Intended for release on June 6 2006, (6/6/6) Slayer's tenth album was in fact delayed until August, and featured the return of Dave Lombardo on the drumseat. Once again Slayer were in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. First, the cover of the new album depicted a mutilated Jesus who looked stoned, floating in a sea of blood. Yeah, Walmart are gonna stock
that, guys! Secondly, the song “Jihad” on the album looks at 9/11 --- surely still too raw and fresh in the minds of Americans a mere five years later? ---
from the viewpoint of the terrorists, and thirdly, after invoking a National Slayer Day, the band were seen to have encouraged fans to desecrate places of worship by scrawling their logo and Slayer-related phrases on churches, mosques and synagogues.
Yeah, after five years, Slayer were back! The media must love them. Slow news day? Have Slayer released a new album? They have? Get a reporter over there!
The Christ illusion --- Slayer --- 2006 (American)
Even more of a Kerry King enterprise than the previous album, “The Christ illusion” has him in sole control of seven of the ten tracks, though not at all involved in the other three or the two bonus tracks. Perhaps surprisingly, one of those he didn't write is the highly controversial “Jihad”, whose inclusion on the album not only caused a total recall (hah!) of the album in India, but led to all stocks of it being destroyed. Don't play Mumbai, guys! There is however plenty of controversy to go around on this album, and of course King is involved in much of it.
“Flesh storm” is yet another war song and begins almost as if there are keyboards --- of course there aren't --- then piles into another necksnappingly fast song to open the album, with a blasting solo from King, “Catalyst” keeps the speed going without a pause, then it's time to justify the title of the album with some more Jesus-bashing, and “Skeleton Christ” does just that. Now, I hold sacred anyone's right to think what they like, worship or not worship what they want, and I understand Slayer are atheists. They've said that from the start, made it clear with an upfront Satanic image, even if that's all it is, an image. But the message is now beginning to wear thin. Yes, we know you hate God --- don't believe He exists --- hate Christianity and the Church and the Pope. We get all that. Do you have to keep hammering it into us, guys? Or have you just no other ideas and have to keep rehashing the same ones over and over, getting angrier and angrier and, let's be honest, more frustrated with each album?
That said, it's a good speed rocker with a lot of energy and anger, and great guitar as always, but the subject matter is beginning to induce yawns. “Eyes of the insane” does at least look at a different aspect of the war, the problem of PTSD, as a soldier returning from perhaps Iraq sees
”Tortured spirits/ Will not let me rest/ These thoughts of mutilated faces/ Completely possessed”. With an understated opening, quite low-key for Slayer the tempo snaps to full speed and the song careers along on again an almost impossible-to-follow vocal delivery from Araya. Powerful certainly; I just wonder if some of the ideas in these lyrics are being lost in the mix? Do the fans who headbang and mosh to their songs know what Slayer are singing? Meh, they probably do, or don't care.
Now we come to the one that caused most of the controversy and really upset India. Wonder how it would have sold in Saudi Arabia? “Jihad”, as mentioned, envisages the September 11 attacks from the other side, from Al Quadea's point of view, as Tom rants
”Twins in the end/ Begin and let the brothers fall!” It's another fast, angry song and again you'd wonder that anyone could even make out the lyrics (but then that's what liner notes are for, aren't they? And lyric websites) that caused so much offence. Nobody likes to hear the other side of the story, for their enemies to be seen as other than ravening demons. Hey, the truth hurts, America, and Slayer love to cause pain, don'tcha know that by now?
The problem I have with “Jihad” is that it's a cartoon. It's obviously written for shock value and shock value alone. Tom Arya even said he expected an American backlash, and was seemingly nonplussed and surprised when none materialised. Ironically, the only ones who got upset were the muslims, while the Christians were more worried about protecting the honour of their god. But everything that's written in the lyric seems to be taken from any documentary on National Geographic or from muslim extremist websites. There's no new insight here, and Slayer are definitely not identifying with Al Quadea. Unlike Steve Earle when he wrote “John Walker's Blues”, they're not trying to get inside the heads of the terrorists and see what made them tick. They're just expressing a version of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. They hate the US Government and so do Al Quadea, so, you know,
fuck yeah!
