Slayer - Reign In Blood(1986)

Track Listing:

1. Angel of death
2. Piece by piece
3. Necrophobic
4. Altar of sacrifice
5. Jesus saves
6. Criminally insane
7. Reborn
8. Epidemic
9. Postmortem
10. Raining blood

Lineup:

• Tom Araya
• Kerry King
• Jeff Hanneman
• Dave Lombardo

1986 will be the year greatly remembered in the annals of metal history for giving us great albums like IRON MAIDEN'S 'SOMEWHERE IN TIME', METALLICA'S 'MASTER OF PUPPETS' , JUDAS PRIEST'S 'TURBO', and host of other great bands. But all these releases seem pale in comparison to, what can be called as extreme metals defining moment with the release of Slayers "reign in blood".
before this album, slayer were a band no one took seriously, with their outrageous satanic imagery, actually generating few laughs. but once the world got to listen to the opening masterpiece "Angel of death", Slayer suddenly became the most serious band on the planet.
this album was released 22 years ago & it still sounds as if it was made this year. thats due to the magic of producer Rick ruben who really turned the fortunes of slayer. not that they became millionaires, but they released the most aggressive & brutal metal album of not only that year, perhaps of all time.
'postmortem', 'piece by piece', 'jesus saves', 'criminally insane' are utterly brutal, with Dave lombardo showing no mercy on the drums. Air drumming became very popular thanks to him. King & Hanneman shred the guitar to bits with their fast, but totally un melodic style of solos and riffs straight from the depths of hell, Araya with his ferocious screams, and all songs under 3 minutes(except angel) really pushed the bar so high, that every so called brutal, fast, ultra heavy albums released by countless thrash metal bands, in these 2 decades since its release, seemed pale in comparison.
not a single bad or average song here. the final 'raining blood' is one of the best songs they still play live.

my rating
10/10

review by Pritham 'Metal farmer' D'Souza