Reviews

Following up on Reign In Blood (1986), one of the most diabolical and ferocious albums ever recorded, was not going to be easy for Slayer. Usually a band not known for doing things different, they this time realised they had to. When you can't get any faster, the best thing to do to shock your audience is slow down. 'South Of Heaven' rumbles the album into life with a slow and haunting riff. This builds to a crescendo with Tom Araya's scream of "You must die!", but even at full pace the track is still a crawling snail in comparison to many tracks on the previous album. Slayer have brought in more here than just a slower speed - they have added weight. The music is heavy as hell and the production when the double bass kick drum bursts into life sucks the air from the listener. This is calculated and purposeful in its creation, to hook you in so far you forget that speed was what you desired. The subject matter is classic Slayer of course, with demons and devils and all things Satan circling around a spiralling vortex of evil - but the song is still perfect in execution. As it winds down to a whimper 'Silent Scream' smacks you in the face like a ton of concrete, with one of the faster songs the band had ever created. It is just here to remind you that this is still the same band, but now they are in control. Araya's usually shouted and tortured vocals are restrained here, as they are throughout the album, and his best vocal performance reveals itself across the ten tracks. He would never again 'sing' Slayer songs so well, and the band was made less for it. Dave Lomardo's kick drums are again the star here, and only an expert drummer such as he knows that restraint is what makes his playing so good. He accentuates the songs instead of dominating them. 'Live Undead' is a brooding track, but really showcases that much like the previous album, the tight and punchy production of Rick Rubin is a key part of the puzzle. The frantic guitar solos of Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman blend and weave with perfect clarity, but never sound out of place or overlayed - instead being a part of the overall composition. 'Behind The Crooked Cross' sees Araya take one step further into actually singing, and the song overall is a very different animal to any Slayer have attempted before - or since for that matter. In fact as the album unfurls like a snake it could be said that this is Slayer at their most experimental, trying different tempos and guitar styles. Nothing really fails, and mid-paced tracks like the magnificent 'Mandatory Suicide' or the more typical Slayer number 'Ghosts Of War' were always destined to become crowd favourites. They both have great sing-along choruses that are totally irresistible. 'Read Between The Lies' slows the pace and again, and doesn't really add anything new. It is arguably the least important track on the album, but is far from being a bad song. 'Cleanse The Soul' another speedy track that could easily have been at home on Reign In Blood is like a kick to the face, but does feel like a track that later Slayer could have written on auto-pilot. At this point in their career though, it did still sound fresh and the album is certainly better for it. The penultimate track on the album was no doubt added to pad the run-time, and is a cover of Judas Priest's 'Dissident Aggressor'. It must be said though that it is brilliantly performed, and dare it be uttered, better than the original - making the whole tune more dark and muscular than the falsetto vocals of Rob Halford ever did. The album wraps up one of the slowest but downright dark songs the band ever committed to tape. A ballad in all respects, well as much of a ballad as Slayer could ever conjure from the darkness of their minds, the song weaves and turns though a dark tale of a soul taking the hand of the devil and being granted all their darkest desires. It is a modern day version of Black Sabbath's 'N.I.B.', but the melody is so haunting it is almost unnerving. One has to wonder how dark Slayer could have made a simple ballad if it wasn't for their need to always introduce the heavy guitars. The album ends with one final punch to the gut and it is all over, leaving nothing but silence. At the time of its release the album did get mixed reviews, but mainly because reviewers didn't take the time to let it soak in before committing thoughts to pen and paper. In fact, even today it stands out as something of an anomaly in Slayer's catalogue, but not in a bad way. It shows incredible growth in the band's abilities to craft songs beyond nothing but speed, with flourishes and passages that take the album to levels other bands could only dream of. It is an album that requires time and many listens to really reveal everything it has on offer. Many of the new tricks the band used here were repeated on future albums, but never to this effect again - and 1990's Seasons In The Abyss mostly fell back on speed to carry it. Regardless of initial thoughts the album is certainly seen as classic today, both from the band and for heavy metal in general. They don't make them like this anymore.