Slayer
Reign in Blood

Take two women of similar beauty, one made-up and well-dressed fashionably and the other not inferior in terms of aesthetics, but more unkempt, natural, with fewer embellishments, making her appear less charming at first glance.

Similarly, set up a cauldron with the aim of cooking a bubbling dose of homemade thrash metal without adding chemical additives, preservatives, and dyes, but only with ingredients of secure and certified origin.

Because, in the end, this is the recipe for a good invigorating thrash: away with unnecessary frills, away with acoustic guitars, away with too clean vocals, out with slow and technical solos, and out with conjectures and procrastinations. Once you strip all this away, what remains is a grim, rotten, somber, cryptic scenario, a labyrinth from which one does not emerge sane. A bloody and dusty plaque placed high on a large rusty gate says "Reign In Blood."

It is not necessary to dwell too much on how important it has been for the future developments of extreme metal, on the lyrics of which I let a service of Studio Aperto version Zelig speak, or to cover it with pretentious words, but rather to analyze other aspects, in my opinion underdeveloped, in the context of this album's analysis.

It must be said that among the main cornerstone works of thrash metal (big four/five), this Slayer album is undoubtedly the most extreme, as well as the least digestible to the vast audience. This is due, as mentioned, to direct and no-frills songwriting, without many adjustments, but most importantly capable of expressing great physical strength. Essentially, thrash riffs & rhythms adapted on old-school hardcore punk bases: those of Minor Threat, whom Slayer themselves admired, and Black Flag for clarity, and not the heavy metal foundations that characterized Metallica.

But it's not just the insane execution speed (courtesy of Mister David Lombardo) that takes it beyond the line, the dirty vocals (or rather roars) of Tom Araya also contribute, which, without the need for screaming/growling, result thunderous and oppressive all the same. We have a set of full and empty (King&Hanneman docet) made specifically not to captivate you. At this point, the repetitiveness and the nonsense solos can be seen as either a virtue or a flaw, it's up to your ears to decide which side to take.

While Metallica indulged in songs with complex and long structures but always clearly understandable and adherent to a song form, with plenty of ready-to-use choruses for stadium audiences (and let it be clear, it's anything but a criticism, but rather a mere observation), the Assassins do everything to not be catchy and not to please you, almost taking pleasure in playing in such an a-musical manner, with confused structures and often completely absent choruses (Raining In Blood, Postmortem, Epidemic...) or spat with such vehemence into the microphone that you cannot memorize them, except after numerous listens.

Compared to "Master Of Puppets," there is an abyss; the same thing happens between the latter and "Rust In Peace": three ways of painting the picture with very different colors and shades. With the Four Horseman being the friendliest and Slayer and Megadeth, despite being musically at opposite ends, much more complex and less inclined to easy-listening, albeit for different reasons (also with 'Deth, there is a certain frequent rejection of certain conventional structures).

If Metallica in the '80s played with heart, and Megadeth were cerebral, Slayer can only be physical and use muscles.

The initial poker hand practically already represents everything there is to know, where the standout is surely "Angel Of Death", (which alongside "Over The Wall" and "Master Of Puppets" contends the personal thrash song golden palm), one of their anthems, and probably the most "assimilable" of the whole work, considering that with the subsequent excellent "Piece By Piece", "Necrophobic" and "Altar Of Sacrifice" we are already entering territories, solos aside, closer to hardcore punk than anything else. Not least "Criminally Insane" which leaves a few seconds to recover with a rotten and cadenced riff, only to shoot off immediately afterward until the end. Meanwhile, the chorus of "Jesus Saves" that comes after a lengthy and avoidable intro is spat out in such an alienating way it sets its own precedent.

There are no significant style changes within the tracklist, with consistently very high rhythms, except for the slow "Postmortem" and the stop & go of "Raining Blood", which at the risk of seeming unpopular strikes me the least of all, having a great initial riff but overall being a bit too stretched and taken too far.

Definitely a positive mention for the excellent and very underrated "Aggressive Perfector", not included in the original tracklist but only in the remastered version (which also includes the "Criminally Insane" remix as an extra) as a bonus track, another great epic ride, with an exciting instrumental final tail, a fitting prelude to nightfall, to a drizzle, and the fog, extinguishing every moan and stir.

If tomorrow a reassuring colorful rainbow will descend to accompany a fresh and bright dawn, it is not for us to know at the moment.

Album Rating 4.5/5