Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
I fell in love with Skid Row back in 2004 or 2005 when my dad suggested to check 'em out since I was really into bands like the Crüe, Poison and that stuff. He had been a fan of theirs back in the day himself and now I became one too. This was the first Skid Row album that I loved and I thought it was an awesome album. I probably liked it a little more back then compared to today since I'm much more into alternative / grunge and death metal today, but it's still an awesome album that maybe well grow on me again.
I remember when I heard songs like "Makin' A Mess", "Here I Am" and "Piece Of Me". I just couldn't stop listening to it because of it's sleazy smash power they have with the excellent Sebastian Bach on vocals. "18 And Life" which is one of the hits from here is maybe my favorite on this album. It's a really beautiful power-ballad and Sebastian's voice is a fucking gift from God. I think songs like that one and "Youth Gone Wild" really defined what Skid Row are all about. Their combination of sleaze, heavy metal and hard rock is awesome and there are few bands who does it as good as Skid Row. "Midnight / Tornado" which is co-written by their ex. singer and also ex. singer of Anthrax, Matt Fallon, is maybe the heaviest track on here with the part called "Tornado" being pretty heavy at the end.
The production is awesome and it fits this so perfectly. It sounds typical late 80's sleaze metal and it goes along with the songs very well. The only thing I've had a little problem with are the drums. They sometimes sounds like they're a bunch of cookie jars.
The cast is very talented musicians and everyone is very good at their thing. I really love Sebastian's voice and the guitar solos are pretty awesome on some tunes as well.
So finally to my last comments on "Skid Row"...
I totally recommend this album for all fans of sleaze, heavy metal... Maybe even other kinds of metal. I'm pretty open in music and can take the most in metal as well as outside metal and I think this is an album which is easy to get into.
With this album, Skid Row marched into a big success and would follow this album with an even better one.
Track List :
1.Big Guns
2.Sweet Little Sister
3.Can't Stand the Heartache
4.Piece of Me
5.18 and Life
6.Rattlesnake Shake
7.Youth Gone Wild
8.Here I Am
9.Makin' a Mess
10.I Remember You
11.Midnight/Tornado
**Disclaimer***
I do not own any copyright for any of this material!
Not to be confused with the Irish blues-rock band of the same name which had Phil Lynott and Gary Moore from Thin Lizzy in their lineup.
Skid Row was started by bassist Rachel Bolan and guitarist Dave "The Snake" Sabo, who was a big fan of KISS and also a former member of the popular hard rock band Bon Jovi, but never appeared on their albums. He was also a personal friend of their guitarist Ritchie Sambora. Soon, the band signed a deal with Atlantic Records and the first album was finally released in 1989 as "self-titled". It included singles "18 & Life", "I Remember You" and "Youth Gone Wild". They performed Moscow peace festival in 1989 along with Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions, Mötley Crüe, Gorky Park, Bon Jovi, Poison, and Cinderella. Also in that year, frontman Sebastian Bach was arrested and tried on charges of assault and battery for jumping into the crowd at a concert in Springfield, Massachusetts where they opened for Aerosmith on December 27, 1989.
In 1990, the band performed live with Guns N' Roses (Axl Rose, Duff McKagan, and Slash) and Metallica (James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich) at a RIP Magazine contest when they had a project called The Gak, an improvised name for a band. Also during 1990, the band prepared to record their sophomore record. Spring 1991 saw the release of it, entitled "Slave to the Grind"; it was just as successful as the first album and also the first heavy metal album ever to reach number one on the American Billboard album charts. In the following year, there was an EP of 5 song covers "B-Side Our Selves" in 1992. The band took the years 1993 and 1994 off and did not release their third album Subhuman Race until March 1995, which is the last to feature their original line-up. The album was not successful as their 2 previous albums.
The band's "classic" lineup parted ways in 1997 when Sebastian Bach moved to a solo career. Skid Row went on hiatus for a while before reforming with Johnny Solinger as the new singer and Phil Varone on drums. The band finally toured again and put up a new album in 2003, entitled "ThickSkin" on their label Skid Row Records. After the release of the album, Varone left the band and was replaced by new drummer Dave Gara.
