POLLING Has No Boundaries -- Best Non-Reign in Blood Slayer Studio Album POLL

coopdoggydogg

Seasons In The Abyss

I used to have a hard time getting into Seasons as much as the rest, but recent years have endeared it more to me. I'm going to have a hard time deciding between Hell Awaits and Haunting methinks, tho Seasons/Souf ain't too far off.

Maybe it's the fact that I was a 13 year old metal fan when South Of Heaven hit but that and Reign In Blood are the records with the biggest impact for me. I felt like Seasons In The Abyss was the weaker of the perceived trilogy at the time. Probably cos I was starting to get into Skinny Puppy around then and looking for a different sort of heaviness. I should revisit that album...

it was the songs like Expendable Youth and Spirit in Black that didn't hit me at first that I really came around to later.

I have a soft spot for Divine Intervention.

Divine is awesome. gets unfairly hated on, though I suspect that it's because it's also the first I heard. probably their last studio album that I 'loved', really.

South of Heaven

Seasons is the first Slayer album I owned, and it remains my favourite. It may be heretical to say, but I prefer it to RiB.

And I think Blood Red is my favourite of their songs. Certainly the funkiest.

I will say it's def not anything Diabolus through WPB. only half-liked that one, hated God Hates Us All, half-liked Christ Illusion, but thought WPB was good.

Seasons is the first Slayer album I owned, and it remains my favourite. It may be heretical to say, but I prefer it to RiB.

exactly the same for me

I heard it before RiB but I think the hearing it out of order is what messed me up. Like RiB blew my young fucking mind the first time I heard it, it was one of my earliest crossover albums and it rocked my world. In comparison, Seasons seemed like this dutiful little thrash album that was more restrained, but it took me a while to view this as a 'good' thing, like it was the album they needed to make after SoH to show they still could pull the all out thrash with more hooks, while also keeping some of the mid-tempo SoH stuff in tow.

I've grown tired of Dead Skin Mask and the title track of course, but the album's full of killer album tracks.

hated God Hates Us All

aw

just doesn't come across as Slayer to me, the songwriting does nothing for me. I've come around to where I like about 3-4 songs on it, but even "Disciple" I only like on disc, because live it sounds like a deflated balloon.

Hell Awaits has some of my fav Slayer songwriting of all time on it, the production drives me batty at times tho (the whole "drench everything in reverb' era of Metal Blade). thinking of voting for that one sheerly due to "Kill Again" and the godly title track.

Show No Mercy, but Seasons as a close second. SNM was a life changing event for me, the start of side B with Black Magic emerging from the crackling vinyl noise is imprinted on my soul forever.

South of Heaven easy. Very nearly Reign in Blood's equal.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

EXISTING ON DAMNATION'S EDGE
THE PRIESTS HAVE NEVER KNOWN
TO WITNESS SUCH A VIOLENT SHOW
OF POWER OVERTHROWN

Hell Awaits is a really good album is what I'm saying. I feel like it's the root of a lot of the murky, occulty death metal stuff I like (more than RiB or the highly overrated Seasons).

Like there are riffs on Hell Awaits that creep in a very death metal way (At Dawn They Sleep's opening riff for instance), it's almost this weird hiccup in between Haunting the Chapel and Reign.

"Kill Again" also has a very death metally feel to it, especially one of the trem-picked riffs in the introduction. I always felt that Hell Awaits inspired a lot of DM bands while essentially still being thrash on the surface.

"Hell Awaits" is pretty much the song I want to be lowered into my casket during, but my only complaint is I wish Tom had shouted "HELL AWAITS!" in his own voice instead of the pitch shifted 'demon' voice. it's why the live version always seems cooler when he's yelling it really unhinged.

every 10 years or so I realize I forget how the title track to Haunting the Chapel goes. rectifying that now.

listening to Diabolus again for only like the second time in 15 years. was the second Slayer I bought so initially I liked it better since I had very little frame of reference to compare it to, then overcorrected to hate it. now I am warming up to....parts of it.

Bitter Peace - solid song with a fairly intense intro
Death's Head - meh - the vocals and riff are awful
Stain of Mind - next
Overt Enemy - sounds like a modern version of a SoH era song, has a p decent chorus riff
Perversions of Pain - this is a fun one, like the fast breakdown at the end
Love to Hate - fuck Slayer being Biohazard and Kerry King rapping
Desire - Slayer got really lazy with using simple eerie discordant arpeggios/riffs as the basis for entire songs beginning with this album and yeah this song fucking sucks.
In the Name of God - "Antichrist is the name of God! Antichrist is the name of God! Antichrist is the Name of God!". next.
Scrum - this one is AWESOME.
Screaming from the Sky - meh, this is like a rip of Sepultura's "Territory"
Point - hell yeah! except for the wah on the guitar at the beginning, this shreds.

so...half crap I guess.

Give it a few more years... it's a bit early for "later Slayer stuff: actually not that bad" revisionism ;)

Christ Illusion is one of their best albums.

How do you feel about later Simpsons seasons?

Christ Illusion is a great record. World Painted Blood isn't great but it's better than any Bostaph album.

CI is half great, half meh to my ears. WPB is my fav post-1994 album of theirs (I'll still take Divine over it tho).

re-listened to Repentless the other day. it's not holding up well after time. I initially liked it, even if that like was faint, and many of the songs sounded good live last week, but I couldn't even finish it the other day - though I recall it gets better towards the end.

