Slayer
Hell Awaits

THE REVIEW

“Is the world today crap? Does today’s heavy music have nothing more to say? Are Metallica more sold out than a whore and does that sadden you? Does Thrash Metal today mean “the drunkard losers’ tupatupa music from the 80s”? Are you afraid that Slayer, who are nowadays the least sold in the Thrash scene, might end up like Merdallica?
Do you want to break your spine headbanging to the beat of the best Thrash from twenty years ago?
Then don’t wait any longer!
Pick up the phone, call the King family immediately at 666-66-6-6666 and ask for Kerry!
If you hear strange “noises” in the background, hang up and mind your own business!
Pick up the phone, Kerry King is waiting for you!”
“Hell Awaits”, the Inferno awaits. A recently much-discussed and much-criticized record, given the recent events of Lombard satanic murders that seemed to draw inspiration precisely from this record.
The umpteenth masterpiece by Slayer, who since 1983 had gotten us used to an authentic escalation of masterpieces culminating in the 1986 masterpiece “Reign In Blood,” probably the most influential release of the entire 80s, saw the Light (or the fire of Hell, you decide) in the now distant 1985, just the year before the absolute masterpiece.
Seven songs, seven masterpieces.
If “Haunting The Chapel” from 1984 had in a way revolutionized the Slayer sound shaking off the heavy influences found in the magnificent “Show No Mercy” from 1983, “Hell Awaits” proceeded even more decisively in the same direction, incorporating into the original sound a very fast, devastating riffing, breathless, formed by three or a few more notes played at incredible speeds for the time, and temporarily leaving aside the characteristic Heavy screaming of Tom Araya which had been great in the debut album.
The legendary Dave Lombardo, recently back in the lineup thus restoring the original one, discovers the utility of the double pedal, absent on “Show No Mercy” and “Haunting The Chapel”, which he uses greatly here, with schizophrenic interventions of pure and fast double bass that, besides unmistakably characterizing his personal drumming, underscore precisely the parts to be highlighted, giving a deadly aggressiveness to the typical riffs of the King-Hanneman duo which, together with the essential bass (read: imperceptible and useless) and the tormented, tortured and aggressive vocals of Tom Araya, form an unstoppable war machine, that overwhelms, burns and devastates, a veritable napalm bomb that defines the “Slayer sound.”
The seven tracks contained here form, it would be useless and hypocritical to deny it, the umpteenth masterpiece of the assassins, who, strong from the success and inspiration derived from this record, managed to be even more influential than their “cousins” Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeth, giving a fundamental boost to a genre that would, by evolving, create all the tough music of the times to come.
“Kill Again” and “Necrophiliac”, together with the title track, are now established pillars that everyone should have heard at least once, as well as historical pieces from the band that, at the time, seemed the most devastating thing sent to Earth from the depths of Hell.
If Kerry King doesn’t answer your call, he’s probably lost among the notes of “Hell Awaits,” and without thinking twice I’ll go imitate him, highly recommending it to you too!