Skid Row Discography
1989 - Skid Row Full-length
1991 - Slave to the Grind Full-length
1992 - B-Side Ourselves EP
1995 - Subhuman Beings on Tour EP
1995 - Subhuman Race Full-length
1996 - Special Selection Compilation
1998 - 40 Seasons: The Best of Skid Row Compilation
2003 - Thickskin Full-length
2005 - Hi-Five EP
2006 - Revolutions per Minute Full-length
2013 - United World Rebellion: Chapter One EP
2014 - The Best of... Compilation
2014 - Rise of the Damnation Army - United World Rebellion: Chapter Two EP
Line Up
Rachel BolanBass, Vocals (backing) (1986-present)
See also: Prunella Scales, ex-Genocide
Dave "The Snake" SaboGuitars, Vocals (backing) (1986-present)
See also: ex-Anthrax (live), ex-Bon Jovi, ex-Steel Fortune
It took me a long time to get this album. Not to go out and buy it, but to actually understand what it was that I was hearing. First impression: pretty much shit. This was not Slayer, it did not sound like Slayer, it did not own at all. What a naive approach to one of the best cover albums money can buy.
Since the time that I bought this, I got into hardcore punk. Suicidal Tendencies, DRI, Dead Kennedys, etc. Pretty much the kinds of bands that Slayer covers on this. To date I've managed to track down and hear about half of the original versions and by God, Slayer somehow does it better, or at least just as well. The drumming is even more frantic than the originals (thank you, Paul Bostaph), the guitars are even heavier and more destructive, and in a few rare moments, Tom's vocals are even better than the original singers. His scream in "Memories of Tomorrow" is better than Mike Muir's on both the original and the re-recorded version, for instance. Plus you get to hear his bass guitar work, a Slayer rarity. Every song on here is fast, angry, and awesome. This is pretty much dependent on whether or not you like hardcore punk. If you don't, I hope it didn't take you this far into the review to realize that you'll hate this with every essence of your being. The only song you might not mind is "Gemini," a Slayer original. It's way too slow, but Tom's clean vocals in the verse sections are a welcome innovation.
So to sum it up, if you like hardcore punk and/or Slayer, you may want to look this one up, hopefully not just for completion. This is one of the only cover albums that I've actually listened to more than twice, because even though Slayer covers the songs as accurately as possible (that is, with as little "artistic interpretation" as possible), it's still an original and engaging listen. Slayer's decision to give tribute to their hardcore roots rather than their metal ones was controversial for sure, but I think a better choice at the end of the day.
Track List :
1. Disintegration / Free Money (Verbal Abuse cover) 2. Verbal Abuse / Leeches (Verbal Abuse cover) 3. Abolish Government / Superficial Love (T.S.O.L. cover) 4. Can't Stand You 5. Ddamm 6. Guilty of Being White (Minor Threat cover) 7. I Hate You (Verbal Abuse cover) 8. Filler / I Don't Want to Hear It (Minor Threat cover) 9. Spiritual Law (D.I. cover) 10. Mr. Freeze (Dr. Know cover) 11. Violent Pacification (D.R.I. cover) 12. Richard Hung Himself (D.I. cover) 13. I'm Gonna Be Your God (The Stooges cover) 14. Gemini
After five superb albums in reasonably quick succession we’d then have to wait the better part of four years to see whether Slayer could match their pioneering delivery that helped drive metal from 1983 to 1990 – and I want to show why it’s really important to see this album with some context. Clearly there had been a peak in the U.S. thrash metal genre in 1990 with releases like “Rust in Peace,” “Persistence of Time” and Slayer’s very own “Seasons in the Abyss” but new dynamics were also coming into play. Death metal was exploding into the scene and thrash was all of a sudden not sounding necessarily as heavy as it had been in the mid-to-late 80s, and other young entrants to rock music in general were subjected to grunge and alternative rock bands. By the time we got to 1994 it was clear that Metallica had moved from the heavier and faster side of metal to their highly accessible form of hard rock, Megadeth were never going to make another proper thrash metal album, Anthrax just weren’t Anthrax anymore, the formidable Pantera were strikingly powerful but just weren’t dark enough to take Slayer’s place, and Sepultura had clearly had their proper thrash peak by 1991. Given Slayer’s position (at least in part) as godfathers of death metal, with the other key thrashers dwindling, and newbies to the scene drawn into trendier teenage sounds from Seattle you might have thought that Slayer would have had a clear run. For battery there'd been a worrying personnel change but new recruit Paul Bostaph had shown himself as Lombardo’s great replacement at the Donington Monsters of Rock in ’92 – he was the man among many to take Slayer forward.
