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Technically, Haunting the Chapel and Show No Mercy are the first Slayer releases I listened to, but both are nowhere near as significant as Reign to me.

So much has already been said about this album, but I wanted to take a moment to discuss a few of my favorites. Once “Angel of Death” begins, Slayer crushes, no, eviscerates, most thrash bands’ contribution to the genre with a few seconds of rapid-fire guitars, and a piercing scream from Tom Araya. The guitars alone are enough to take the virginity from most listeners, but the scream from Araya seals the deal. Truly, I could talk all day about the guitar tone, but just listen to D.R.I. (a crossover thrash band from three years prior)















and then listen to "Angel of Death."




The guitars are heavier, and the instrumentation is far more technical, by like several orders of magnitude. Truly, this is where Slayer left punk rock in the dust, and journeyed to the depths of thrash metal, paving the way for extreme metal.

"Angel of Death" also shows off the exquisite production. Dave Lombardo is crystal clear, and the vibrato-filled solos from King and Hanneman are what evil sounds like. The first minute is heavy, but when the song slows down and the guitars brings just a tinge of melody, the gang sends the song into another level of heaviness, spearheaded by Araya as he shouts out a list of atrocities. Powerful, but incredibly hypnotic. Pure ****ing genius.

The assault does not end there, for "Piece by Piece," fueled by a few motoring riffs, continues Slayer's journey into gore and chaos. As far as the instrumentation, the song is simplistic in nature, notably lacking guitar solos, and the riffs are almost an afterthought next to Araya's singing.
Skipping ahead a bit, "Jesus Saves" begins with a technically progressive intro that lasts for close to a minute. Next to "Angel of Death," this is my favorite track from this album, and contains one of my favorite moments in thrash when Araya shouts, "You will be an accessory irreverence and blashpemy!!" followed by a guitar solo from King; then Araya continues with "Jesus Saves No need to pray the gates of pearl have turned to gold it seems you've lost your way!!" followed by a solo from Hanneman. Again, it's brilliant.

And that's all I want to talk about...for now. Reign in Blood took a while for me to get into, and I could barely tell any of the tracks apart when I first listened to it. A few months ago, around mid-July, is when I really started to respect the album. Since then, it's totally eclipsed Show No Mercy as my favorite Slayer album and is now one of my favorite albums. I may come back and give it a full review like it deserves, but for now, these are my thoughts with it.





And that's the last album I wanted to review for my metal expedition. I may sometime down the road review Deathcrush, but I want to mull that album over some more, as well as the rest of Bathory's first five albums.

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Cause if there's one album that needs to be contemplated over many listens, it's Deathcrush.

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