Slayer
Diabolus In Musica

Alright... today I was undecided about what to put in my CD player... I didn't know if I was more in the mood for thrash metal or death metal, so I was torn between two CDs: Diabolus In Musica (which unfortunately has no thrash in it) by Slayer and Cause Of Death by Obituary... needless to say that at this precise moment I would have chosen Cause Of Death but I was too intrigued by Slayer's album so I decided to insert it into the CD player... upon the first listen, you notice that in Diabolus In Musica the sound of the legendary slayers is very different from previous albums, the speed and destructive fury of masterpieces like Reign In Blood and Hell Awaits is missing, the new sound is very hardcore and leaning towards nu-metal.

In the lineup that recorded the album, we find Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman on guitars, Tom Araya on vocals and bass, and Paul Bostaph on drums. Kerry and Jeff terribly hit the ears of the unsuspecting listener, Araya moves away from the "old style" singing no longer using the usual screams and Bostaph gives an excellent performance of himself even though Dave Lombardo is Dave Lombardo. Now let's get to the album: the first track is Bitter Peace a good opening track followed by the equally good Death's Head, the third track is Stain Of Mind, another good track where a wild Bostaph gives way to Araya who provides an incredible vocal performance. After the first three good tracks, the album becomes a total bore, too hardcore and nu-metal, the only track that is worth anything is the beautiful Scrum which reminds one of Slayer from Reign In Blood.

Diabolus In Musica is an experiment not too successful by Slayer, after listening to the entire album I was pretty disappointed, too few good things, many crappy ones, the album would honestly deserve a 2 but I don't feel like giving this score to one of the metal bands I have loved and still love the most so I give it a decent 3.