So why does “Divine Intervention” not stand as proud as its predecessors? It’d be an easy answer if there were one or more unmistakably inferior tracks on the album, if the whole release was slower than “Seasons” or “South of Heaven,” or if the lyrical themes showed the betrayal of a band who had gone mainstream – but none of these things are true. Simply put the problems with this album are in the mixing and production. The band had more time to plan and produce this record and somewhere along the line some spontaneity and decisiveness seems to have dropped off. For me this was the first Slayer album that I just cannot play quietly and still enjoy. The superb introductory drum fill that throws ‘Killing Fields’ at us – and this is one of Slayer’s best songs – sadly says it all about how this album was made. And it matters because if this release had the engineering of the previous three albums we would have seen another Slayer high point. Bar the occasional unintended slowing down of the drums, mildly evident on ‘Circle of Beliefs for example,’ Bostaph’s performance on the album is superb. He knew he had boots to fill and his efforts shine through on every song, it’s just such a shame that his craft is blurred by the mix. The guitars and bass suffer the same fate. Instead of the crisp and crushing crunches and chugs we love so much it all feels just a little liquidy, and a tad cloudy, almost as though the album was recorded in multiple layers (and it certainly was). This is why this sterling effort in song-writing and musicianship still yields a record that doesn’t quite make the grade. Araya himself said he thought it was one of their very best releases but it was recorded in more than one studio and the final output shows us that too many cooks do indeed spoil the broth.
Looking at how the tracks came together in 1994 all of a sudden we see that Hanneman and King for the first time weren’t writing as much together. For me whilst both Hanneman and King are both fantastic writers it’s the popular belief that Hanneman had been the lead songwriter until this point. On “Divine Intervention” the music for the first half is entirely a King affair and for the whole release it is Araya’s lyrical input making up for Hanneman’s lesser contributions. Despite this the song-writing is still very much there and each track has its own individual character. The heaviest and most archetypal Slayer songs are ‘Killing Fields’ with its changing tempos (even 5/4 for a while?) and warlike aggression, and ‘Sex, Murder, Art’ with its ice cold and murderous freneticism. The climactic mid-song instrumental break in ‘Fictional Reality’ features tones to chill the spine before unleashing triumphant blows – relentlessly heavy, and though it’s the one of the slower tracks on the album speed lovers will note that Slayer’s “Seasons” from 1990 is, in all, actually a slower affair. If there’s a filler or obvious hit-single for the record then ‘Serenity in Murder’ fits the bill but that’s not to say it’s in any way such a disappointing compromise to let the release down – all the songs are quality Slayer. You’ll just need to turn “Divine Intervention” up to 11 to give it what it deserves, and following the demise of Slayer if any of their records needed re-engineering it’s this one. A superb effort but with too much interference. Re-master please.
Track List :
1.Killing Fields
2.Sex. Murder. Art.
3.Fictional Reality
4.Dittohead
5.Divine Intervention
6.Circle of Beliefs
7.SS-3
8.Serenity in Murder
9.213
10.Mind Control
Line Up :
Tom ArayaVocals, Bass, Lyrics (tracks 1, 2, 5, 8-10)
Written based on this version: 1996, CD, American Recordings (Reissue, Remastered)
Slayer burst into the 1990s exactly the way one would expect: with aggressive speed, murderous lyrics, and an album cover that looks like it was finger-painted by Manson and Bundy.
