Slayer [ tickets ], which later this week will launch its previously delayed summer tour, has nailed down an Aug. 8 release date for its new album, "Christ Illusion."

The new disc is Slayer's first studio set since 2001's "God Hates Us All," and is the first to feature the band's original lineup--Tom Araya (vocals, bass), Kerry King (guitar), Jeff Hanneman (guitar) and Dave Lombardo (drums)--since 1990's "Seasons in the Abyss." Josh Abraham (Korn, Velvet Revolver) produced the set, and Rick Rubin was the album's executive producer. The disc will be released on Slayer's longtime label, Rubin's American Recordings.

"Christ Illusion" deals with the familiar Slayer [ tickets ] themes of "god, religion, hate, and war," according to a press release. Larry Carroll, who did the cover artwork for the group's three best-known albums--"Reign in Blood," "South of Heaven" and "Seasons in the Abyss"--painted an original piece for the new album's cover.

"Working only from the song titles and early lyrics, Carroll has produced a classic Slayer masterpiece," reads a press release from the group's publicist, "a portrait of the Christ--whose forearms have been chopped off--standing in an ocean of blood surrounded by floating, decapitated heads. Carroll created the painting on a 4-by-4-foot slab of wood using a combination of mediums. King already has placed dibs on ownership of the original wooden canvas."

"Cult," the first single from "Christ Illusion," is streaming at Slayer's website.

"No one is going to be disappointed, it's going to blow everybody away," Araya said of the album in a statement. "It's fast, heavy, and maybe faster than anything we've done before."

"It's a good mix of fast, brutal music and slower moodier stuff, it's pretty intense," King added. "It sounds like a damn Slayer record."

On Thursday (6/15), Slayer launches its "Unholy Alliance" tour, which also features Lamb of God [ tickets ], Children of Bodom [ tickets ], Mastodon [ tickets ] and Thine Eyes Bleed [ tickets ]. The trek was originally scheduled to kick off earlier this month, but was delayed so that Araya could recover from gallbladder surgery.