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Slayer - Reign In Blood review




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Reviewer:
10

2468 users:
9.09
Band: Slayer
Album: Reign In Blood
Release date: October 1986


01. Angel Of Death
02. Piece By Piece
03. Necrophobic
04. Altar Of Sacrifice
05. Jesus Saves
06. Criminally Insane
07. Reborn
08. Epidemic
09. Postmortem
10. Raining Blood
11. Aggressive Perfector [1998 re-release bonus]
12. Criminally Insane [remix version] [1998 re-release bonus]

The greatest metal record of all time. This topic is often debated upon in the Metal Kingdom and to most there is no definite answer. A worthy contender for this title is Slayer's 1986 masterpiece, Reign In Blood. Few albums withstand the test of time as well and even fewer have had such a huge impact on the metal world as this one.

The opening track is the legendary 'Angel of Death' and starts things off with a scream. Tom Araya's voice is at it venomous peak having shed the "I have no testicles" sound of their earlier releases. He shouts gruesome lyrics, song after song with such serial killer conviction it sends chills down your spine upon first listening. The speed in which the vocals are delivered makes for a fun along with the lyric book, that is of course until you learn all the songs word for word.

Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman have crafted some of the most brutal guitar riffs in history. These riffs reach super-sonic speeds while never compromising their heaviness. King and Hanneman may not be the most technically dazzling players in the world, but their solos in Reign In Blood are nothing short of awesome. In 'Necrophobic', 'Jesus Saves', and 'Raining Blood' you would swear you were hearing animals being slaughtered in front of you and can practically feel King's fingers stabbing your skull each time he hits the fret board, not typical metal solos by any means.

The key element to Slayer has always been Dave Lombardo's stellar drum work. His amazing drum fills had already been demonstrated in the past ['Chemical Warfare'] but Reign In Blood shows that Lombardo is the double bass pedal master! Look no further than his spectacular drum solo at the end of 'Angel of Death' as proof. His uncanny ability to garner such pummeling momentum, and then slow down and create such a groove on the cymbals [the breakdown of 'Altar of Sacrifice' and intro of 'Criminally Insane'] is remarkable. Not to mention he is FAST AS HELL......I pity his snare.

With a running time of 28 minutes, listening to Reign In Blood is like a quick kick in the nuts and is guaranteed to knock the wind out of you. While it may not be the greatest metal record of all time, it is without a doubt the greatest Thrash record. Reign In Blood's content and brutality shocked the world in 1986 and is the basis for what would become Death Metal. ALL bands in extreme music today owe something to Slayer and this album.

Written by Edible Autopsy | 24.09.2003




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.

Guest review by
Stuart
Rating:
9.2
Where does one begin reviewing an album with as much hype and influence as this? An album branded as revolutionary and with such a fanatical following. It is always going to be a difficult task, so I ask that for a moment we forget the hype surrounding this album and we look at the musical value it holds.

Reign in Blood was in many ways a brave new world for Slayer. It had a completely different sound to anything before it; they abandoned all the pretentiousness of the long, drawn out, complex song structures they had experimented with on Haunting the Chapel and Hell Awaits. In this, it was far more accessible, yet they didn't sacrifice any of their integrity or alienate any of their core fan base. Their intention was quite clear, that this was to be the fastest, heaviest, angriest music ever to be unleashed on human ears.

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published 04.04.2008 | Comments (18)

Guest review by
Mindheist
Rating:
4.5
For more than a decade, Slayer has proudly fused thrash and speed metal into loud, offering doomish dirges, voraciously boisterous and blasphemous songs groaning over lyrics that depict madness, suicide and murder in excess, a style which should definetly suit a ten-year-old metalhead. On October 7, 1986, Slayer released what was to become their masterpiece, "Reign In Blood". An album discribed by Kerrang! Magazine as "the heaviest album of all time" and peaked at number 22 on Metal Storm's "top 100 albums of all time" survey, a position that only "the crème de la crème" bands could get. Believe me, reviewing a very popular album from a very popular band isn't easy at all, but sometimes justice must be done.

