Venom was a band that strongly influenced the image and the idea behind Slayer.

Araya enrolled in a two-year technical course learning about air mixture ratios drawing blood and how to intubate. ' They’d call me at 5:00 in the morning and wake me 'Someone’s not coming in we need you to come in to work.

Much of Araya's lyrical content is about serial killers a subject he finds interesting first making his lyrical contribution to 1985's Hell Awaits with the track "At Dawn They Sleep". Araya is ranked fifty-eighth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time.