Slayer

Essential Albums

  • Seasons In the Abyss
    Seasons In the Abyss
    Seasons In the Abyss

    1990

  • South of Heaven
    South of Heaven
    South of Heaven

    After breaking the thrash speed barrier with 1986’s Reign in Blood, Slayer had no choice but to slow its roll on South of Heaven. Released in 1988, the album may not have given listeners whiplash, but it’s far more sinister than anything the band recorded prior. Written largely by guitarist Jeff Hanneman, South of Heaven is the only Slayer album on which the band deliberately did something different. As they’ve said in interviews, they knew they couldn’t top Reign in Blood for sheer speed and ferocity. They made up for it with atmospheric malevolence. The title track sets the menacing tone with an evil opening riff before the inevitable plunge into hell—the earthly one. Vocalist Tom Araya describes the descent of mankind (“Chaos rampant, an age of distrust”) in the pre-chorus, but delivers the forgone conclusion in the opening verse: “Before you see the light, you must die!” Wipe away the vocals, and the song is downright cinematic. “South of Heaven” would’ve been a killer soundtrack to Child’s Play, Pumpkinhead, Monkey Shines—or any of the other horror flicks that hit the big screen that year. Drummer Dave Lombardo’s dizzying drums ride high in the mix here, but in no way obscure the sheer unholiness of the guitars. Lyrically, Slayer revisits the horrors of war on “Behind the Crooked Cross,” “Ghosts of War,” and “Mandatory Suicide,” the latter of which also features one of the album’s most diabolical riffs. “Read Between the Lies” continues the band’s anti-religious crusade, while a ripping cover of Judas Priest’s “Dissident Aggressor” pays tribute to guitarist Kerry King’s favorite band. And “Spill the Blood,” the slowest song on the album, spins a tale of demonic possession with Slayer’s first recorded instance of non-distorted guitars. It’s the dawn of their slow-and-sinister era, one that would continue on 1990’s Seasons in the Abyss.

  • Reign In Blood
    Reign In Blood
    Reign In Blood

    Hailed as the greatest thrash record of all time, Slayer’s third album, 1986’s Reign in Blood, is a brutal lesson in economy. With 10 songs spread across just 29 minutes, the album is all killer, no filler. And as the band’s first record for Def Jam, it marks the beginning of a monumental three-album run with producer Rick Rubin, who encouraged the members of Slayer to trim the fat from their songs—and to go as hard and as fast as possible. Kicking off with vocalist Tom Araya’s blood-curdling scream, “Angel of Death” recounts the horrors perpetrated by Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, who performed medical experiments on his victims at Auschwitz. Written by guitarist Jeff Hanneman, the lyrics were almost immediately misinterpreted by reactionaries who painted Slayer as neo-Nazis—despite the fact that Araya is from Chile, and drummer Dave Lombardo from Cuba. Even Def Jam’s distributor, Columbia Records, refused to be involved with the song, so Rubin had to wrangle a deal with Geffen to get Reign in Blood into the shops. “Angel of Death” isn’t even the most extreme song on the album. Two gruesome tales of dismemberment and decapitation, “Piece By Piece” and “Necrophobic” anticipate the gore-soaked death metal of Cannibal Corpse. “Altar of Sacrifice,” meanwhile, combines two of Slayer’s favorite early lyrical topics—Satan and murder—in a blur of high-velocity riffs and hellish solos. And “Jesus Saves” is an anti-Christian screed that whizzes by at breakneck speed. Guitarist Kerry King’s lyrics pull no punches: “You go to church, you kiss the cross/You will be saved at any cost/You have your own reality, Christianity/You spend your life just kissing ass.” Elsewhere on Reign in Blood, the two-minute ripper “Reborn” assumes the voice of a condemned witch vowing vengeance on her executioners. Opening with Lombardo’s blitz drum intro, “Epidemic” boasts galloping riffs and some of the most unhinged guitar solos on a record packed with unhinged guitar solos. And the serrated gem “Postmortem” moves at an almost stately pace compared to the rest of Reign in Blood, giving the listener time to catch their breath—barely—before the final proclamation. The closing track, “Raining Blood,” is one of Slayer’s most fearsome calling cards. Musically, the sinister opening riff is a call to arms for mosh pits worldwide. Lyrically, it tells of a banished soul in purgatory plotting—and exacting—revenge. It was famously (and bizarrely) covered by Tori Amos on her 2001 album, Strange Little Girls. It’s also the defining salvo on the album that made Slayer’s career.

  • Hell Awaits
    Hell Awaits
    Hell Awaits

    Hell Awaits is a huge leap forward from Slayer’s debut album, Show No Mercy. It's fully immersed in the band’s signature style of hellish thrash. The opening song begins as a descent into Hades: deranged guitar fades in as the listener is greeted with a backwards recording of a demonic voice repeating the phrase “join us.” Like a locomotive picking up steam, “Hell Awaits” starts out as a steady punching riff before exploding into a torrent of bliztkrieg guitar. Brian Slagel’s production style is deeper and sludgier than Show No Mercy. “At Dawn They Sleep” and “Praise of Death” shift between chugging rhythms and breakneck assaults, while the punishing “Crypts of Eternity” culminates in a torrent of guitar and a blood-curdling scream from Tom Araya. The album goes out as it came in. “Hardening of the Arteries” fades out on the tribal pounding of Dave Lombardo’s drums, as the guitar writhes and claws like a body submerged in lava. For a moment it feels like the listener is being pulled back from a scene of carnage — or else being completed overtaken by the band’s violent onslaught.

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About Slayer

Boasting curdled vocals, apocalyptic riffs, and an unrelenting sense of doom, Slayer spent four decades as one of thrash metal’s premier bands. Vocalist/bassist Tom Araya, guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, and drummer Dave Lombardo came together in Huntington Park, CA, in 1981, taking inspiration from metal pioneers and the local punk scene while drawing on Satanism for lyrical imagery. Slayer’s 1983 debut, Show No Mercy, was a watershed moment in thrash, setting the stage for the genre of death metal. Live Undead then introduced their intense live show to the world, and its follow-up, Hell Awaits, expanded on the band’s fundamentals, with sprawling arrangements and road-honed musicianship. Their next album, Reign In Blood, was a breakthrough; produced by Def Jam guru Rick Rubin and stuffed with gruesome tracks like the lyrically controversial “Angel of Death,” it catapulted Slayer to the forefront of the thrash scene and placed them solidly in thrash’s Big Four alongside Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax. Subsequent LPs South of Heaven (1988), Seasons In the Abyss (1990), and Divine Intervention (1994) capture Slayer at their fast and loud peak, blending Araya’s bleak caterwauls with mind-bending solos and punishing rhythms. Slayer paid tribute to their punk roots with the 1996 covers album Undisputed Attitude; in the 2000s, they probed issues such as envy and self-control on God Hates Us All and Christ Illusion. Hanneman passed away in 2013, and two years later the band released Repentless, their final album and only recording without the guitarist. After a farewell tour, Slayer disbanded in 2019, leaving a legacy of bludgeoning riffs, pummeling drums, and a vision of metal that took its darkest elements to the extreme.

ORIGIN
Huntington Park, CA, United States
FORMED
1981
GENRE
Metal

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