Slayer - Reign in Blood

Simply the best

What else can I say? Simply THE definitive Thrash album of all time. Reborn is the only track I consider less than 5 stars on this one. August 17, 2008

An album no metal fan should be without

I'm just shocked on how a lot of people prefer those sellouts Metallica to Slayer. There are no orchestras here, no Bob Seger covers, just 28 minutes of pure, classic thrash metal. Other than the epic "Angel of Death" and "Raining Blood" (5 and a little over 4 mins. respectively) every song here is short, fast, and right to the point, and with Tom Araya's rapid-fire vocals, that's the way they should be. Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman trade their guitar solos nicely, and Dave Lombardo's blistering double bass puts him in a league of his own. Although Araya's bass is barely noticeable, his high-pitched screams and vocals more than make up for it. I listen to this album constantly and never tire of it; you won't either. August 2, 2008

I could listen to this forever.

I think I have bought 4-5 copies of this CD because I have worn them out so much. This abum is just beyond brutal. I could listen to this forever. August 1, 2008

I guess I just don't get it...

Ok... my preferred genre of metal is mainly melodic death metal/gothic metal/fusion etc, etc, etc. But even then, with all the praise this album gets, I thought at the least I could see why this album gets so much praise. Honestly, I can't. I know you've probably already reached for the "no" button, but hear me out...

The album has some good tracks on it. I've always thought Angel of Death and Raining Blood were pretty cool songs (though far from the best I've heard). The rest of the album seems to be a big mess of interchangeable slop that can't even pass as songs. Jeff and Kerry are decent guitar players. The rest of the band is faceless. Dave Lombardo is ok, but nothing special. Tom Araya.. can't really say anything about him because I can't even hear the bass!! And the lyrics? Nothing more than "oh look at us we're so scary" garbage about killing people and Satan. Wow, pretty scary, guys. Now I see where Cannibal Corpse and Deicide got their inspiration from.

I don't actually think the album is "Bad," per say. But I just don't understand why it's so revered. And I fully promote individual opinions, but how can anyone say this is the best metal album ever?! Death's The Sound of Perseverance, Opeth's Morningrise, and plenty of others surpass it in both musical competence and songwriting overall.

I have yet to hear anyone say they actually enjoy Reign in Blood. It seems most people only like Slayer and this album because of their "br00tal" image and the fact that they never went mainstream like Metallica. I find it extremely hard to hear anyone say "Wow, what a good album!" And it's not just because this album doesn't have melodic hooks like I like in metal... I can usually see past that and enjoy it, or at least respect it. This album.... no. Metallica and Megadeth are far superior to Slayer, both lyrically and musically.

OVerall, not a bad album, but definitely NOT worth the praise it gets. For a much better metal album, I recommend Death's The Sound of Perseverance, which has great musicianship, deep lyrics, sophistication, and intelligence.

Now, let the flaming commence! July 18, 2008

Among the greatest albums ever recorded

Reign in Blood is start-to-finish thrash metal nirvana; you need to own it; and anyone who says a word against it is wrong. Unless they're just squeamish with a song about Josef Mengele that you have to read with moderate care to realize it's anti-Nazi, I guess I can understand that. Structurally, the album starts and ends with "Angel of Death" and "Raining Blood," which are between four and five minutes each. Those longer, rather more elaborate songs bookend eight vicious, hardcore-influenced middle tracks, all but one of which is under three minutes. I've read that the reason this album had such an impact was that it combined an extreme thrash metal sound with hardcore punk song structures, but I don't know the history anywhere near well enough to pass judgment on that claim. I do think that part of the reason the thing is so compulsively listenable is that most of it whips by so quickly that when it ends you're like what, it's over already? I have to listen to that again. Lyrically it's wall-to-wall evil killing of course. "Necrophobic" makes a nice contrast with "Necrophiliac" from their last album. "Altar of Sacrifice" could almost be describing some sort of modern art installation. "Jesus Saves" has one of their more defensible anti-Christian messages and is among their fastest songs. "Reborn" is about a witch who will come back from the dead to wreak vengeance on the priest who's burning her at the stake, so without compromising the evilness one iota this album actually has a sort of a feminist song on it! What other thrash album has that? Not only is "Raining Blood" a splendidly wicked song with a great riff, but on youtube you can see them play the song live while blood actually rains down on them during the song. How cool is that? Gods I love this album, why can't all metal be this awesome?

Song by song:

A1 Angel of Death ****
A2 Piece by Piece ***
A3 Necrophobic ***
A4 Altar of Sacrifice ***
A5 Jesus Saves ***
B1 Criminally Insane ***
B2 Reborn ****
B3 Epidemic ***
B4 Postmortem ***
B5 Raining Blood *** June 1, 2008

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