SLAYER — Divine Intervention (review)

SLAYER — Divine Intervention album cover

Album · 1994 · Thrash Metal

2/5 · 2011-07-12
The Angry Scotsman

Slayer being Slayer

Is the best way to sum up this album. After 2 intriguing releases, Slayer backslides with this one. Back to no frills, straightforward thrash. This is great for most fans, but not so much myself. It is, however, a wise and probably conscious move. By this point thrash was extinct, replaced by the alt metal scene. Slayer responds by going back to the glory days, giving a finger to the new wave instead of embracing it like Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax.

This is not a bad album at all, it is competent and solid thrash metal. Indeed, most fans of Slayer enjoy it and I understand why. Personally, it's just a little bland and uninspired. My biggest beef with it though is the production. Ironic since usually production doesn't mean much to me, but this album is one where the production kills. The guitars are very thin, they lack any punch. The drums have no power, (and the bass drums are weak thuds) and the vocals are just painful. They just sound bad, no other way to put it, bad.

This issue is not mine alone, as Kerry King, Tom Araya and Paul Bostaph have all voiced displeasure with the production with this album.

Very poor production, and the lackluster songwriting couldn't be helped by the entrance of Bostaph. His work with the more melodic and progressive thrash metal band Forbidden meant nothing here. In fact he worked on speed and endurance to sounds more like Dave Lombardo. The drumming is not very exciting but still a bit more than Dave's style.

It's not completely hopeless, I do like the song "Killing Fields" which is probably the best on the album. More rhythm then the rest of the album is just really awesome. I can even tolerate the trash sounding solos and horrid vocals. Some other good songs are "Sex. Murder. Art.", "Circle of Beliefs", "SS-3" and "213". The last song being Slayer's first love song, but not exactly as expected... its told from the eyes of murderer/necrophiliac/cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer.

A solid, straightforward thrash album that should please most fans of Slayer. I'm a bit underwhelmed by it's uninspired formula and really turned off by the terrible production. It's weak, and when not...it's painful. If this album was remastered I would enjoy it more.

Two Stars

more than 2 years ago
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The Angry Scotsman wrote:

more than 2 years ago

They are different for sure, just in my opinion still "general thrash" like Dave. It's much more interesting on Diabolus. Dave's my man but I've always had to give the nod to Paul. We'll see, I've been listening to this for years. I'd LOVE a remaster, it would jump to a 3 for sure.

UMUR wrote:

more than 2 years ago

The production used to turn me off completely too, but it´s grown on me through the years and now the ugly sound is just a part of the album. Regarding the drumming I think Bostaph sounds very different from Lombardo and his drumming style really gives Divine Intervention a unique sound compared to other Slayer releases. I prefer Lombardo, but again the drumming on this album has grown on me. I´m pretty sure my rating of tthis album will be 3.5 - 4 stars. I always re-listen to an album before writing a review regardless of how well I know the album, so maybe my opinion will change.