The trouble is, the thing they fail to (or don't care to) realise is that muslims and Christians worship basically the same god, albeit under different criteria. So putting in a line like
”Fuck your god!/ Erase His name!” is nonsense: it's the same god, whether you call Him God or Allah. So writing something for shock value alone renders it somewhat pointless, and devalues your message, if indeed there is any there. Still, it has to be said it was incredibly insensitive to write this, given that America was still recovering from the effects of the attacks. What if some of their fans had people killed or hurt on 9/11? What sort of an example is that to set? Not that Slayer care about that of course, but maybe they should have given it some consideration before pouring paraffin on the fire and then dancing about like lunatic devils.
The other issue I have with this song is its authenticity. One of the lines reads
”Lady kneeling on the ground” but Islamist terrorists would never use that word. They'd say something like “western whore” or “mother of infidels”. So it's not authentic. Badly researched. And if it's not authentic it's not believable. And if it's not believable it's not worth worrying about.
“Consfearacy” (see what they did there?) spits hatred at the US Government, which again is not news: Slayer hate the men in power. It's another breakneck-paced song, and powers right into “Catatonic”, dark and murky with the brooding hatred of a killer, then we keep on this theme with “Black serenade”, a more marching style song with yet more images of necrophilia and torture ---
”Watching as I fuck your corpse” --- subtle guys, subtle!
At least you can hear the vocals this time. Another hard sludge cruncher that develops into a speed freak is “Cult”, the one track on that EP I decided not to review, and the “taster” for the album, released two months prior. Again we have the expected, as Slayer rage against religion, denying the very existence of Jesus ---
”There is no fucking Jesus Christ/ There never was a sacrifice/ No man nailed to a crucifix” but this time they do at least link religion with war and throw in a dig at American foreign policy ---
”The war on terror just drags along” but it's the same old song. We also get the title of the album in this song:
”Revelation, revolution” Tom spits.
”I see through your Christ illusion!”
Good for you, Tom. Good for you.
“Supremist” seems to be to be a misnomer, or maybe it's intentional, but I think the word is “Supremacist”. You know what to expect, and you won't be disappointed. I don't know how many times in Slayer songs the Antichrist has laid waste to the Earth, but we've certainly watched Armageddon through their eyes a few times! Seen one holocaust, y'know, seen them all. That's it for the album, but there's a bonus track if you're interested, and have the stamina. “Final six” opens on atmospheric guitar which I don't expect to last, then heads into a deep Sabbath riff, grinding and groaning all over the place, then it speeds up and we're once again witnessing the Apocalypse as Slayer exult in the death of priests and the destruction of the Earth. Not exactly tree-huggers, then.
TRACKLISTING
1. Flesh storm
2. Catalyst
3. Skeleton Christ
4. Eyes of the insane
5. Jihad
6. Consfearacy
7. Catatonic
8. Black serenade
9. Cult
10. Supremist
11. Final six
Another pretty great Slayer album, I'll readily admit, but are they trying too hard now? It's almost as if they want people to hate them, want to alienate people, want to court controversy. That's always been their style of course but the problem is that when you push that too far people get over it and start to ignore you. If Slayer keep this up I fear they may become a parody of themselves, and there's going to be nothing more sad than seeing the likes of Weird Al Yankovich do something like “Reign in mud” on one of his next albums. Slayer need, in my opinion, to take a hold of themselves, look in that mirror and ask themselves if they're still of an age to be doing this kind of
shit? That was fine when they were in their twenties, angry young men. But there's nothing sadder than a bunch of angry
old men trying to keep the fire and passion going and failing miserably.
I'm not for a moment suggesting Slayer should record with an orchestra, or do an acoustic album, or anything of that nature. But they've been angry now for thirty years: isn't their anger spent? Isn't it now time to take stock, to chill out a little and enjoy life instead of hating it? Not that they will of course: they'll continue down the same old road they've gone for the last three decades. And a whole new army of youngsters are no doubt discovering this brutal, angry band for the first time, so they'll never be short of fans. But their original fans must be as old as they are now. Don't they owe it to them to give them a rest? Don't they owe it to themselves?
Again, I make the point: what do I know?