“Seasons” was a reassuring album and it needed to be, as the climate of metal was changing significantly in the late 80s . The rise of funk and alternative metal had already corrupted a few hallowed artists at this point (Mordred and Death Angel had both begun to flirt with it). Death metal was still a few years away from taking hold internationally. From the very first cut, the punishing double-bass and machine-gun riffing of “War Ensemble” was a call to arms – Slayer were back, still the leading titans of metal, and the idea that they would ever release a weak album? Unthinkable! This band was an incorruptible, unstoppable force or, so it seemed at the time.
As the album plays out, it becomes obvious that the band is truly firing on all cylinders, thrashing cuts like “Spirit in Black” and “Born of Fire” blasting away with trademark intensity, Hanneman and King trading crazed solos over the speeding din. Even slow burners like the chugging “Skeletons of Society” find the band clearly in their element; riffing simple and effective, Araya belting out verse after twisted verse, the chorus doubled with eerie spoken accompaniment. Sure, “Dead Skin Mask” sounded like a creepy rewrite of “South of Heaven”, so what? It’s not like Slayer are running out of ideas! The 6+ minute title track is one of their greatest accomplishments, moving from Sabbathy crawl to clean melody to slashing riff crunch, all executed flawlessly, Lombardo pounding and pattering like a freak of nature. Overall, a collection of strong material, speed and power delivered in abundance. The band is obviously sticking with a winning formula as fans expected. If this lineup had stayed intact, who knows how many more quality releases could have been sustained.
The Clash of the Titans tour and world domination would continue for the next few years (I’m glad I bit the bullet and paid the outrageous 1991 price of $25 to see the Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth, and Alice in Chains on the same bill. I almost passed on it!) At any rate, the unsuspecting metal hordes had no idea this was the end of the band’s strongest era.
Track List :
1. War Ensemble 2. Blood Red 3. Spirit in Black 4. Expendable Youth 5. Dead Skin Mask 6. Hallowed Point 7. Skeletons of Society 8. Temptation 9. Born of Fire 10. Seasons in the Abyss
Written based on this version: 1988, CD, Def Jam Recordings
Picture this: you're Slayer. You've just released Reign in Blood. It is an extreme metal classic and is recognised as such on release. It is commercially successful, too, and has attracted tons of controversy. It is fast and lean, under half an hour long, and contains instantly iconic and recognisable songs. How the hell do you follow that up?
The answer, of course, was to slow down. After pushing thrash to such limits, Slayer had no choice, else suffer from making the same album twice (which they did end up doing, but that's for another time). Rick Rubin is back on the boards, Dave Lombardo is back after a very short absence, Jeff Hanneman has written most of the riffs due to Kerry King's absence - he moved house and got married - and Tom Araya steps up his lyrical game. Oh, and his vocals are still manic and crazed but in a more measured way.
Just to make this clear, South of Heaven is not doom metal. There are too many faster, thrashier moments for it to qualify. It does, though, have a sense of doom and dread running throughout which is arguably more potent than Reign in Blood. Whilst Reign is a blink and you'll miss it slideshow of atrocity, disease, murder, death and agony, South of Heaven is that same slideshow but with a crippling inevitability. As a result, it's pretty intense, as song by song you get the feeling that something horrifying is about to happen, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.
Compared to the anti-reverb machinery of Reign in Blood, the production of South of Heaven focuses heavily on Dave Lombardo's drumming. They're fucking huge on this album. They never sounded better on record. As a result, Tom Araya's vocals are a little buried in the mix which could put off listeners who love the more upfront approach on Hell Awaits or Reign. The guitars are a bit drier than previously, which again is an acquired taste, but one I have acquired.
Track by track, it might not have the seamless album flow that Reign in Blood does. It also may lack a bookends of classic songs. To me, though, South of Heaven works better as an album because individual songs stick out to me more than on Reign. And I defend that album from the usual "songs sound the same" criticism. What's more, South of Heaven contains personal favourites of mine, and all in one place.
