Following on from their last album and having by now built u a massive following, Slayer decided it was time to pay tribute to the bands who had influenced them, and though this was originally intended to focus on their Heavy Metal idols such as Judas Priest, UFO and Iron Maiden (along with other, perhaps less expected influences such as The Doors), that idea was shelved and they decided instead to go with Punk Rock songs, covering such bands as The Stooges, Minor Threat and Verbal Abuse, as well as Dave Lombardo's previous band, Pap Smear. As a result, the songs are all very short, the only one over four minutes being the closer, which is an original Slayer song. Most of the others hit around the two to three minute mark, with a few struggling to last over one minute! As my dislike for Punk is well known, this could be the biggest test of my mettle as I wade through Slayer's catalogue, but I hope I'm up to it!
Undisputed attitude --- Slayer --- 1996 (American)
As I say, I know virtually nothing of the world of Punk, so I can't tell you if Slayer did a good job on the covers or not, but be that as it may, we get going with the first of three from Verbal Abuse, two of which follow hard on the heels of each other. “Disintegration/Free money” opens with a suitably discordant guitar and a scream from Tom, then as you would expect the song pounds along at near-ridiculous speed, and after one minute there's a little bass run from Tom which I assume marks the border between “Disintegration” and “Free money”, though I don't personally see any difference between the two. “Verbal abuse/Leeches” is next up, and again it's so fast I can't really listen to it or say anything about it, other than it's fast, angry and frenetic. And over quickly, piling from the first to the last with a good guitar riff before the speed somehow increases for “Leeches”. Um.
TSOL are the next to be paid homage, and no I don't know who they are, but the song(s) Slayer choose to cover, “Abolish government/Superficial love” is (are?) at least more listenable than the first two (or four, if you count each as two. Is this normal in punk? Are the songs so short that they have to group two together? Seems to happen a lot of the time. If you know, please enlighten me. On second thoughts, don't bother.) Again a nice bass bit from Araya and the guitar is loud and angry but well played. Two tracks from Pap Smear kick the speed back to to unbelievable again as “Can't stand you” is, well, just indecipherable for the first part, then gets a little more recognisable for the last thirty seconds with some fine axework from the boys, though it speeds up into a blur again at the end and takes us into the shortest track, one minute one second of “DDAMM” which apparently stands for “Drunk Drivers Against Mad Mothers” and which to me is just a mess, the second and thankfully last of the Pap Smear songs.
If any of these songs have a redeeming quality, for me it's that they're so short. Minor Threat's “Guilty of being white” laid Slayer open to accusations of being White Supremacists --- why, I don't know: they didn't write it! But it's not too bad and of the songs on this album so far it's about the best I've heard. Then we have the final Verbal Abuse song, “I hate you”, which actually is not at all bad. At least it runs at a human speed level and the guitar riff on it is pretty cool. I can also make out Tom's vocals, which is always good and helps towards the appreciation of any song. Great solo from Kerry too, the first I've really been able to pin down. But all too soon it's over and we're getting the second cover of a Minor Threat song.
I have to say, compared to “Guilty of being white” this is awful. Played again at hyperspeed and with screamed vocals, “Filler/I don't want to hear it” has at least a scorching solo in it, but at over two minutes it's actually too long, which is not something I thought I'd say about these songs. The first of two from DI doesn't help my aching head as Slayer blast their way through “Spiritual law”, whcih I'm worried to see runs for three whole minutes! At least it settles down a little in the middle, kind of gets a little doom metalish, but of course that doesn't last and it heads for the exit as fast as it came in. “Mr. Freeze” by Dr. Know is next, and compared to the speed of most of the tracks here it's positively laidback! Great riffs and thunderous drumming, with a vocal which again I can hear and make out.
Speeds up near the end of course and takes us into DRI's “Violent pacification”, which typifies everything I hate about Punk, with my admittedly very limited knowledge of the subgenre. Just sounds like noise and someone shouting with pretty much just the title as the only lyric. Well, I hear other words now, and the rhythm has settled a little, but we're halfway though the song now. Nice teamup between the rhythm section, then it all speeds right up again with Araya crowing the title in increasing fervour and speed till the song burns itself out at the end on the back of Kerry and Jeff's manic guitar work. The second DI song is “Richard hung himself”, the longest of the covers, and to be fair it's pretty good. Doesn't speed along like a hurtling comet, has good guitar and I can make out the vocal, which has more than just the title in it. Not bad at all.
That leaves just two tracks to go, one cover and the final one, which is Slayer's own song. For their last tribute they choose The Stooge's “I'm gonna be your god (I wanna be your dog)” and to be fair I can see how these guys had such an influence on metal bands, as this is really more metal than punk to me. Rocks along nicely without breaking the speed limit, decipherable vocals and a great, mesmeric guitar riff. Another one I don't hate. Leaving us with the closer, Slayer's own “Gemini”, which is easily the longest track at almost five minutes. After the frenetic pace of the last thirteen tracks, it's a relief to hear the guys slow everything down in a real doom metal groove that just stomps along with snarly guitar and hollow-sounding drums, a laconic, dark vocal from Tom and some fine backing vocals. I'd like to hear Slayer do more stuff like this, but somehow I don't think I'll get my wish. Still, it's a good and powerful ending to a pretty terrible album.
TRACKLISTING
1. Disintegration/Free money
2. Verbal abuse/Leeches
3. Abolish government/Superficial love
4. Can't stand you
5. Guilty of being white
6. DDAMM
7. I hate you
8. Filler/Don't want to hear it
9. Spiritual law
10. Mr. Freeze
11. Violent pacification
12. Richard hung himself
13. I'm gonna be your god (I wanna be your dog)
14. Gemini
Obviously, before someone gets up in arms, my comments have to be taken in the context of the fact that I don't like Punk. If this were an album of covers of hip-hop songs, or jazz songs (can you imagine?) I would probably hate it too. I'm sure Slayer did a great job on all the songs here, but this sort of music is not my cup of tea and so I guess in most ways I'm badly placed to be reviewing it, but this is one of Slayer's albums and I promised I would try to cover all their recorded studio output if I could, so didn't want to leave this out, even though my blood froze when I realised what it was.
But yeah, so far as I'm concerned, easily and far away the worst Slayer album I've listened to so far and the hardest thing I've had to get through since I suffered through Slipknot's “Iowa” last year.
(Note: this review was written before I was dragged through the living hell inhabited by Cryptopsy and their grindcore buddies, especially the Japanese ones...)