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And here we are at Seasons in the Abyss, a great classic by the magnificent Slayer, a Bay Area thrash band.
Considered by many fans as the last great album from the Los Angeles combo, it's played by Slayer's classic lineup, with Tom Araya on bass and vocals, the two axe-men Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, and the legendary Dave Lombardo behind the drums. This is also the last album (for now...) of the band in which we find him on the drums.
Let's make one thing clear: THIS ALBUM IS A BLAST. Every song, every riff, exudes emotions from every pore. It starts with War Ensemble, one of their best songs ever, followed by tracks that have made history, like Blood Red, Spirit in Black, Hallowed Point, and the legendary concluding Seasons in the Abyss. But describing each song would be pointless to understand its greatness. Special mention for the Title Track: here, in my opinion, they reach their musical expressive peak.
Every member is perfectly in place: Araya is very expressive and pissed off, King and Hanneman shred riffs and solos that are terrifying, and Lombardo is indescribable... an absolute monster, in my opinion the best on earth, with his technique, creativity, and speed.
We are not facing an all-smashing album like Reign in Blood. Here, in fact, the compositions are slower and more deliberate, even though the musical violence is still present.
After Reign in Blood, their best album. BUY IT IF YOU DON'T HAVE IT. An absolute masterpiece.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 War Ensemble (04:51)
Propaganda death ensemble
Burial to be
Corpses rotting through the night
In blood laced misery
Scorched earth the policy
The reason for the seige
The pendulum exchange the blade
for strafing air blood raid
Infiltration push reserves
Encircle the front llines
Supreme art of strategy
Playing on the minds
Bombard till submission
Take all to their graves
Indication of triumph
The number that are dead
Sport the war, war support
The sport is war, total war
When victory's a massacre
The final swing is not a drill
It's how many people I can kill
Be dead fiend from above
When darkness falls
Descend onto my sights
Your fallen walls
Spearhead break through the lines
Flanked all around
Soldiers of attrition
Forward their ground
Strategy prophetic age
Old in its time
Flowing veins run on through
Deep in the Rhine
Center of the web
All battles scored
What is our war crime
Era forever more
War
Propaganda war ensemble
Burial to be
Bones shining bt the night
In blood laced misery
Campaign of elimination
Twisted psychology
When victory is to survive
And death is defeat
Sport the war, war support
The sport is war, total war
When this end is a slaughter
The final swing is not a drill
It's how many people I can kill
04 Expendable Youth (04:10)
Gun down cold on a raw deal
Home turf my battlefield
In no one's way caught in a crossfire
Stray bullets can kill
Expendable youths
Fighting for possession
Having control the principle obsession
Rivalry and retribution
Death the only solution
Inured soul lies on the ground
Head blown off face down
Lying in a pool of blood
An accidental death homicide
Struggling to survive
The drug induced warfare
To have control and principle obsession
Expendable youth fighting for possession
Violence is only a friend
05 Dead Skin Mask (05:19)
How I've waited for you to come
I've been here all along
And now that you've arrived
Please stay a while
And I promise I wont keep you long
I'll keep you forever
Graze the skin with my finger tips
The brush of dead cold flesh pacifies the means
Prevoking images delicate features so smooth
A pleasant fragrance in the light of the moon
Dance with the dead in my dreams
Listen to their hallowed screams
The dead have taken my soul
Temptation's lost all control
Simple smiles elude psychotic eyes
Lose all mind control rationale declines
Empty eyes enslave the creations
Of placid faces and lifeless pageants
In the depths of a mind insane
Fantasy and reality are the same
Graze the skin with my finger tips
The brush of dead warm flesh pacifies the means
Incised members ornaments on my being
Adulating the skin before me
Simple smiles elude psychotic eyes
Lose all mind control rationale declines
Empty eyes enslave the creations
Of placid faces and lifeless pageants
Dance with the dead in my dreams
Listen to their hallowed screams
The dead have taken my soul
Temptation's lost all control
Dance with the dead in my dreams
Listen to their hallowed screams
The dead have taken my soul
Temptation's lost all control
06 Hallowed Point (03:23)
High velocity bullet at close range
Can damage the mind
Shattering the skull shredding the brain
Severing the spine
Bury a round of lead in the chest
It's quite an impression
Imagine the innards of your soul
The infliction
Instinctive regression
With intent to kill
No regard of human life
Or the blood spilled
Riddled convulsions
Confetti of flesh
Scattered helplessly
Losting your control of physical
Facilities
Release the slide to cleanse inside
Prepare to anoint
Snap the tongue in the groove discharge