The title track opens with an iconic riff, eventually building with the addition of divebombing harmonics, drum strikes and fills. When Araya's vocals come in, you can hear the bomb ticking, about to go off; "before you see the light, you must DIIIIEEEE!" And with that, the slowburning opener is off. The riffing, mostly courtesy of Hanneman, alternates between being doomy and ominous to outright attacking in the verses, whereby the drums come out of their mid-tempo groove and into more familiar thrash territory. The lyrics, intriguingly for Slayer, do not actually consider South of Heaven to be about Hell: it's about Earth.
Forgotten children confirm a new faith
Avidity and lust controlled by hate
The never ending search for your shattered sanity
Souls of damnation in their own reality
Chaos rampant in age of distrust
Confrontations impulsive habitat
The chorus is something of a great pay off, in my opinion. The pre-chorus - "CHAOS! RAMPANT!" etc - leads you to believe something is upcoming, only for the main riff to come back in and repeat the process. As per most Slayer songs, the solos are a trade off between Hanneman and King, with each bringing their distinctive styles together at various points. The closing of the song is nearly a minute long of sustained feedback, ringing in the ears. Yes, this is my favourite Slayer song, and the perfect way to open the album, spelling out that this will not be a retread of their 1986 classic.
Despite its reputation of being much slower than its predecessor, South of Heaven contains pretty aggressive and thrashing fast songs. The title track fades into the next song, Silent Scream, which is nonstop and break neck in its precision and its power. A song about back alley abortions - whether its pro-life or pro-choice I don't know and honestly don't want to go into - Silent Scream contains nightmarish vocals, flawless drumming (check out Lombardo's fills on the track and his double bass attack, borderline blast beasting!!!), and lyrics designed to both intrigue and horrify. Whatever side of the debate you sit on - pro choice myself - it leaves an impact.
Silent Scream
Crucify the bastard son
Beaten and torn
Sanctify lives of scorn
Innocence withdrawn in fear
Fires burning can you hear
Cries in the night
Other thrashier numbers include Ghosts of War, with its haunted opening couple of bars, leading right into the song. Also notable is its doomy mid-section. Like most of the album, the themes seem to concern duty over free will, as on the WWII inspired Behind the Crooked Cross. Like a lot of Slayer songs, it's related to the Nazis (don't even go there), but from the perspective of the average German man conscripted into the army. It's actually a very sympathetic song, reminding us that people died in the war regardless of the side.
Time melts away in this living inferno
Trapped by a cause that I once understood
Feeling a sickness building inside of me
Who will I really have to answer to
March on through the rivers of red
Souls drift, they fill the air
Forced to fight, behind
The crooked cross
Fuck what I said earlier about transitions. As soon as Crooked Cross ends, it jumps straight into one of Slayer's greatest songs, Mandatory Suicide. This song is fantastic, with its main riff at once descending and ascending thanks to the dual guitars. Again Lombardo shines on the song, guiding the band through mid-tempo grooves and irregular time signatures as the guitars all too calmly palm mute in the choruses. Araya's vocals are also great - "feel the heat/BURRRRN!" - because they are actually mostly restrained, as on the chorus ("suicide...suicide..."). After a killer drum fill, the outro of the song contains more double bass drum insanity, haunting guitar effects, and a spoken word monologue.
Lying, dying, screaming in pain
Begging, pleading, bullets drop like rain
Mines explode, pain sheers through your brain
Radical amputation, this is insane
Fly swatter stakes drive through your chest
Spikes impale you as you're forced off the crest
Soldier of misfortune
Hunting with bated breath
A vile smell, like tasting death
Dead bodies, dying and wounded
Litter the city streets
Shattered glass, bits of clothing and human deceit
Dying in terror
Blood's cheap, it's everywhere
Mandatory suicide, massacre on the front line
King's love/hate of religion comes to the fore with Read Between the Lies, slamming Televangelists. Araya's vocals are machine gun fire. Whilst the song may be one of my least favourites on the albums, it's still a banger, especially with how energetic it is. The same for the Judas Priest cover, Dissident Aggressor, which is pretty out of place and I welcome it as a detour.
