I’m not sure whether this album was intended as a joke, or if maybe Dave Sabo and Rachel Bolan partied a little too hard in the 80s and caught a late manifesting case of Ozzy Osbourne syndrome, but either the way the result is an utter catastrophe. The only thing that I can think of that can potentially lead to failure in the same way that an 80s heavy metal band morphing into a grunge rock, alternative metal, or groove metal band would is adopting the really flakey newer brand of emo pop/punk pushed by bands like My Chemical Romance, and boy does Skid Row take the fatal plunge on here.
“Revolutions Per Minute” is essentially a slightly manlier rehash of stuff heard off of “The Black Parade” with some better guitar solos and a slightly better vocal delivery. The songwriting is extraordinarily vapid, churning out interchangeable melodies in major keys that sound extremely hokey when matched up with Johnny Solinger’s really lame attempts at emulating the punk rock version of attitude based yelling. The lyrical content reads like the illegitimate son of Vince Neil and Sam Kinnison if the former was downing tons of alcohol throughout his pregnancy, resulting in any level of humor being inherited from the later being killed off.
Just one listen to pseudo rocking up tempo joke songs in “Another Dick In The System” and “Nothing” will seal any doubt that this is not something that can be listened to without either busting out laughing or sighing in a state of apathy. When the formulaic power chord songs start to get played out, then these washed up 80s icons resort to the same sort of crappy down tempo semi-grunge rock influenced rubbish that occasionally comes out of bands like Seether, complete with Solinger actually channeling Kurt Cobain during the quiet verses. And there’s naturally goofy joke songs aplenty, including a really revolting semi-country rock sounding blunder in “You Lie” and a really redundant and utterly unfunny power chord coaster in “White Trash”. You can tell a band is scraping the bottom of the barrel when they start making references to “Girls Gone Wild”.
The only song on here that even sounds remotely good is “Let It Ride”, which sees the band taking the pop/punk song format into something of an enjoyable direction. This is basically a somewhat more complex version of a Green Day song with one little rock riff tucked into the verse, but it’s reasonably catchy and has a solid gang chorus that fills out the arrangement relatively nicely. They throw in a little token guitar solo on this one that loosely resembles a Bon Jovi meets Twisted Sister approach to lead work, but for the most part it’s all power chords and vocals.
If ever there was a band that needs to just cash in their chips and hang it up it’s these guys. It’s utterly sad that the same band that wrote songs like “Youth Gone Wild”, “Sweet Little Sister” and “Slave To The Grind” has been reduced to this. Not even a minimally self-respecting fan of the most girlie of hair bands should ever admit to liking this. I’d even put that ridiculous made up band that Sebastian Bach was in a couple years back with Ted Nugent, Scott Ian and Evan Seinfeld called Damnocracy above this pile of Emo drenched, pseudo-comical drivel.
Track List :
1. Disease 2. Another Dick in the System 3. Pulling My Heart Out from Under Me 4. When God Can't Wait 5. Shut Up Baby, I Love You 0 6. Strength (The Alarm cover) 7. White Trash 8. You Lie 9. Nothing 10. Love Is Dead 11. Let It Ride
Line Up :
Johnny SolingerVocals (lead)
Dave "The Snake" SaboGuitars, Vocals (backing)
Scotti HillGuitars, Vocals (backing), Lap steel
Rachel BolanBass, Vocals (backing), Percussion
Dave GaraDrums, Vocals (backing)
***Disclaimer***
I do not own any copyright for any of this material!
Copyright belongs to Skid Row and Steamhammer Recordings!
