Although I did review this album before, a) it was in my “Classic Albums I have never heard” journal, and so was necessarily short and not at all in-depth, b) I was --- kind of --- forced/shamed into it so did not really take too much notice of it and c) it is and probably always will be recognised and agreed on as Slayer's peak, their “Dark side of the Moon”, “Number of the Beast” or “Ace of spades”, so I think in a month featuring them I would be very remiss indeed if I did not give it a proper, thoughtful and unbiased review.
So here it is.
Reign in blood --- Slayer --- 1986 (Def Jam)
For an album to be less than thirty minutes long and yet have ten tracks on it is unusual, and of course that means that there are no long songs here. Whereas up to now Slayer had written six minute or longer songs as a matter of course, most of “Reign in blood” clocks in around the 2-3 minute mark, with only two tracks reaching over four minutes. It's an intense album, played fast and hard and there's little or no room for intricate songwriting.
The longest song by a country mile, almost edging the five-minute mark, was also one of the reasons why the new label Slayer were with, Def Jam, was unable to have its distributor, Columbia, release the album. Coupled with the grisly artwork and other questionable lyrical themes (not questionable for an independent label like Metal Blade, who had released their first two albums, but definitely controversial for a larger label) this led to Geffen being the label that took responsibility for the release of what was to become one of the fundamental building blocks of the American Thrash Metal movement and go down as one of the classic Thrash albums of all time.
“Angel of death” concerns the Nazi scientist Josef Mengele, who plied his evil trade out of Auschwitz and was also portrayed in the movie “The boys from Brazil.” Noted for his awful experiments on humans, he was indeed dubbed the Angel of Death, and Slayer's song led to them being --- mistakenly --- characterised as Nazi sympathisers, a label they continue to deny.
The song? It opens with a stop-start guitar which quickly metamorphoses into a speed freak's wet dream and with a scream from Araya the opener is under way, belting along faster than a diving Stuka. I have to say, given the significance of lines like
”Infamous butcher”,
”Sickening ways to achieve the Holocaust” and
”Pathetic harmless victims” I find it hard to believe anyone could misinterpret Hanneman's lyrics as glorifying Nazism. This is clearly an angry accusation levelled at the evil doctor, a graphic depiction of the horrors the concentration camp inmates were forced to endure, but no homage to Mengele. Still, some people will I guess see and hear what they want to hear, or what they think they should. The vocal is harsh and accusatory, and you can actually feel the pain in Araya's voice as he spits the lines, particularly the no doubt unintentionally ironic
”Destroying without mercy/ To benefit the Aryan race.”
The final lines, too, are heavily critical of surely the Allies for failing to capture and bring this evil monster to trial, where he would have almost certainly been hanged. As Araya snarls
”Rancid Angel of death/ Flying free” he must surely be referring to the fact that, despite all the efforts to bring him to justice, Mengele eluded capture and only died aged sixty-nine in a swimming accident in Brazil. Hardly the fate that should befall such a callous and heartless mass-murderer. There's a lot of anger in this song, smouldering outrage and hatred, but stark sympathy and solidarity with the millions who died in the camps, particularly those who died under Mengele's horrific regime. As has been said before, never forget, or their deaths will have been in vain.
Already showing a marked shift away from the perhaps more fantasy/Satanic elements of their songwriting, the bulk of which had informed the first two albums, Slayer can now be seen to be concentrating on real issues, facing real problems and perhaps even trying to educate their --- mostly young --- audience to the reality of the world they live in. Of course, we still have songs like “Necrophobic” (sequel to “Necrophiliac”?) and “Criminally insane”, and they still give Christianity a bad time with “Jesus saves” and “Altar of sacrifice” but that's fair enough: one thing you do NOT do as you break the big time is alienate the fans who got you there, and Slayer's acolytes surely still wanted to hear songs about Satan and Hell. These were, after all, the subjects that got them noticed in the first place.