Why does Kerry King hate Cleanse the Soul? It's awesome, with angular riff work not at all "happy", as he once described it. Well, read this lyrics, bro:
Body that rests before me
With every dying breath
Spellbound and gagged
I commence your flesh to dirt
Body that lay before me
In everlasting death
Entombed in abscess
To rot and lie stinking in the earth
Sounds like a laugh, dunnit?
Live Undead took a while to grow on me, with its borderline sludgy and lethargic feel and winding/unwinding drum work. It's the doomiest song on the album, and even contains Tom Araya's signature stepped-on-a-LEGO-scream ("the PAAAAIIIIIN!!!!"). I love it. I also dig the alternating solos between Hanneman and King, almost a gauntlet to see who can out do the other. On this one, Hanneman comes out on top.
Closer Spill the Blood is another slow-burner, which takes its time to truly develop but gets there. It boasts some of Araya's best vocals, an acoustic guitar (on a Slayer album?), and a killer riff with weird bends and dissonance. Lyrically, it depicts some sort of blood sacrifice. Either that or a deal with the Devil.
I'll show you sights that you would not believe
Experience pleasures thought unobtained
At one with evil that has ruled before
Now smell the stench of immortality
Whilst the song does not stand out immediately, after repeated listens it does. I love the fact it closes the album in the same doom-laden and creeping way as the opener. A more subtle bookends compared to Reign in Blood.
In terms of Slayer's legacy, this album has the unfortunate distinction of being sandwiched between their most popular album and their most well-rounded one, that being Seasons in the Abyss, which shows Slayer consciously writing faster material again to balance out the slower stuff. In my opinion, Slayer never made a better overall album than South of Heaven. Coming off the heels of Reign in Blood, though, the album received a more mixed reception, with some complaining about the fact the band slowed down. Maybe in terms of tempo, but certainly not in terms of work ethic and songwriting.
Thrash metal rarely gets any better than this. Long live Slayer.
Track List :
1. South of Heaven 2. Silent Scream 3. Live Undead 4. Behind the Crooked Cross 5. Mandatory Suicide 6. Ghosts of War 7. Read Between the Lies 8. Cleanse the Soul 9. Dissident Aggressor (Judas Priest cover) 10. Spill the Blood
Line Up :
Tom ArayaVocals, Bass, Lyrics (tracks 1-3, 5, 7, 8)
A hipster’s worst nightmare, a true metalhead’s paradise - 100%
By EnvenomedThunder666, November 23rd, 2020
In the series of me ranting about how much I love metal, we have arrived at the classic album that started the hell raising in my putrid mind. Slayer is definitely the most important band for me when it came to getting into metal and they will always be one of my favorite bands of all time. I’m an absolute Slayer geek and it’s pretty clear. My nostalgia for this album and Slayer in general is far too extensive to fit into one paragraph, but I’ll put it all as bluntly as possible. Out of the many metal albums that have influenced me as a musician and a songwriter over the years, Reign In Blood is by far the album that has stuck with me for the longest time. I still vividly remember the first time my young ears heard Tom’s iconic “Angel Of Death” screech and being absolutely blown away. I had heard Metallica before Slayer as a kid, but Slayer are who really proved to me that metal was something that I was gonna be into for a long time. Slayer at that time felt like a freight train filled with napalm hit my ears at 1000 miles per hour. Tom’s deliverance of “ENTER TO THE REALM OF SATAN!” on Altar Of Sacrifice proved to my 12-year-old brain that you can make such a basic line sound so devastating. Not to mention nailing “Raining Blood” back on Guitar Hero 3 for the first time was one of the most satisfying feelings of my life. With nostalgia covered, I present to all of you wonderful folks an essay on why Reign In Blood is in fact NOT overrated, from the ashes of my repulsion filled soul.