Quoting Shakespeare is a tired cliche when writing an obituary, even if for a formerly great 80s metal icon, but as the old saying goes, "I have not come to praise Skid Row, but to bury them", a funeral that is naturally about 16 years after their actual demise. Contrary to the opinions of many, including members of the very band in question, the 1990s didn't spell the end of this outfit in a studio capacity, though the proverbial writing was on the wall soon after the quasi-grunge influenced 1995 commercial downturn Subhuman Race with Sebastian Bach's exodus from the fold. Then again, the influence of a latter day 90s influence upon their 2003 attempt at a return Thickskin is the chief culprit in its total failure, rather than something that can be laid solely upon the doorstep of recently recruited vocalist and reasonably apt front man Johnny Solinger. All things considered, the aforementioned rock vocalist and latter day fellow traveler was never able to gel with Skid Row in a studio capacity during his entire tenure, but as with their 2006 bowl of turkey turds Revolutions Per Minute, this first run with Solinger is a collective failure on all fronts, and a brutal one at that.
There are two dominant styles that round out the entirety of this sad collection of stale, commercialized post-90s drivel, with the more dominant one being the putrid late 90s alternative pop/rock craze that most rational creatures decry for ever existing, which has supplanted a still present remnant of the groove-driven grunge sound of Subhuman Race. Generally speaking, the songs that veer towards the latter category tend to be less terrible of the lot, though that isn't saying much when approaching a hypnotic, semi-plagiarized homage to Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People" minus the creepiness that made said song charming to an extent in "New Generation". Along a similarly groovy and almost Pantera-like mold stands the plodding mess that is "Mouth Of Voodoo" and the grungy-infused attempt at aping Alice In Chains "Down From Underground". About the only point where things get a tad interesting is the de facto title song "Thick Is The Skin", which lands on a fairly nice variation of the prime riff of Sabbath's "Zero The Hero" during the verse and maintains a respectable Soundgarden-oriented vibe throughout its duration, not original by any stretch and a bit rough around the edges, but reasonably listenable.
For all the derivative staleness that permeates the aforementioned songs, they do meet the minimal threshold of metallic rocking that goes with the Skid Row moniker, which is far more than can be said for the decrepit, easy-listening crud that dominates this album. Perhaps the best analogy would be the bastard result of an orgy between such noted 90s alternative and post-grunge outfits as Three Doors Down, Dishwalla, Third Eye Blind, Seven Mary Three, Matchbox 20, Goo Goo Dolls, and just about every band that ripped off Gin Blossoms and put an Eddie Vedder yarl over top of it. Whether it's the corny pop-bopping balladry of "Born A Beggar" and the slightly U2-influenced variation thereof "See You Around", or slightly more rocking emulations of the same sappy crap like "Ghost" and "Lamb". Yet for all the trendy rubbish from 1996 that these songs could muster can't even hold a candle to the horrid, pop/punk sequel to this band's classic late 80s ballad "I Remember You"; a bigger musical insult to Skid Row's legacy could not have been thrown had Blink 182 and The Rembrandts gotten together and done a cover of said song in the same vapid formula that made both outfits rock radio darlings.
If there is a silver-lining to be had from this lame attempt at commercial pandering, it is that it reveals a number of things about both the music media and, to maybe a slightly lesser extent, the remnant members of the original band. While the commercial dookie-rags Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone didn't bother with this album due to it being an initially independent release (telling about their priorities as so-called journalistic outlets), the pop/rock bias of Rock Hard magazine's glowing review of this confused little album couldn't be more blatant. But for all the fawning over this dung heap, at least said outlet understood that this was not going to rub old school fans the right way, which is more than can be said for EW and RS's notion that this album's predecessor was indistinct from Skid Row's first two offerings. The real head-scratcher of the bunch is actually bassist Rachel Bolan, who while likening Subhuman Race to their equivalent of St. Anger (said album is far closer to a poor man's answer to Motley Crue's 1994 eponymous album), has little negative to say about this sad attempt at selling out. Trustees of all things Goo Goo Dolls and aging flannel-toting morons may dig this, but any self-respecting fan of metal shouldn't touch this with a 50 ft. pole.
