SLAYER — Haunting the Chapel (review)

SLAYER — Haunting the Chapel album cover EP · 1984 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
voila_la_scorie
Slayer are considered one of the Big Four thrash metal bands that helped establish the sub-genre, with bands like Exodus (possibly the oldest) and Testament also following close behind. But of the Big Four, two were typical Bay Area thrashers and one was a rare East Coast-bred thrash pack. Only Slayer sang about Satan and Hell, and no one seemed to have Tom Araya’s quake-inducing, biker barks. Though known for giving off the occasional tympanic membrane puncturing scream, Araya was less about shouting into the mic as he was about trying to make you fear the demon hordes as they charged at you from the furious sounds of Slayer’s explosive music. Listening to “Haunting the Chapel” now, I feel Slayer has less in common with Metallica, Anthrax, and Megadeth and fit in more at a dinner party for Kreator, Venom, Bathory, and Possessed.

This was my introduction to Slayer back in 1984 and thanks to my enjoyment of this album I was quick to pick up “Hell Awaits” (though strangely I never got “Show No Mercy”). The three songs on this EP have an intensity and fury to shake down pillars and stone walls. The band know that they want to be fast but still deliver a structured approach betraying their NWoBHM influences. On the re-issue, the additional track “Aggressive Perfector” sounds more like a band trying to outpace a late-seventies Judas Priest speed-burner with guitar solos loosely based on classic JP and Araya wailing a high Halford-ish note at the end.

This is quite an excellent little package of songs. Though the production quality lags behind the intensity of the music, the ambition to blow open the Gates of Hell is very clear as Hades.
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voila_la_scorie wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Sure. I have Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, and Seasons in the Abyss but somehow Haunting the Chapel still impresses me the most. Of course there were only three songs to start with so it's not like there's much room to blow it with a mediocre song.
UMUR wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Haunting the Chapel is my favorite early Slayer release along with Live Undead. I was never a big fan of neither Show No Mercy nor Hell Awaits. Not that they are bad quality releases in any way, but I just prefer Slayer from "Reign in Blood" onwards.
voila_la_scorie wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Unitron, once I hear Hell Awaits again I might agree with you on that favourite Slayer release remark.
Unitron wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Good review, I love this EP. You know, it might actually be my favorite Slayer release, all of the songs rain down with killer riffs.

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