Reign in Blood by Slayer
Reign in Blood is the third studio album and the major label debut by the American thrash metal band Slayer. It was released on 7 October 1986 through Def Jam Recordings. The album was the band's first collaboration with record producer Rick Rubin, whose input helped the band's sound evolve. Reign in Blood was universally well received by both critics and fans, and was responsible for bringing Slayer to the attention of a mainstream metal audience. Kerrang! magazine described the record as "the heaviest album of all". Alongside Anthrax's Among the Living, Megadeth's Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? and Metallica's Master of Puppets, Reign in Blood helped define the sound of the emerging US thrash metal scene in the 1980s, and has remained influential subsequently. Reign in Blood's release was delayed because of concerns regarding its graphic artwork and lyrical subject matter. The opening track, "Angel of Death", which refers to Josef Mengele and describes acts, such as human experimentation, that Mengele committed at the Auschwitz concentration camp, provoked allegations of Nazism. However, the band stated numerous times they do not condone Nazism, and are merely interested in the subject. The album was Slayer's first to enter the Billboard 200; the release peaked at number 94, and was certified Gold on 20 November 1992.
Hailed as the greatest thrash record of all time, Slayer’s third album, 1986’s <i>Reign in Blood</i>, is a brutal lesson in economy. With 10 songs spread across just 29 minutes, the album is all killer, no filler. And as the band’s first record for Def Jam, it marks the beginning of a monumental three-album run with producer Rick Rubin, who encouraged the members of Slayer to trim the fat from their songs—and to go as hard and as fast as possible. Kicking off with vocalist Tom Araya’s blood-curdling scream, “Angel of Death” recounts the horrors perpetrated by Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele, who performed medical experiments on his victims at Auschwitz. Written by guitarist Jeff Hanneman, the lyrics were almost immediately misinterpreted by reactionaries who painted Slayer as neo-Nazis—despite the fact that Araya is from Chile, and drummer Dave Lombardo from Cuba. Even Def Jam’s distributor, Columbia Records, refused to be involved with the song, so Rubin had to wrangle a deal with Geffen to get <i>Reign in Blood</i> into the shops. “Angel of Death” isn’t even the most extreme song on the album. Two gruesome tales of dismemberment and decapitation, “Piece By Piece” and “Necrophobic” anticipate the gore-soaked death metal of Cannibal Corpse. “Altar of Sacrifice”, meanwhile, combines two of Slayer’s favourite early lyrical topics—Satan and murder—in a blur of high-velocity riffs and hellish solos. And “Jesus Saves” is an anti-Christian screed that whizzes by at breakneck speed. Guitarist Kerry King’s lyrics pull no punches: “You go to church, you kiss the cross/You will be saved at any cost/You have your own reality, Christianity/You spend your life just kissing ass.” Elsewhere on <i>Reign in Blood</i>, the two-minute ripper “Reborn” assumes the voice of a condemned witch vowing vengeance on her executioners. Opening with Lombardo’s blitz drum intro, “Epidemic” boasts galloping riffs and some of the most unhinged guitar solos on a record packed with unhinged guitar solos. And the serrated gem “Postmortem” moves at an almost stately pace compared to the rest of <i>Reign in Blood</i>, giving the listener time to catch their breath—barely—before the final proclamation. The closing track, “Raining Blood”, is one of Slayer’s most fearsome calling cards. Musically, the sinister opening riff is a call to arms for mosh pits worldwide. Lyrically, it tells of a banished soul in purgatory plotting—and exacting—revenge. It was famously (and bizarrely) covered by Tori Amos on her 2001 album, <i>Strange Little Girls</i>. It’s also the defining salvo on the album that made Slayer’s career.