Track List :
1.New Generation
2.Ghost
3.Swallow Me (The Real You)
4.Born a Beggar
5.Thick Is the Skin
6.See You Around
7.Mouth of Voodoo
8.One Light
9.I Remember You Two
10.Lamb
11.Down from Underground
12.Hittin' a Wall
Line Up :
Johnny SolingerVocals (lead)
Scotti HillGuitars, Vocals (backing)
Dave "The Snake" SaboGuitars, Vocals (backing)
Rachel BolanBass, Vocals (backing)
Phil VaroneDrums, Vocals (backing)
***Disclaimer***
I do not own any copyright for any of this material!
Copyright belongs to Skid Row and Independent Recordings!
There used to be a fuzzy and ambiguous line separating hard rock from heavy metal. Back in the mid to late 80s, mainstream media labeled groups such as Poison, Bon Jovi and Guns N’ Roses as “heavy metal” bands. As there was no metal police back then (aka the Archives) or any random thrash metal fascist troll, to point out the metal content in an artist’s repertoire, the record buying public accepted such sweeping generalizations without questions asked. Of course, as the 90s arrived and the internet flourished, knowledge about music genres was spread widely by those who were vested with the authority to set the guidelines and the rules on what deserves to be called “heavy metal”.
We do know that many metal bands did not start as such but instead, toyed with other genres of music. This is the case with Skid Row, a group which rose to prominence in the late 80s; a relative contemporary of bands like Warrant, Ratt and Guns N’ Roses, the group was, first and foremost, a hard rock band. With their first two albums, Sebastian and his band mates attempted to reach rock stardom with their trademark street orientated, gritty hard rock; “18 and Life” and “I Remember You” were radio ready, commercialized anthems geared for MTV rotation. It was not until 1995’s “Subhuman Race” that Skid Row finally shed its last vestiges of hard rock.
Skid Row’s third album at last fully embraced heavy metal and experimented with various sub-styles of the genre. First track “My Enemy” is a groovy stomper while the title song is a full-on thrashing effort. There is a clear and evident groove influence to a lot of the songs, thanks to the band’s association with Pantera, who by this point, was commonly recognized for their power groove style. Still, the band hasn’t fully abandoned their pop roots and songs like “Breakin’ Down” and “Into Another” have a very agreeable sound which is sure to please fans of Def Leppard. “Breakin’ Down” is especially noteworthy for its power ballad/AOR quality, starting with an acoustic section before going full throttle on the guitar distortion later. What’s really remarkable with a lot of the songs is that they have an element of being “alternative” (this is not exactly the correct word but I really couldn’t think of a more apt term) without sounding in the least bit like a grunge band or group from Seattle. This can be observed in songs such as “Firesign” and “Beat Yourself Blind”.
Of course, a lot of the songs work partly because of Sebastian Bach’s notable vocals. At a time (the 90s) when it was de rigueur to use growling (ala Phil Anselmo and Max Cavalera) as a vocal crutch, Bach stuck to the traditional heavy metal singing style. At times, he sounds like Rob Halford, at others, like a more well articulated Axl Rose. He can sing in the grittier style which is a requirement in metal, without coming across as soft, unlike perhaps singers of pop/hard rock bands like Firehouse and White Lion. His singing is actually bearable and not prone to excess, as is the case with cringe-inducing vocalists such as Jon Oliva, David Defei, and (sometimes) Blitz Ellsworth.
The riffwork of Dave “The Snake” Sabo and Scotti Hill is also a formidable building block of each of the album’s songs and is a vital component of Skid Row’s song craft. Sabo and Hill’s riffs are razor sharp and provide just the right amount of audio dynamite to move the songs forward. As stated earlier, both guitarists were influenced in the mid 90s by their comrade, Dimebag Darrell Abbott who popularized groove metal in a way which even groove pioneer, Prong, could not. But Skid Row’s axe slingers have stripped and trimmed the fat out of Pantera’s power groove style and came up with their own grooving brand of heavy metal. This can be attested in songs like “Iron Will” and “Frozen” and the groove in several other tracks do not devolve into cheap mallcore but are well integrated (see “Eileen”). Also, the riffs can be clearly heard without sounding sludgy like a lot of bands from New Orleans or the South.
