SKIDROW - THICKSKIN ALBUM REVIEW

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 Solinger Vocals (lead)

Scotti Hill Guitars, Vocals (backing)

Dave "The Snake" Sabo Guitars, Vocals (backing)

Rachel Bolan Bass, Vocals (backing)

Phil Varone Drums, Vocals (backing)

***Disclaimer*** 

I do not own any copyright for any of this material!

Copyright belongs to Skid Row and Independent Recordings! 

Purchase your remastered copy today!

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SKIDROW - SUBHUMAN RACE ALBUM REVIEW

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 Hill Guitars, Vocals (backing)

Dave "The Snake" Sabo Guitars

Rachel Bolan Bass

Rob Affuso Drums

Sebastian Bach Vocals

**Disclaimer*** 

I do not own any copyright for any of this material!

Copyright belongs to Skid Row and 

Atlantic Recordings! 

Purchase your remastered copy today!

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SKIDROW - SLAVE TO GRIND ALBUM REVIEW

 

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 Hill Guitars

Sebastian Bach Vocals

Dave "The Snake" Sabo Guitars

Rachel Bolan Bass

Rob Affuso Drums

**Disclaimer*** 

I do not own any copyright for any of this material!

Copyright belongs to Skid Row and 

Atlantic Recordings! 

Purchase your remastered copy today!

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SKIDROW - SKID ROW ALBUM REVIEW

 

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!

Copyright belongs to Skid Row and

Atlantic Recordings!

Purchase your remastered copy today!

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SKID ROW

 

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 Bolan Bass, Vocals (backing) (1986-present)

See also: Prunella Scales, ex-Genocide

Dave "The Snake" Sabo Guitars, Vocals (backing) (1986-present)

See also: ex-Anthrax (live), ex-Bon Jovi, ex-Steel Fortune

Scotti Hill Guitars, Vocals (backing) (1987-present)

See also: ex-Chrome Daddy

Rob Hammersmith Drums (2010-present)

See also: American Terror, Gunfire 76, ex-Rockets to Ruin

ZP Theart Vocals (lead) (2017-present)

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SLAYER - UNDISPUTED ATTITUDE ALBUM REVIEW

 

Slayer Does Hardcore and Does It Well 

By DawnoftheShred, January 6th, 2007

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 

Line Up  :

Kerry King Guitars, Songwriting (track 14)

Tom Araya Vocals, Bass, Lyrics (track 14)

Jeff Hanneman (R.I.P. 2013) Guitars, Songwriting (tracks 4, 5), Lyrics (tracks 4, 5)

Paul Bostaph Drums

***Disclaimer*** 

I do not own any copyright for any of this material!

Copyright belongs to Slayer and American  Recordings! 

Purchase your remastered copy today!

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SLAYER - DIVINE INTERVENTION ALBUM REVIEW

 

Over-mixed and overlooked, but brilliant

By MercianMan, October 10th, 2020

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 Araya Vocals, Bass, Lyrics (tracks 1, 2, 5, 8-10)

Jeff Hanneman (R.I.P. 2013) Guitars, Songwriting (tracks 5, 7-10), Lyrics (tracks 5, 7)

Kerry King Guitars, Songwriting (tracks 1-8, 10), Lyrics (tracks 3-6, 10)

Paul Bostaph Drums, Lyrics (track 5)

***Disclaimer*** 

I do not own any copyright for any of this material!

Copyright belongs to Slayer and American Recordings! 

Purchase your remastered copy today!

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