To make my hallowed point
The power of a gun
Used with conviction
Disperesed on excursions
Randomly kills its victims
My sweet revenge
Bitter in depression
The thrilling release
Of a hatred deep persuasion
The power of a gun
Used with conviction
Diffused compulsions
Unending repercussions
Violent emotion
Screaming revolution
Spasmic convulsions
Death an empty gun
07 Skeletons of Society (04:40)
Minutes seem like days
Since fire ruled the sky
The rich became the beggars
And the fools became the wise
Memories linger in my brain
Of burning from the acid rain
A pain I never have won
Nothing here remains
No future and no past
No one could foresee
The end that came so fast
Hear the prophet make his guess
That paradise lies to the west
So join his quest for the sun
Shades of death are all I see
Fragments of what used to be
The world slowly decays
Destruction fills my eyes
Harboring the image
Of a spiraling demise
Burning winds release their fury
Simulating judge and jury
Drfiting flurries of pain
Deafening silence reigns
As twilight fills the sky
Eventual supremacy
Daylight waits to die
Darkness always calls my name
A pawn in this recurring game
Humanity going insane
Shades of death are all I see
Fragments of what used to be
Minutes seem like days
Corrosion fills the sky
Morbid dreams of anarchy
Brought judgment in disguise
Memories linger in my brain
Life with nothing more to gain
Perpetual madness remains
Shades of death are all I see
Skeletons of society
Fragments of what used to be
Skeletons of society
08 Temptation (03:25)
Have you ever felt the need
To see more than you can see
Look into uncertainty
Reflections of treachery
Would you leave the world bbehind
Endless life is here to find
Can I interest you in lies
Sell your soul for all it buys
Play with your insanity
Shatter your reality
Pulsing in yoru blood
I can satisfy your greed
For now all your debts are free
I have all eternity
To quench all the death I breed
Recreate the rules of play
From now things arre done my way
None have ever won my game
Crucified them all in flames
Have you ever danced with the devil
His temptation ever summoned you
Ever penned your name in blood
Let possession slowly swallow you
When you stand under full moonlight
The attraction mesmerizes you
Have you ever wondered why
It seems that evil you're attracted to
Reach out to my hand
Step back in time's sand
Genetic wasteland
Far beyond death
09 Born of Fire (03:07)
Join in my quest to leave life overturned
Spanning the world wave of doom
Spewing out death with the evil I've churned
Awaken the dead from their tomb
Love turns to lust the sensations I've felt
Exploring the pleasures of sin
Making the best of the cards I've been dealth
Adjusting the odds so I win
Unleash all my burning wrath
Potential killing machine
Take down all who block my path
Enjoying all that's obscene...born of fire
Prince of all darkness initiation
Ritually baptized in flames
Next to the throne my abomination
Spreads horror throughout the domain
Master the art that controls the impure
Inherit the infamous keys
Thousands of centuries I will endure
Tyrant of all the prophecies
Some have called me Satan's son
A name I cannot deny
Wielding fury that's second to none
Far too vile to confine...born of fire
All things dead must rise again
When twilight's blanket falls
Splattered red you'll find my den
Blood dripping from the walls
Dreams born of desire
Shaped and forged within the fire
Twisted, Warped, Deranged I see
The world's corrupt insanity
Dreams possess nightmarish figures
Burning can't escape the embers
Lost are those who trust the Liar
Satan's son I'm born of fire
10 Seasons in the Abyss (06:34)
Razors edge
Outlines the dead
Incisions in my head
Anticipation the stimulation
To kill the exhilaration
Close your eyes
Look deep in your soul
Step outside yourself
And let your mind go
Frozen eyes stare deep in your mind as you die
Close your eyes
And forget your name
Step outside yourself
And let your throughts drain
As you go insane...go insane
Innate seed
To watch you bleed
A demanding physical need
Desecrated eviscerated
Times perpetuated
Close your eyes
Look deep in your soul
Step outside yourself
And let your mind go
Frozen eyes stare deep in your mind as you die
Close your eyes and forget your name
Step outside yoruself and let your thoughts drain
As you go insane...go insane
Inert flesh
A bloody tomb
A decorated splatter brightens the room
An execution a sadist ritual
Mad intervals of mind residuals
Close your eyes
Look deep in your soul
Step outside yourslef
And let your mind go
Frozen eyes stare deep in your mind as you die
Close your eyes and forget your name
Step outside yoruself and let your thoughts drain
As you go insane...go insane
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Other reviews
By andrewramone
Fast, violent, and effective; certainly not like 'Reign In Blood' because it’s clear that the sound that will accompany them in the following years is changing.
Dead Skin Mask, a gloomy composition that talks about the deeds of Ed Gein, alias (the butcher of Plainfield); I won’t say more, just listen to it.