To conclude, it surely is a bummer that the band wasn’t able to follow this with another proper release as the two albums that followed aren’t even in the metal realm. The lack of real honest to goodness, leather and spikes donning heavy metal bands in the 90s and the new millennium have led to the oversaturation of the scene with death metal/black metal acts and is indeed a sorry state of the heavy music scene back in the decade of political correctness. Sure, there was still the old guard who kept the torch burning (Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath) but the bands that used to sing about motorcycles and leather clad chicks were considered passé at that point. “Subhuman Race” is considered an oddity as it appeared after the death of grunge and the reinvigoration of corporate pop music. I prefer to think of it as the last hurrah of heavy metal and the final authentic heavy metal album.
Track List :
1.My Enemy
2.Firesign
3.Bonehead
4.Beat Yourself Blind
5.Eileen
6.Remains to Be Seen
7.Subhuman Race
8.Frozen
9.Into Another
10.Face Against My Soul
11.Medicine Jar
12.Breakin' Down
13.Iron Will
Line Up :
Scotti HillGuitars, Vocals (backing)
Dave "The Snake" SaboGuitars
Rachel BolanBass
Rob AffusoDrums
Sebastian BachVocals
**Disclaimer***
I do not own any copyright for any of this material!
Skid Row's sleaze oriented debut album which was released in 1989 was a very good start for them and they enjoyed a huge success over the world. It wasn't until they made their second album "Slave To The Grind" that they reached their top if you ask me. Compared to their debut, this one's a lot heavier, angrier and it's even furious at some points. Skid Row went from being a sleaze metal band to become a cool heavy metal and nothing's better than some cool heavy metal. There's still a few "classic" Skid Row moments on here that reminds of their previous hits "18 & Life" and "I Remember You" but overall, this one's a lot more "fuck you!" than "please, don't leave me!".
It's clearly from the start that Skid Row have become heavier. We're talkin' about the classic opening track "Monkey Business" which is like a mix of their previous style and their new heavy fuckin' metal. The best song on here is defenitely the title track. Believe it or not, but this one's simply thrash metal and it's also the track that best shows what they've become. "Mudkicker" is another pure heavy metal monster with a little sleaze attatched to it and it certainly kick ass. We also get to hear punk in "Riot Act" while "Quicksand Jesus" and "Wasted Time" is responsible for the classic Skid Row power-ballad sound that we're formiliar with from the debut album. The rest of the tracks are cool heavy metal tunes. Some with a little sleaze influences and some with less.
The production on this album is great and it suits the music very well. The guitars are pretty raw and heavy which I think is totally excellent and the solos kicks ass as well. The only thing I'm a little negative on is the bass drum. It's too thin / turned down. Sometimes, it's so low that you don't even hear it. Apart from that, the production's very good.
The cast are great and they've probably never been better either. Snake and Scotti are totally amazing here and you can almost hear their guitars scream for mercy. Rob is a sick drummer! He's what a perfect drummer is, he's made of flesh and blood and every hit doesn't sound accurate to each other which shows that it's not a damn machine. Rachel's bass playing is excellent to say at least, I'm not too much into bass and don't really have an opinion on it. Finally, Sebastian is an amazing singer and his vocals are some of the best I've heard. He doesn't let me down here either.
So finally to my last comments on "Slave To The Grind"...
This is Skid Row's best album and I totally recommend it. I bought it a long time ago now and I don't regret a single swedish "krona" (as our money is called). You should check this one out if you're into bands like Warrant, Mötley Crüe, Whitesnake and other heavier acts.
Track List :
1. Monkey Business 2. Slave to the Grind 3. The Threat 4. Quicksand Jesus 5. Psycho Love 6. Get the Fuck Out 7. Living on a Chain Gang 8. Creepshow 9. In a Darkened Room 10. Riot Act 11. Mudkicker 12. Wasted Time
Line Up :
Scott HillGuitars
Sebastian BachVocals
Dave "The Snake" SaboGuitars
Rachel BolanBass
Rob AffusoDrums
**Disclaimer***
I do not own any copyright for any of this material!
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
