Reviews (page 5 of 8)
I don't think I've ever listened to a Slayer song before. They're alright, I can appreciate it but thrash metal in an acquired taste and I don't think I'm in that niche. I liked it enough though.
Fun fact, the first known use of the word "cringey" was in 1986. I'm pretty sure it was used to describe this album.
I am not so the metal person anymore, but this album is actually good. A bit of range brings motion in the life.
1.5
hatar
This project has taught me that I like Metal. It has now also taught me I loathe Thrash Metal.
One in my listening group said "It’s a kind of album you need if you’re trying to set a personal record in dead lifting or sacrificing goats." Didn't know much about Slayer heading into this listen but I really liked this. A bit over the top and sometimes silly lyrically, but I think it came from a genuine artistic place. They were trying to capture a 'new thing'. I feel like this must have been a real kick in the teeth for fans when this came out, esp those not from the LA scene this came out of. I was thinking this came out about the same time as GnR Appetite For Destruction and that made me feel like that record was so silly - like they were often going for the same feel/aesthetic/shock but came way short. It's more accessible but less real. Another from my listening group commented "Do you know where you are? You’re in the Jungle baby! No, fuck you, you’re getting your fuckin eyes gouged out in Auschwitz, bitch"
Tight, furious, and legendary, but I prefer my metal slower and heavier.
Slayer are top, killer album, no question! The drum work is superb, the overall musicianship is amazing. Guitar riffs are bad ass. Particularly like "Criminally Insane".
If you want thrash, this is it. Insanely fast, intricate, and heavy. Like driving 200 mph through hell. Tapped into the depths and unleashed it
4.5
I really did not dislike *Reign In Blood* as much as I was expecting. Slayer was the only band I the big four of thrash that I never really got into. Most of it stems from absolutely hating *Hell Awates* when I first heard it back in '85. I really never gave them a chance afterwards. Listening to this I really did enjoy some of the thrash riffs which did remind me a lot of Metallica in the early to mid 80s. But I think what really put me off is Tom Araya's vocal Style. Unlike Hetfield, he's not very melodic. He mostly just screams in a stream of conscious. When he got into a good fast riff in his style I could somewhat get into it but as a whole it's nothing I really like listening to. 5.5/10 ★★½
Really not my favourite style. I don't like thrash metal. 2 stars
I'm definitely not a metal guy, but I kind of don't mind thrash metal. I feel like it tones down a lot of the theatrical elements of metal that are a non-starter for me. While I don't love this album, there's some parts of it I can get behind. I think the guitar tones are pretty solid and the vocals aren't too cheesy. Kind of reminds me of Metallica from around this time. 3 stars.
This is good, definitely 1001 worthy but I would prefer it if it was performed by the Wurzels and called Reign In Mud and featuring enhanced classics such as Tractor Saves, Scarecrow of Sacrifice, Farmophobic, Angel Of Ooh-Arr and of course their crowning glory in Raining Mud.
Fucking SSSLLLAAAYYYEEERRR
Blind album and artist. Know them by name only, and now will avoid this name. Can't believe I gave such a notable band that I see everywhere a 1 but here I am. Did not like and would not seek out again.
Another metal album. This one is much closer to what I'm after - some thumping percussion and and a ready supply of mile-a-minute guitar performances. There's a simple pleasure to this kind of music, though I think the musical stylings of metal make the genre very deeply restrictive. From the plebian ears of a non-metal enthusiast every song on here sounds exactly the same to me. Still, I can hardly complain about an album that is 29 minutes in length. The vocal performances on this album are very hard for me to follow at points - especially during the second half. Kinda disappointing as I appreciate the campy, gothic, medieval themes of metal.
Not bad
Nty.
Music for eight year olds
As good as Metallica are, the rest of the big 4 pale into insignificance. Anthrax are awful, Megadeth are megadull, while Slayer suck sadly. The drummer must be fit.
I mean, it's one of the big four so it's legendary - brutal, fast, true thrashy thrash metal. Tom doesn't really sing as such a lot of the time, and the mix has something to be desired, but it's still a classic.
another one I loved already! This album kills from front to back. Just an absolute thrasher.
Once was enough!!
Love it
So back when I watched anime, the first song on this track used to be the intro music in one of those montages where they highlight all the upcoming shows. I only just realised this and the nostalgia is real. Always liked Slayer energy, so this is top for me.
Occasionally I like metal but I don’t think I like thrash. Too chaotic for me.
This did not slay, Queens
It's great. It's a lot, but it's great.
