THROWBACK MONDAY - Slayer "Reign In Blood"

Ok, so I know Halloween has passed, but it's like Day of the Dead or something, and it might even still be Halloween in California because they have a different time zone. So in honor of the season of Samhain, I thought it only appropriate to highlight the first album that made me ever feel like I was in the presence of evil: Slayer's "Reign in Blood." Released a whopping 24 years ago, "Reign in Blood" was the most brutal 28 minutes and 56 seconds anyone had ever heard. In a field of thrash records containing songs that could stretch into the double digits, Slayer's short punk-influenced tracks stood out from the pack immediately. With lyrics focusing on the Holocaust, serial killers, vengeful demons and other nefarious topics the album was darker and felt much more dangerous than fellow thrashers Megadeth and Mettalica's work. If the lyrical content wasn't enough, the razor sharp guitar assaults of Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, the precise pummeling of drummer Dave Lombardo, and equally melodic and demonic vocals of Tom Araya all ensured that "Reign" was the heaviest, scariest record ever.

Over the years "Reign" has only grown in stature, recently being named Decibel Magazine's number 1 "Hall of Fame" record. Most agree it is the greatest heavy metal album of all time, but I would go further and declare it one of the best albums of all time of any genre. Just listening to it today, I was still blown away after all of these years at the sudden stop on a dime dynamics and mind boggling shifts in tempo and rhythm. It's like if John Coltrane played metal - it's that good. This is "A Love Supreme" of heavy music, except that it is an ode to atheism (the Satanic allusions grew out of a rebellion against religion, rather than a belief in a dark lord) instead of belief. Even to the ears of a devotee of such dark luminaries as Sunn 0))), Godflesh and a litany of black metal artists, "Reign" still sounds as brilliant, brutal and evil today as it did 24 years ago, so for this Halloween/Day of the Dead let's have some devil horns up for Fucking Slayer!!!

"Raining Blood"


"Alter of Sacrefice"


"Angel of Death" live 1986!