videos of them both playing you can tell the differences between their styles obviously and how they don't really fit into the others songs well at all. Example: watch Lombardo play something like "Dittohead". Great song, but the drumming is super tight and technical. Dave Lombardo is not tight at all. He has that great groove that makes the songs he plays on come alive. Plus he loves to do improv (which he is super good at), which does not lend its self to Bostaph songs. Second example: watch Bostaph play "War Ensemble". He is way stiff. But that's his style. Technical and precise. That's not to say that he lacks groove or anything, but he can't hold a candle to Lombardo. The parts in that song are looser, even the fast parts, and they give that song life. But when a robot plays them not so much. So again my solution: don't have Dave Lombardo play Paul Bostaph songs, and don't have Paul Bostaph play Dave Lombardo songs.
And, I really don't know how I feel about Gary Holt moving forward with these guys. Maybe it's because it's too soon since Hanneman, but it feels weird. And what does it do to Exodus? We'll see I guess.