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published 14.08.2008 | Comments (207)


Comments

Comments: 66   Visited by: 280 users
15.06.2006 - 18:54
Carnage

Great album and all, like always they are plain insane and fukin brutal in opinion, but is it just me or do some of the songs trigger something in your head and make u wanna go insane and start destroying and brutaly rip apart anyone or anything near you?... specially Raining blood
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because some people make better corpses than others...
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30.06.2006 - 02:16
nick35
Account deleted
this album is cool but its way too overrated. if u want to hear slayer at their finest listen to south of heaven or seasons in the abyss.
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11.07.2006 - 04:27
Rating: 8
Talvi

Most overrated album of all time. Only two great songs, first and last, and then filler. It's, still, not bad
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11.07.2006 - 06:55
Insineratehymn
Account deleted
I definitely agree that this is one of the greatest albums ever spawned. I don't know what makes me love this album so much. There is something about the songs which makes you released your deepest carnal instincts and want to go into a berserk rage. Sure, some may think that this album is overrated, but they cannot deny that this album innovated the genre of death metal, which is quite an amazing feat by any band. Well, that's enough preaching from me for today.
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11.07.2006 - 07:56
Rating: 10
Dangerboner
Lactation Cnslt
This is without a doubt the best Slayer album and probably the best thrash album of all time. I don't understand how people can think that it's overrated.
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13.07.2006 - 03:09
Rating: 10
Xtreme Jax
Psycroptipath
Quote:
With a running time of 28 minutes, listening to Reign In Blood is like a quick kick in the nuts and is guaranteed to knock the wind out of you.

Haha damn straight!! The first time i heard it years back i felt the same, i was in owe with how fast and crazy it was. Fast riffing and solos from Jeff and Kerry, the machine like drunning from Dave, and the agressive vocals by Tom - not to mention his high pitched shrieks, are top stuff. One of the best albums of all-time in my books.
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Hellcunt Smurf
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15.07.2006 - 06:22
Hybrid_Killer
Account deleted
Fantastic, album....thrash just does not get better than this.


And all the songs rule....no filler at all.
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22.07.2006 - 03:42
vhaldemar

THIS ALBUM IS MARVELOUS!!:wall:
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28.07.2006 - 06:11
Pianoman
Account deleted
The best album of Slayer IMO.
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10.08.2006 - 23:00
DLMokoma
Account deleted
This is a hellova good album. Not the best though, but almost.
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15.08.2006 - 20:27
The Mu-Mu Thing.
Account deleted
It's a great album, surely one of the best on a thrash metal scene. Though it's subjective, I think there's actually no bad song on it. Even Slayer themselves said that they can't get better and faster than this.

And, excelent review!
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17.08.2006 - 23:28
Rating: 10
Passenger
Lost To Apathy
Best Thrash Metal album of all time...after Darkane's "Rusted Angel", my friends

Good review.
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You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it ~ Mean Streets
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18.08.2006 - 20:19
Rating: 10
Thrash666

ALL HAIL REIGN IN BLOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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LONG LIVE THASH!!!!!!!!!
R.I.P. "Dimebag" Darrell Abott
Drink a "blacktooth" for Dimebag
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02.09.2006 - 05:59
Rating: 6
Nèst

Overrated... As far as Metallica thrashy "...and justice for all", I'll never understand why people worship these all-mighty-br00tal albums by bands that do better things when they do something softer...

Back to my words... I agree with largos, just 2 cool songs... Just too overrated
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28.09.2006 - 06:51
TheSlaughter
Account deleted
Im gonna go against the crowd here and say that this album isnt that great. Although it was very influential (So was Zepplin, and I hate them), its also very repetitive, monotonous, the solos are ugly and the album is too short.

