Slayer
Live Intrusion

1990s, thrash is dead and buried (or better said, cremated). Metallica, from angry adolescents with long hair, ripped jeans, and Misfits shirts who used to play tracks like "Metal Militia" with phrases like Fighting for one cause, With our heavy metal spreading the message to everyone here, have now become mature musicians, men of high rank (just look at certain images from the album "Garage Inc."), who have taken these aphorisms and flushed them down the toilet, or rather, straight into the treatment plants.

A few years later, the Dwarf and the Drunkard (whoever they might be?) put aside blues and hard rock, deciding to return to being the angry kids who blasted Diamond Head, Discharge, and Venom into their ears. This result, "St. Anger," is better left uncommented. Their former companion in misfortune, Mr. Dave Mustaine, aka Alkaloid, is no different. After the dazzling "Rust in Peace," he feels the burn from the success of the "Black Album," which makes the Dwarf’s band one of the most famous in the world. So Mustaine, who has been at odds with the Drunkard ever since they played together, decides to release "Countdown to Extinction," a facsimile of the "Black Album," although less commercial and still a modest product. Since his album sells 1/10 of Metallica's, Alkaloid tries again with other albums like "Youthanasia" and "Cryptic Writings," which are hard to digest but still a cut above the "Load" and "Re-Load" of the Dwarf-Drunkard duo. Also noteworthy are Anthrax, led by Scott "Mr. Clean" Ian. After the thrash period of "Among the Living," Mr. Clean and friends start doing proto-rapper in "Sound of White Noise" and singles like "Bring The Noise" with Public Enemy.

After a brief overview of the stylistic changes made by these great actors (or better, clowns), here I am talking about the band in question. Whether you like them or not, you can't say that Slayer ever lowered their guard, and among the "Big Four of Thrash," they are the only ones who have faithfully continued their path. To be honest, they too have tried a ploy to gain a bit more popularity (the partial nu-metal influences of "Diabolus in Musica" and "God Hates Us All"), but they never completely abandoned thrash and were never affected by "diva" tendencies (something that cannot be said of the Dwarf and the Drunkard).

But now let's talk about this "Live Intrusion," the first official live album of Slayer. Unfortunately, there is only a VHS version, although, by reading on the Encyclopaedia Metallum website, I discovered that there is a Japanese DVD bootleg version. Recorded on March 12, 1995, at the "Mesa Amphitheater" (Arizona), it was released when thrash was a clear reminiscence of the past and while the grunge of Nirvana and Alice In Chains was warmly welcomed by trendsetting broadcasters like MTV. Furthermore, Dave Lombardo is absent, having left due to various disputes with other members, and is here replaced by Paul Bostaph, a worthy substitute, whom I find vastly superior technically, although good Dave remains an important pioneer of drums in extreme metal.

The video is interspersed with snippets showing behind the scenes of the band, where you can see their travels and antics (some are downright hilarious). The work opens with a short film in which a fan of the band has the name SLAYER tattooed on his arm and, in no time, the earthquaking "Raining Blood" starts. What I like about this product is the presence of great tracks rarely played live, like "At Dawn They Sleep", "Killing Fields", and "213" (the latter being one of the band's best, in my opinion). However, the weak point of this live is the voice of a very subdued Araya, which does not do justice to the excellent performance by the guitar duo Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman and the monstrous groove of genius Bostaph. Of course, the classic of classics, "Angel of Death", the mephistophelean "Hell Awaits", the grand "Mandatory Suicide" and "War Ensemble" couldn't be missed. Also noteworthy is "Witching Hour", a cover by Venom, where Hanneman and Bostaph hand over guitar and drums, respectively, to Robb Flynn and Chris Kontos of Machine Head. Flynn and Kontos thus deliver with Araya and King an excellent performance, one of the most accomplished of the product.

Home Video of great value, nothing more.