Andromeda Unchained is a bit of an odd duck, but as a progressive metal concept record it holds up well even a decade later.

Tom Araya is probably my favorite metal vocalist. I really hate metal vocalists because they rarely if ever harmonize with the riffs or follow the cadence of the music. Araya REALLY breaks the mold of metal singers for me because he harmonizes extremely well with the instrumentation AND sings and screams well above it at the same time.

Don't make me love you.

Don't get too attached to me Batty. I was going to complain in that post about how King Diamond is lauded more than Araya but I had to cut that post short.

I love me some King Diamond, but he only really works in his own specific context. Araya could have been in just about any heavy/speed/thrash band and made them at least 100% better.

Not saying it's their best... necessarily (it's not entirely consistent), but Show No Mercy is easily Slayer's most fun album, making it the one I find myself coming back to the most now that I've been listening to them long enough that sometimes I just want to Slayer on without having to think about it. And there's just something I love about that cheesy, "dark", early 80s atmosphere. It was so stupid but so fun.

Fun like a light-hearted day at the beach.

Exactly. It doesn't have the savagery of Reign in Blood, or the malevolence of Hell Awaits, but it still rips hard and is probably the best Slayer album to pair with drunken debauchery. And there's something so satisfying about a song titled, "Metal Storm/Face the Slayer".