Angel of Death and Raining Blood are sweet songs... but the album just kinda collects dust on my rack.
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29.09.2006 - 02:04
Rating: 10
Dangerboner
Lactation Cnslt
Only two good songs? Altar of Sacrifice and Jesus Saves are amazing. Well, I like all of the songs, but those two are very overlooked.
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07.10.2006 - 03:51
PRIMAL FEAR
Account deleted
This album was definitely Slayer's peak, although Seasons in the Abyss was nearly as good in terms of the quality of the songs. Raining Blood was the best track overall imo, those drums just keep on pummeling in my head after listening to it, damn good stuff.
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08.11.2006 - 18:30
Spyroid
Rosetta Stoned
Quote:
"The greatest metal record of all time."
[...]
"While it may not be the greatest metal record of all time, it is without a doubt the greatest Thrash record."


Haha, what is your real opinion dude? xD

A bit overrated, but one of the best Slayer albums. Even though the musicians arent't at the top of the technique list the songs are great... no bad song, though it's mostly fillers xD I'd give it 8/10 or something, and I'm not a huge thrash fan.
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25.11.2006 - 04:08
Rating: 8
Talvi

Not the best metal album ever, nor thrash. For me, The Years of Decay from Overkill beats this easily.
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26.11.2006 - 15:34
Basso
Account deleted
Seasons in the abyss is my fav slayer album. But this one is a veeery tight second
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02.12.2006 - 19:25
Valentin B
Iconoclast
angel of death and raining blood are by far the best songs on this album, with their INSANELY FAST outros, and raining blood with that unmistakeable intro and interlude
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07.01.2007 - 18:40
DeadEternity
Account deleted
I don't how any fan of thrash could say a bad thing about this album. Although I agree many of the tracks are more filler songs, but they flow from one to the next really well, and they are all brutal, fast, relentless.
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29.01.2007 - 12:28
Rating: 10
lenesu

This album is not overrated, this is pure thrash.Why is it so good? because of the album structure. The album starts and end with two slow songs and between them is pure hell. The best part of the album is neither the crazy riffs that sometimes bother, nor the drumming that is fast but not as technical as the autor says (just listen to prog rock or metal and will see what is realy skillful drumming) but Toms vocal that sound realy angry.
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02.02.2007 - 06:09
slayer.reigns
Account deleted
This is my favorite album of the thrash metal scene with its insanely hard drum solos and riffs. i dont think this is an overrated album because of the fact that it defined death metal to be what it is today. It is the second most satanic album at the time (first was hell awaits, slayer's 1985 release)...its like a 30 minute world war, with hell as its dominion
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02.02.2007 - 06:09
slayer.reigns
Account deleted
This is my favorite album of the thrash metal scene with its insanely hard drum solos and riffs. i dont think this is an overrated album because of the fact that it defined death metal to be what it is today. It is the second most satanic album at the time (first was hell awaits, slayer's 1985 release)...its like a 30 minute world war, with hell as its purpose
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03.03.2007 - 02:08
ThrashMetal_Rulz
Account deleted
This is the best Slayer album by far, the best Thrash metal album of all time, every single song on there is amazing and if anything it's underated . How can people prefer Seasons or South of Heaven over this? they're hardly even Thrash with the vocals slowing down South and the weak riffs making sure Seasons doesn't sound heavy at all. I also don't recall many other albums that practically created music styles (R.I.B. made Death Metal what it is).
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23.06.2007 - 18:50
Rating: 10
Warman
Erotic Stains
I don't know what to say really, the best Slayer album and without doubt one of the best albums of all time. It's immortal. 9,9 is waaaaay to low for this album BTW!
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23.06.2007 - 21:21
Bitch Boy

This is Slayer's best album without any doubt, and one of my favorites. I think they reached the top of their sound and quality with this one.
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24.06.2007 - 14:51
Rating: 9
Sunioj

"Enter into the realm of...SATAN" dun - dundundun - dun dun - dun dun

Altar of Sacrific is my favorite slayer song ever.
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04.09.2007 - 12:17
Rating: 10
Tron

Written by Sunioj on 24.06.2007 at 14:51

"Enter into the realm of...SATAN" dun - dundundun - dun dun - dun dun

Altar of Sacrific is my favorite slayer song ever.


I agree with ya, I think it's the best song on this album, even better than Angel of Death or Raining Blood!
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