M4TB’s Hall Of Fame: Slayer - Reign In Blood
The year is 1986, and the Thrash Metal scene is gaining more and more popularity and is becoming known as it has opened its wings and now the attack is generalized as American bands are bombing our ears with their albums and their fellows and allies from Europe (e.g. Kreator, Sodom etc), commenced their offensive with amazing albums, making Thrash a recognizable genre of the extreme music, and at the time the most extreme genre known. And then came Slayer to change all things about Thrash, about Metal, and show the world what aggression, speed, and precision is all about. Their achievement? Probably the best Thrash album of all times, the album that redefined the sound of the extreme, the album that broadened the musical horizon, and open the gates for other genres to be born…. Ladies & Gentlemen, behold “Reign In Blood”!
On the 7th of October 1986 “Reign In Blood” was released, and everything changed. Slayer had achieved something unique. They managed to include the basic characteristics of Thrash Metal in 29 minutes of pure, thrash Armageddon. 29 minutes of aggression, speed, precision and head-banging. The artist? The Gods Of Thrash. Ladies & Gentlemen behold “Slayer”
The band consisting of Mister Jeff Hanneman, Mister Kerry King, Mister Dave Lombardo and Mister Tom Araya, had released their debut album “Show No Mercy”, the classic ep “Hunting the chapel”, and the mighty “Hell Awaits”, an album with such an amazing impact factor on the metal scene, that almost every band has “stole” from or “borrowed” characteristics to shape up their music/sound. What I believe is that Slayer gave birth to their Magnus Oppus without knowing what they are releasing. I mean sure, they knew that their songs were killers, but I am not so sure they knew at the time that this album was to be a Hall Of Fame album and the album the Redefined the structure and the sound of the extreme music for ages to come. Even today, 32 years later, if you play “Reign In Blood” it sounds so fresh, and so wild and so untamed that you immediately know that what you hear is something completely different than the other stuff you normally are listening to. Even today, the best albums cannot reach its qualities, and aggression, and to be honest, who is the fool to try and defy its reign supreme as the best thrash metal album of all times?
You easily understand that this album is beyond any critic. So I will just mention the tracks of album as it flows and streams from hell. You know it too: One anthem after another, and it all come together reaching the climax or the title track. Simple as that, 29 minute of the destructive power and riffing from the Gods Of Thrash: SLAYER!
The album opens with “Angel Of Death”. You all know it, you all have heard it, you all have sang its lyrics, and you all know that it is one of the songs responsible for the battle-cry on their live appearances “fucking SLAAAYYYEEEERRRR!”. The infamous lyrics of the song refer to Josef Mengele the sick and twisted “doctor” in Auswitch concentration camp in Poland during the 2nd World War, where he experimented on humans for his own twisted “research”. This led to the false belief that Slayer were fans of the Nazis, which of course is not true, and the interest on the 2nd World War was coming especially from Jeff Hanneman’s side whose father had fought during the war and had taken part on D-day in Normandy. The riffing and the speed of the song was something completely new to the world, even among thrash metal bands. The all new that something has changed, they all new that something wicked this way comes!
“Piece by piece” and “Necrophobic” follow the “Angel” and set the pace of the album on the right track, as it is clear for the listener that his/her neck will break from the almost involuntary head-banging. The riffs are devastating, and the drumming is so precise that Lombardo was compared to a metronome. Tom Araya sets the scene on fire as his vocals add the salt, to the wounds…
The march continues with another classic “Altars of sacrifice” and the starting riff is a classic Slayer riff, that is embedded on your brain and you just cannot let go. DEVASTATION. I have seen Slayer live many times. Hell, they are my favorite band, but, I got a taste of their destructive power live, when I heard “altars of sacrifice” in a medley-like combination following “Reign In Blood”… I have no words to describe the chaos among the crowd and the energy and the power that Slayer displayed on the scene.
Another classic follows “Jesus saves”, and when your think that pace is dropping a little, “Criminally Insane” takes over to put you in your position. Unrelenting head-banging until you drop! The very fucking definition of Thrash Metal!
“Epidemic” and “Reborn” stream as natural followers to the destructive power the album is diffusing to all its surroundings. Thrash, thrash and only thrash! You just cannot describe it, since even a presentation is not enough to describe the feeling you get, and the chills you get by the energy that flows around this album.
The time is here, to pay homage to another anthem of the band “Postmortem”. A song that you know when you hear is the opening for the end complete. An amazing song, with riffs that haunt your soul forever, and then the steady mid-pace rhythm, gives its place to an agonizing high speed ending, and then you hear it…. The rain… You feel death is in the air…. And all of the sudden the massive riffing of “Raining blood” hits you in the face, only to be completed by the cataclysmic drumming… You just cannot help it. You are just smashing things, breaking your neck by the head-banging, and shouting “Raining Blood, from a lacerated sky, bleeding its horror…” A masterpiece, a timeless masterpiece that is responsible for the birth of many musical genres, and not only that, but also a pacemaker, that set the whole extreme music scene on alert. I am sure that many “ kids” at the time started their own band trying to play like Slayer did on this diamond.
I cannot say something bad for this album, because honestly, and objectively there is nothing bad you can say for it. What you can do, is to open your ears and surrender to its rhythm, to its passion, to its spirit, and bow before an album that not only made music history, it also changed its course and future.
I will not talk about how Ricky Rubin showed his interest to producing this album, or how Def Jam Records signed Slayer as their first Metal band ever. This is history, and we shall talk about it on another chapter, in another story about “Reign In Blood”, I will just mention that the cover is the artwork of Mister Larry Carrol, and although it was made a classic through the album, it has been included in the top ten of the Heaviest Album Covers of Blender Magazine in 2006.
You just have to hear it, you just have to feel it and live it. I know it, you know it… “Reign In Blood” is the best Thrash Metal Album of all times!
Slayer thank you for the music!
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