Reign in Blood was a stone-cold classic upon its release, and it hasn't lost an ounce of its power today.“ (Steve Huey, AMG) The album almost single-handedly inspired the entire death metal genre (at least on the American side of the Atlantic), and unlike many of its imitators, it never crosses the line into self-parodic overkill. It's monstrously, terrifyingly evocative, in a way that transcends Reign in Blood's metal origins.
The riffs are built on atonal chromaticism that sounds as sickening as the graphic violence depicted in many of the lyrics, and Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman's demented soloing often mimics the screams of the songs' victims. There may not be much variation, but it's a unified vision, and a horrific one at that. The album is actually more precise than it sounds, and not without a sense of groove, but even in the brief slowdowns, the intensity never lets up. Sandwiched in between are eight short (all under three minutes), lightning-fast bursts of aggression that change tempo or feel without warning, producing a disjointed, barely controlled effect. Reign in Blood opens and closes with slightly longer tracks (the classics "Angel of Death" and "Raining Blood") whose slower riffs offer most of the album's few hints of melody. Producer Rick Rubin gives the band a clear, punchy sound for the first time in its career, and they largely discard the extended pieces of Hell Awaits in favor of lean assaults somewhat reminiscent of hardcore punk (though distinctly metallic and much more technically demanding). „Widely considered the pinnacle of speed metal, Reign in Blood is Slayer's undisputed masterpiece, a brief (under half an hour) but relentless onslaught that instantly obliterates anything in its path and clears out just as quickly. Slayer is one of the few metal bands that genuinely sounds evil, and with Reign in Blood, it would inspire a legion of thrash and death metal followers eager to join the horror show. Propelled by Dave Lombardo's pummeling percussion, Jeff Hanneman, and Kerry King let loose their roaring guitars, often trading leads in their unorthodox, wailing style, while bassist Tom Araya barks and shrieks the lyrics with maniacal glee. Throughout its short running time (28 minutes, an EP even by '80s standards), the Rick Rubin-produced Reign in Blood unleashes a malevolent maelstrom of sound. Infusing its thrash sound with a hardcore punk influence, the cacophonous quartet shifts from supernatural terror to real-life horrors with shorter songs such as "Necrophobic" and "Postmortem." The change is most notable on the gruesome depiction of Nazi butcher Josef Mengele on the frenzied epic "Angel of Death." Only the apocalyptic closing number, "Raining Blood," hearkens back to the semi-melodic Slayer style from Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits.
Slayer's major-label debut remains one of the most brutal metal albums ever recorded, uncompromising in its extremes ironically, it's their mainstream breakthrough release.
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