Songwriting and song structural wise, Reign In Blood never ceases to satisfy me. Right off the bat, “Angel Of Death”, the controversial and brutally honest tale of the holocaust, begins the lyrical massacre with a fistful of steel. I really love how a lot of the songs on the album feel incomplete from one another, especially the infamous combo of “Postmortem” and “Raining Blood” as well as the bludgeoning combo of blows to all that is holy “Altar Of Sacrifice” and “Jesus Saves”, because it forces everyone to listen to the entire album if they want to get the full experience. Jeff and Kerry have absolutely phenomenal chemistry and they are both great songwriters who have their own style of writing haunting lyrics. Jeff specializes on the gritty war and social lyrics, while Kerry specializes on the horror fantasies and anti-christian songs. “Piece By Piece” is a fine example of how well Kerry specializes in the gore obsessed lyrical content approach, and his riffs are bone crushingly fast in addition. Despite the song only being 2 minutes long, not a second is wasted in ripping everyone’s fucking head off. The same applies to the following track "Necrophobic". “Altar Of Sacrifice” and “Jesus Saves” are a menacing combo of hostility, the first song obviously being a satanic anthem and the latter being a devastating blow to all that is holy. The following track “Criminally Insane” is a first person story about a serial killer: “Epidemic” is self-explanatory, and you could even argue that Slayer predicted 2020 with the song. “Postmortem” is a song once again spoken in first person, this time however about dying, and what the afterlife has in store for the deceased soul. And of course, I shall not rant about Slayer and not talk about the band’s most career defining and most popular song, “Raining Blood”. Everyone who’s ever listened to metal in their life knows this song, but not too many people look at it in-depth from start to finish. Written musically by Jeff and lyrically by Kerry, the song is an antichristian barrage of terror, telling a fantasized story about a genocide of a group of souls who are in a purgatory, and it finalizes on it’s aftermath. Tom’s performance on the album closing line “Raining blood from a lacerated sky, breeding its horror, creating my structure, now I shall reign in blood!” pretty much sums up what Slayer as a band are all about in just one sentence. They take no prisoners and slay anything in their path.
There’s no doubt that there’s plenty of high-speed, razor-sharp aggressive instrumentation all throughout this monstrosity. The guitar solos are infamously messy and over the top fast, but in my opinion they fit the chaotic tone of the albums perfectly, and the iconic and super headbang-able thrashing riffs totally make up for the sloppiness of the solos. Some of the solos actually serve a good purpose in addition to the madness, especially on “Criminally Insane” where the solo turns into demented whammy bar madness towards the end. No matter what all the annoying contrarian hipster “metalheads” try to say I’ll always back that up. And of course, Dave Lombardo is one of the best fucking drummers of all time and this album shows what he is capable of. So many rapid fire machine gun skank beats and double bass blasting is present and the fills make the already insanely over the top songs even more crushingly intense. The previously mentioned dual track musical piece of carnage “Postmortem” and “Raining Blood” is where the tempos become less predictable and the songs get slightly longer, but the furious attitude and catchy riffs remain in prominence. Hell, “Raining Blood” contains arguably the most recognize-able metal riff ever written.
You may be asking yourself “why on earth are you reviewing Reign In Blood, everyone and their grandma has reviewed Slayer before! Why don’t you review *insert crappy obscure black metal album or awful contrarian worshipped album here* instead?” which is a question I often get from imbecilc contrarians who think liking Limp Bizkit makes their taste free from pretentiousness. The answer is simply the fact there’s still so much to talk about that most metalheads would either willingly ignore or try to debunk, despite all that has already been covered about this classic. Besides, I would rather review a timeless masterpiece with tons of coverage then an abysmal fluke with no coverage any day of the week.