The only thrash metal album (besides Metallica, Megadeth, and more song-oriented bands) that I come back to again and again. This is perfection, 30 minutes of relentless attack, up-tempo hardcore-infused thrash metal but with evil sound. Araya's vocals are perfect, even the falsetto screams, Dave Lombardo's pace is what pushes this combo to insane speed. And twin guitars shredding is just the definition of extreme metal. For those in the reviews, I have a couple of comments for you: - I've seen some reviews complaining about the lack of variation in the album. Ok, well, THAT'S THE KEY! If it lasts for just 30 minutes is for a reason! This is a trance-inducing album, not that much different from Repulsion's Horrified, King Crimson's Discipline, or Sleep's Jerusalem, each one in its own way. So please don't complain about something obvious. - Lyrics are childish. Yes, they are! Who cares? It's just this dude screaming about scary stuff, and it fits the music. Also, are you that critic with other albums? I think most of them has stupid lyrics, to be honest. - Is just about speed. Again, this is precisely what makes this album great. Don't complain about this, please. Is it like listening to Joy Division and saying is too dark, you get the point? Also, the only part of this album I don't like is the more downtempo breakdown parts. When I listen to Reign in Blood I only want Lombardo raising the bar of speed. - In sum, this is perfection. Probably the best extreme metal album ever.
Noise. Zero stars
I recognize the technical quality and some of the riffs are cool but, although I like some other stuff in the genre, Slayer has just never ever connected for me. It's almost felt very sterile somehow.
zu heavy. zu metal
Jeder Song ist gleich, keine Melodie nur full geballer
This album is relentless, energetic and angry. The lenght of this album makes the record work, because if it was longer it would become tiresome. In my personal opinion, I wish it had a little more variety in the middle tracks, as I feel like some songs are almost identical. Nonetheless, a very solid album and one of the best trash albums of all time.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ANGEL OF THE DEAAAAAAATH!!!!!
p554. 1986. 1 star. Redundant Motorhead wannabees with half decent lyrics. However, there is nothing here that hasn't been done before.
A great album. Beyond starting a subgenre, it is just filled with great guitars and drumming.
It's ok... It starts to sound a bit samey after awhile, but it's definitely not bad with a couple of stand out tracks.
fast hard gnarly could i write poetry to this? y
While not my favorite Thrash Metal band (that would be Anthrax), this is clearly an essential must-listen. Loses a half-star for the questionable nature of the lyrics for "Angel of Death", but then gets it back for helping lay the foundation for the Rick Rubin-sphere.
The perfect soundtrack to the apocalypse
Added point for being short. The speed is impressive, but I just don't care.
\m/YEAHHHHHHHH\m/ although metallica is a little bit better =) 3/5
I just find this type of rage so fake and pantomime? Laughable. Survived half of the first song and knew I'd heard enough. As usual in metal, excellent guitar work; shame about the vocals.
I'm not totally indifferent to Metal but things like Thrash Metal is among one of those subgenres of metal I don't find entirely interesting, I mean much of it chugs guitars and plays drums in a way I'm not too interested in (And the best time I've had with it is when it got more varied. Obviously, I hate this feeling of mild okay-ness with something because the album Isn't bad obviously, this album packs many cool riffs, goes crazy, it's dark and gritty, it's everything you'd want out of some true blue 80s metal! But for me only a few songs REALLY stand out and just do it for me because they have more going on to the riffs or the ideas in songs, I guess I feel like this is just a faster and heavier version of some other things I've head which can be cool but on the whole I'm not too crazy about their sound here, but who knows I could change my tune later down the line
Usually I'm partial to heavy metal and also relatively newer music. But for whatever reason it didnt really click with me. Also would have preferred a longer album.
Great musically but just to much for me.
A little too repetitive for my liking but it achieves what it sets out to do
# 444 : 26/03/2025 : I'm not into the real shouty heavy stuff, but this wasn't too bad. Too many guitar shredding solos for my liking.
Это пиздец (я слышал этот альбом в первый раз). Лучшая песня - Altar Of Sacrifice. P.S. Лучшая песня с предыдущего альбома Trans-Europe Express - The Hall Of Mirrors. ФАК ПЕРФЕКЦИИОНИЗМ!
Ah yes. The subtle art of twatting a load of drums and guitars as hard and fast as possible while screaming about blood and nazis and death and possibly religion for three minutes at a time. Damn this challenge is long...
Not a fan.
Yeaaahhh Slayer man - good good good
Oh, from the sublime to the ridiculous. This is rather an exhilarating album, with a stupendous fast pace. I can't really judge the lyrics, as they all came across as "argle-wargle-bargle" - but I understand from Wikipedia that at least the album opener caused some controversy. This really isn't my taste in music, but it's always good to be exposed to albums one wouldn't necessarily play. I did feel it was aimed at a certain audience with somewhat juvenile tastes. That said (and maybe because of this), it seems this was quite influential on the thrash metal genre. Despite the album's brevity, it was quite exhausting, and the individual tracks were pretty samey. For an album of under half an hour, it seemed to last for an eternity.
Without a doubt this is at least a Top 15 thrash metal album of all time - probably top 5 in the "Big 4" I'm not even that much of a Slayer fan
Way to make this one hit as hard as possible, putting it after Metallica’s black album, an hour long drag, where this as an expanded edition is a crisp 35 minutes. Banger.
A much cleaner sounding album than the previous ones, you can tell they stepped up the production on this one. It feels like this album ends way too soon and leaves me wanting more but I kind of like that about it.
