Thrash Talk #1 - Reign in Blood (Slayer)

It's time for your daily dose of hell when you listen to this one. It's not your ordinary thrash album, but It was so extreme, that everyone was shocked by it, causing radio stations to skip the album so the people don't have to hear the horror of this half hour hell show. However, I feel differently. I feel like this album is an extreme metal classic, and you should listen to this.

The album is very short, and that's how they liked it. That way, you won't get tired of a song, and the album will be very interesting to listen to. I recommend you listen to the whole album from start to finish, instead of just playing songs separately. That way, the album does feel like an entire one-song journey into the fiery pits of hell. It's kinda like a progressive rock song like Rush's 2112, but it's actually split into several songs instead of putting it into one song.

This is one of the few albums that don't really have any bad songs, but only a couple of songs are phenomenal. Angel of Death is a classic that everyone here probably remembers. It's that song that opens the album strongly, with it's memorable riffs played with extreme aggression and speed. The song was about Josef Mengele, who was a doctor at Aushwitz who experimented with prisoners during the Holocaust. You may be thinking, why did they pick Mengele and not someone else? I'll tell you why. It's because before this song was written, they would tour around in a car because they had no tour bus at the time. During rest stops, they would go around and buy some books, and Jeff Hanneman ended up picking a book about Mengele, which gave him the idea of writing the song. They don't just write random songs for the fun of it, but they actually get the inspiration and work through the songs.

Another great song that deserved the popularity it received was Raining Blood. However, if you listen to it, you must listen to Postmortem first, for the same reason why a fan would listen to the Hellion before Electric Eye from Judas Priest's 1982 album, Screaming for Vengeance. While all the songs in the album do sound very similar to each other, this song stands out from the others because of the storm that goes through during the song. By the way, the blood that rained down, was the blood of heaven's angels. Isn't that enough to scare most mainstream pop fans? Of course the album was controversial due to the lyrics and album cover, as if it were some horror movie involving hell. One thing I like about the extreme metal genre is how you can use it to scare people, who get shocked when they find out you listen to this stuff.

The Album overall does sound pretty good, and pretty much every single song is a killer track, instead of a filler piece of crap. Altar of Sacrifice and Reborn are some great thrash songs that I enjoy, and Criminally Insane is good because of it's buildup from being a slow song with soft drumming, to the intense thrashing and heaviness found in the song. All four members of the band proved themselves very talented in this album, and Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King proved that they were one of the greatest guitar and songwriting pairs in all of extreme metal. I personally think the album deserves the praise it receives, and rivals Seasons in the Abyss as the best work Slayer has ever put forth.

The Verdict: 96/100
Best Song: Raining Blood

That concludes episode 1 of Thrash Talk. The next album to be reviewed will be The Years of Decay by Overkill.

Comments

Great post MCS. - visitor (12/20/2016)

Good review. - FieryKnightFloyd (12/27/2016)