I wouldn't have even brought it up but seeing Undisputed Attitude above Christ Illusion in that poll made me momentarily cross for some reason. Each to their own of course - anyone who appreciates Slayer is a friend of mine on one (very important and fundamental) level at the very least. I genuinely love Christ Illusion and have some warmth for WPB, but it's not in the same league.

IDRG The Simpsons joke. I like the show enough but all the episodes I've watched have been completely out of sequential order. Same with Seinfeld.

Happy birthday RIB.

IDRG The Simpsons joke.

Don't worry about it, it was dumb. The Simpsons and Slayer are both things I love dearly but they've both spent a lot of time trying to tarnish their early greatness with a lot of mediocre product. I'll check out CI again someday but the first time around I was left with the strong desire to listen anything before Seasons In The Abyss instead.

Give it a few more years... it's a bit early for "later Slayer stuff: actually not that bad" revisionism ;)

diabolus is 18 years old

i was about to be like "you know i loved god hates us all at the time" and

hated God Hates Us All

aw

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson)

The Simpsons and Slayer are both things I love dearly but they've both spent a lot of time trying to tarnish their early greatness with a lot of mediocre product. I'll check out CI again someday but the first time around I was left with the strong desire to listen anything before Seasons In The Abyss instead.

― "raw buttin' these toilet seats" (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Saturday, October 8, 2016 7:05 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think the concept of listening to every Slayer album at least once is something that will always apply to me since basically listening to them in high school kinda transformed me into a full-time metalhead after previously only dipping a few toes in the water.

that said, I still don't get the critical lovefest for Christ Illusion. 40% of the album sounds like GHUA retread to me, and the songs I do like, well....other than maybe "Jihad", I don't exactly clamor to hear them live or anything. I remember racing across town after work to get it the day it dropped and being crushed with disappointment. there's a laziness about 21st century Slayer, riff-wise, that always bothered me, where they used to enjoy meandering around and doing crazy things, now they self-plagiarize a lot more and don't like to veer from a template. the de-tuned, 'groovy' almost post-thrash Slayer doesn't work for me. it isn't the slower pace - some of my fav Slayer tunes are tunes like "Live Undead". It's just not what I associate with Slayer - breakdowns, plodding, etc. at least when Testament did Low they managed to come across as Testament (I still like taht album)

to me, World Painted Blood is the only nu-Slayer one needs. It's not free of those flaws either (there are rips from "Raining Blood" and "Angel of Death" within, like, the first ten minutes of the album), and taken individually, none of the tracks are really A+ Slayer, but there's a consistency to it that they hadn't had in a while, solid B plus album.

ya knew Hanneman dying was going to hurt but Repentless is such a humongous step backwards in every way, I have a hard time even listening to it now even though I did like it faintly when it came out.

(nu-Slayer meaning "since 2000" in my definition, cos I will stan for Divine Intervention until the end of time)

I read in some interview somewhere that Tom Araya is pretty much sick of Slayer & is ready to quit whenever Kerry King is.

I always wondered why this Catholic guy doesn't have a problem yelling King's angsty teen atheist (after the late 90s anyway) lyrics--I guess the answer is he just doesn't care anymore.

Poll got it right but I am always surprised at the lack of love for Hell Awaits. In some way it's their 'scariest' record

it's my current fav due to my burnout on RiB. "Kill Again" is the best Slayer song to my ears.

just read that Araya interview. was going to say "well he sure LOOKS like he's having a good time up there" but he makes clear that he enjoys performing in the article, just not any of the things that go along with it.

honestly it makes sense, dude has spent his entire life in Slayer. as far as the Catholic thing, they did kinda move away from the whole Satan thing a bit after RiB, and I'm sure the old songs are just words at this point. I'm not sure how traditional he is in that regard either, it is mostly a near death experience that propels his beliefs.

I kinda think Kerry never wants to retire. which if so, ok, but I'm not sure I need another studio album from them. i'd be content w/ one more tour and that being it really.

vocally speaking, it's kinda interesting. Tom's voice sounded a lot less powerful, tired even, around the late 90, and yet he yells louder than ever now. I was kinda surprised when I saw them last month that he actually did the high-pitched shriek on "The Antichrist", which I didn't think he could still do.

there's a laziness about 21st century Slayer, riff-wise, that always bothered me, where they used to enjoy meandering around and doing crazy things, now they self-plagiarize a lot more and don't like to veer from a template.

Totally. I kind of date that back to Seasons In The Abyss, actually, it's a pretty template-ish record. But it went from being a small flaw to being their m.o.

Poll got it right but I am always surprised at the lack of love for Hell Awaits. In some way it's their 'scariest' record

I don't know if I mentioned it upthread but a lot of my favorite music stems from the murky, downtuned evil of Hell Awaits. The best death metal bands sound like they were inspired by Hell Awaits way more than RiB... (IMO)

^^^ Definitely agree with this

The tremolo riff on Kill Again prior to the verse is essentially a pre-cursor to the death metal of the 90s imo

said it before but "Kill Again" is mah JAM yo.....

"Silent Scream" rules despite the fucking lyrics

listening to SoH right now and god Lombardo's drumming really elevates this album

Yeah the dry production really highlights how insane he is. I love the frantic little fills in Live Undead particularly.