SLAYER — Reign in Blood (review)

SLAYER — Reign in Blood album cover Album · 1986 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
bonnek
Despite their shortcomings and limitations, Slayer totally owns the Thrash metal genre, if only for this 30 minutes slab of furious intensity.

Back in 1986 "Reign in Blood" redefined the limits of musical aggression by a couple of miles and even though many have pushed those limits even further in the last 25 years, this album hasn't lost one bit of its freshness and bite. Credits for this should at least partially go to the stunning production, one of the best in Metal ever, you can play this one as quiet or loud as you wish, it just blasts!

Kicking off with one of the most exciting minutes in the entire metal history, "Angel of Death" is Slayer's trademark piece, bringing an ultra-aggressive version of Judas Priest at their most abrasive moments such as on "Dissident Aggressor", a song Slayer would duly cover on their next album. Just like its opening track, the remainder of the album continues shifting tempos and matching technicality and speed with coarse vocals.

There's not much that deviates from the formula so to speak, but in fact, I believe that's one of the album's strengths. With the intensity and quality never dropping for a single second, this album pretty much feels like one continuous 29 minute piece, despite being split into 10 separate tracks.

Slayer would deliver one more masterpiece before starting to disappoint me with repeating themselves too much on consecutive albums. But before they became a fan's band, Slayer was the most exciting thing around.
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