“Oh my god Slayer is so overrated bro Infant Annihilator and Signs Of The Swarm and *insert awful generic overproduced slam band here* are so much heavier and betterrrr!!!!111” Well, sorry to break it to you, inexperienced deathcore kid with a lack of functioning brain cells and an extraordinarily underdeveloped taste, but pig squealing and generic chugging riffs with obviously programmed and overproduced production with horribly pretentious and cringeworthy lyrics does NOT translate to heavy music, LET ALONE quality music. You wanna know what defines quality music? Superb and impactful songwriting, razor-sharp yet intense and aggressive musicianship, catchy riffs, verses, and choruses, memorable songs that keep you coming back after each listen, which ends up creating a replay value that’s through the roof high. Try listening to music that isn’t made by computers for once in your life and you’ll learn to appreciate rawness.
“All slayer songs are just random fast notes being played super fast” sure thing, ignorant thrash kid who endlessly worships Anthrax and Vio-lence as if their music is anything more than painfully dull and generic thrash that you only talk about because your self-righteous contrarian mind doesn’t want to appreciate bands that are highly beloved and respected. You can’t handle music that never slows down or loses it’s intensity? Then go listen to the obnoxious hippie alternative bands that RYM users worship and get the hell out of the metal community, you puny pretentious hipster. Metal fans like myself have had enough of hipsterism in our community and we don’t want you here. Ugh, sorry about that, I hate people. I just HAD to get my pent-up irritation off my chest, back to the actual review.
The cover art for Reign In Blood is quite intriguing and quite notable for this review, considering how immensely it depicts the lyrical content. Painted by Australian painter Larry Carroll (R.I.P 1954 - 2019). The artwork is a visual representation of multiple songs from the album. “Raining Blood” being the most obvious of the bunch, as the album artwork features lost souls being trapped in a purgatory breaking free and proceeding to cause a morbid massacre in heaven. The artwork is also the band’s depiction of hell, as evidenced by the goat headed satan performing a nazi salute and being carried on a throne by morbid angels, which is possibly a reference to “Angel Of Death”. The demons are surrounded by waves of blood and fire, and severed heads on top of impaled bodies surrounding the carnage, representing the fast, aggressive, overtly satanic and anti-christian anthems that are “Altar Of Sacrifice” and “Jesus Saves”. These songs, the intense artwork, and the major label promotion of this album in 1986 resulted in a massive spike in popularity and critical acclaim for the band, and it all resulted in Slayer’s cultural impact. They became one of the most worshipped, idolized, and influential metal bands of all time and they deserve every single piece of it.
In my eyes, there are 5 aspects of a metal album that truly define whether an album is great, let alone a masterpiece. Rawness, hostility, memorability, speed, and bold, groundbreaking intention. Slayer knocked all 5 of those categories WAY out of the park in 1986 with Reign In Blood and no matter what, I will never get tired of listening to Reign In Blood or Slayer in general. What’s crazy about this entire review is that you’d expect this to be my favorite Slayer record (unless you know me better), but if you did, you’d be mistaken! I like Hell Awaits just a smidge more musically, although impact wise Reign easily takes the cake. My multi paragraph long thoughts on Haunting The Chapel and Hell Awaits are for different reviews, but either way, R.I.P Slayer, R.I.P Jeff, R.I.P Larry, and hail Slayer for the rest of the crypts of eternity!
Highlights: Angel Of Death, Piece By Piece, Altar Of Sacrifice, Jesus Saves, Criminally Insane, Epidemic, Postmortem, and Raining Blood
Track List :
1. Angel of Death 2. Piece by Piece 3. Necrophobic 4. Altar of Sacrifice 5. Jesus Saves 6. Criminally Insane 7. Reborn 8. Epidemic 9. Postmortem 10. Raining Blood
![Adfly](<!-- Start of adf.ly banner code --> <div style="width: 728px; text-align: center; font-family: verdana; font-size: 10px;"><a href="https://join-adf.ly/25032027"><img border="0" src="https://cdn.adf.ly/images/banners/adfly.728x90.2.gif" width="728" height="90" title="AdF.ly - shorten links and earn money!" /></a><br /><a href="https://join-adf.ly/25032027">Get paid to share your links!</a></div> <!-- End of adf.ly banner code -->)