![]() “Crypts of Eternity” is one of the most unique-sounding songs in Slayer’s discography and a personal favorite of mine. ![]() It is a rather complex song however there’s key shifts all over the place. “Necrophiliac” has one of the coolest descending guitar intros I’ve ever heard and it promptly kicks into a frantic riff-o-rama. This song offers but a taste of what was to come in their next album, Reign in Blood. “Praise of Death” is a pure thrasher and is heavily driven by the manic guitarwork. There’s a lot of tempo changes going on in this song, with another slow buildup into pure fury reminiscent of the title track making an appearance in the last third of the song. There’s an atonally-harmonized guitar intro, a double-bass drum solo from Lombardo and frequent dueling guitar leads from Hanneman and King. “At Dawn They Sleep” is a creepy and underrated fan favorite about undead vampires, with a lot of interesting instrumentation going on as well. Who knew a song about a serial killer would have such a catchy chorus? ![]() Hellfire guitarwork from Dave Hanneman and Kerry King just sounds absolutely bonkers here. The speedy “Kill Again” features vocalist/bassist Tom Araya’s trademark screams and drummer Dave Lombardo’s machine gun-styled drumwork. The instrumentation kicks into a slow, foreboding march that continually grows until Slayer finally kicks it into overdrive for the second half of the song. An ominous backwards message continually chanting “join us,” and a demonic voice growling “welcome back,” opens the album on a sinister note. The title track opens with an eerie intro and guitar whammy bars emulating the screams of the dead. The same can’t be said for the many metal bands who have fallen prey to bloated tracks and overindulgence, a trait which even some of the biggest bands aren’t fully immune to. Each of these songs sound tight and concise, making for a relatively digestible listen. With seven total songs and a runtime clocking at just over 37 minutes, Slayer knew that each of these songs had to be meticulously crafted. Slayer arguably sounds their most fearsome here, and I don’t think they have been able to replicate the haunting, chilling atmosphere as effectively as they have on Hell Awaits. You know what you’re going to expect: something that sounds truly evil. Hell Awaits marks the beginning of what can be considered the classic “Slayer” sound.įirst of all with a title like Hell Awaits, Slayer isn’t pulling any punches. Their sophomore saw Slayer take a huge leap from their “evil” sounding version of Judas Priest into something more unique. On this day in 1985 they released what could arguably be considered their watershed moment, Hell Awaits. Essentially, they were the Black Sabbath of extreme metal. The 1980s saw Slayer at their absolute height, providing a seminal impact on genres like thrash metal, death metal and black metal. Even at their earliest stage, Slayer had a truly evil sound that was marked with pure aggression, taking equal influences from early metal pioneers like Judas Priest and Venom.įrom their pure-speed magnum opus in Reign in Blood, to slower, more diverse releases like South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss, Slayer knew how to sound unhinged and sinister. This kind of thing was seen at the very beginning with their debut record in 1983, Show No Mercy. Many of the standards commonly seen in extreme metal today are there because of Slayer’s influence. Not only were they infamous for their edgy Satanic/occult imagery but drummer Dave Lombardo also brought the (now ubiquitous) double-bass pedal to heavy metal. There are very few bands that are as notorious and have done as much for the metal scene as Slayer.
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