But you also don't want to “do a Venom” and get pigeonholed as a band who do nothing but write and sing about the occult, so Slayer were on this album making somewhat tentative steps to move away from the overall Black Metal feel of their first two albums (even though they were nothing musically like Black Metal at all; I mean in lyrical content only) and embrace other subjects, write about things other than the Lord of the Flies and black masses. Only, so far as I can see, the second song totally written by Kerry King, “Piece by piece” is a two-minute fretfest that literally barrels along, as indeed is “Necrophobic” (I guess, really, the antithesis of the track on “Hell awaits", as it's exactly the opposite of a necrophiliac, innit? Someone who has a pathological fear of dead bodies, as opposed to a freak who gets his rocks off getting down and dirty with them?), the shortest track on the album at only one minute and forty seconds. Hard to take it in, being so short; it's almost over before it's begun, and we're into “Altar of sacrifice”, which reverts to the tried and trusted Satanic themes and doesn't slow down for a second, something I feel may apply to this entire album.
There's a great chugging rhythm to this though, very Sabbath at their heaviest and fastest, and the poor old Saviour doesn't get a moment's rest, as they plough on into “Jesus saves” (but Shearer scores on the rebound! Sorry, old soccer joke!) which of course slags off Christians. Oddly, on Spotify this and the next track are labelled as “Explicit lyrics”, but I don't see anything wrong with this. Unless by attacking a religion Slayer are seen to be writing explicit lyrics? Well fu
ck that! I've heard much worse from rappers and Black Metal bands. Some great lines ---
”You place your trust in an invisible man” and
”You spend your life/ Just kissing ass” (Maybe that's the explicit part? Gimme strength if so!) --- and it's another blisterer, in fact one of the fastest and angriest on the album so far.
Starting off slowly, but inevitably speeding up, “Criminally insane” takes as its subject --- anyone? --- yeah, serial killers, while “Reborn” looks at the plight of a woman sentenced to burn as a witch who pledges to come back from the dead. Both these songs are sung so fast I wonder Araya can get the words out, but I guess that's his talent. Great guitar work of course from King and Hanneman, and an abrupt ending takes us to “Epidemic”, which seems to be another somewhat politically-motivated song, looking to highlight the plight of those in poor countries who can't pay for medication and perhaps postulating the idea that some diseases are created by man for use in biological warfare. Or something. Hell, I don't know: it's hard to concentrate on the music never mind read the lyric!
“Postmortem” is another Sabbath-style chugalong, certainly slower than the last few tracks, with a growled and snarled vocal that seems to blame mankind for his own eventual destruction. Again, as I say, or something. Gets much faster halfway as Lombardo gears up the kit and Hanneman and King join him in a speedfest, Araya adding his own thumping basslines. Then, with the sounds of rain, thunder, doomy drums and finally a screaming guitar we hit the title track, as such, and closer, “Raining blood.” I do like the way they've shown intelligence by using the word play on the phrase, so that it can mean either, or both. Not surprisingly, the song concerns Hell, and kind of nods back to their Satanic songs from the last two albums. Much tighter though, much harder and more aggressive. This is the new Slayer, and they're here to stay! A terrible beauty has been born, and you can hear the screams from one side of the planet to the next as the dark shadows lengthen and muted thunder rolls in the distance. They're coming...
TRACKLISTING
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
There are two bonus tracks, but again they're ones we know: “Aggressive protector” from “Haunting the chapel” and a remix of “Criminally insane”; not really worth going over again. What is worth repeating though is that this was the album that changed everything. Up to now, Heavy Metal bands had been loud, yes, fast yes, angry certainly, but other than punk bands the only one I can think of that measured up to what Slayer became would have to be Motorhead, and even then, they lacked the anger and pure unbridled energy that Slayer brought to the table. After this, with Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax all on the rise, and other bands waiting in the wings, the world of Thrash Metal would never be the same.
A new era was rising, a new kingdom coming, and over it all, reigning indeed in blood, would stride the mighty colossus we would come to know as Slayer.