This is what I'm talking about! Look. I can appreciate an emotional album with well-crafted narratives and all that stuff. But there's something so awesome to me about heavy metal that just speaks to me in a completely different way. I love it. I love metal, and Slayer is no exception. This album rules! Slayer, of course, is one of the big 4 thrash metal bands (the last one to give me an album in fact!). Each of these bands has things that make them special, and that thing for Slayer in my eyes is just how extreme and heavy they are. Slayer's heaviness comes in two main ways. One of these is the writing and themes. Other thrash bands definitely write about serious things like religion and politics and stuff, but Slayer mixes that stuff in with brutal descriptions of the thing that Slayer loves mentioning the most, death. Perhaps the most interesting song in this album from a lyrical standpoint is the opener, "Angel of Death" which caught a bit of flack upon release due to its theme of experiments done at Nazi concentration camps in World War II. "Angel of Death" is a brutal song, but I don't think the members of Slayer are Nazi sympathizers or anything. Sometimes a song about something horrific can make someone feel that horror decades after that tragedy has happened. That's kind of the point of the song to me. The second thing that makes Slayer so heavy is their style. Everything from Dave Lombardo's consistently insane drumming, to the awesome guitar riffs and frantic solos from both Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King, to Tom Araya's strong basslines and blood-curdling screams makes Reign in Blood as intense of a listen as it is. Again, I love it. There's a lot of other things to say. I could say something about how all of this stuff is packed into only 29 minutes of music. I could talk about the remarkably clean production from Rick Rubin of all people. I could praise the closer "Raining Blood" as being one of the best metal songs ever made. I could talk about how this album helped lay the groundwork for the Death Metal subgenre. But I think there's really only one more thing that I need to say to justify my score. IT'S FUCKIN' SLAYERRRRRR!!!!! Light 5/5.
To quote one Alan Parzridge: "Just noise"
Not a fan
Songs to make your mom and dad chuckle out of second hand embarrassment.
Day437 - this is how i should start every monday morning
This woke me up, fucking awesome ripping, makes me want to play DOOM. 3.5
25 years ago, I would have given this album a 5-star rating. It’s still a great album, but it just doesn’t have the same appeal for me anymore—mostly because I’ve heard it so many times. One of the best elements of this album is Dave Lombardo’s drumming. If anything, he was one of the key elements that made Slayer who they were.
At least it was short 🙉
There are some moments when parts of some songs in this album sound fairly nice but the majority of it is just a complete nightmare. I would not recommend listening to this while trying to focus or working on something that is really slow (my work computer was a great example of this), as the songs are very high tempo, so writing this was great because nothing was freezing and I was very fast, but replying to a work email on my work computer was so annoying because I would start typing and Outlook would freeze and the song would just keep going and basically nudge you to continue. Overall, a bit meh and pretty much all songs sounded very similar.
Much better than some of the other heavy stuff on here. But not my bag.
I bought this vinyl when it was first released, back when I was a sophomore in high school. The moment the needle dropped, it felt like a portal to the nice circles of hell had opened in my room. As the sound of rain slowly faded at the end of the last track, I just sat there, staring at the turntable, trying to comprehend what had just happened over the past 30 minutes. It was loud, aggressive—an all-out onslaught on my young ears. Eventually, I stood up, flipped the album back to Side A, and played it again.
30 minutes of breakneck relentless speed thrash. Sure the lyrics are silly, and the vocals are a bit… high pitched at times but it’s a fast paced screamer of a record.
I'm just here for the guitar and drums. Which moved at a speed so fast I worried about the players. The lyrics and vocals were the low point.
I enjoyed this way more than I expected to. Just glad the vocals weren't cookie monster style as I can't stand that. And it's not good when you're laughing at the lyrics at times because they're so juvenile and trying to be edgy and dark. You listen to this for the guitar and drums, and they're excellent here.
I can see why people hate this. It strangles and pummels you and doesn't let you breathe for half an hour. But as a metalhead, this is fucking great. There's such a relentless frenetic energy to this album, packed with riffs. The solos, though not technical masterpieces, wail and scream from the guitars. Tom Araya on vocals has always been a favourite, loud and powerful without sounding like he's mindlessly shouting. His scream on 'Angel Of Death' is iconic and genuinely sounds like one of the previously mentioned solos. The band as a whole sound evil. 'Altar Of Sacrifice' has a truly monstrous demonic sounding riff. Obviously the (sort of) title track 'Raining Blood' is a classic. I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much after playing it over and over on Guitar Hero III years ago, but it still hits hard. Demonic opening with rain and ritualistic drums, great riff, really heavy headbanging instrumental breakdown in the middle, before exploding into a solo and abruptly finishing with the crashing of thunder and the patter of rain. Brilliant. It's not perfect though. Sometimes it is a little TOO fast. Unless you read along, the lyrics to tracks like 'Necrophobic' and 'Reborn' are unintelligible. Araya sounds almost comical in how quickly he tries so sing which is a trait of not just Slayer but thrash metal in general. It's not quite their best but I can absolutely see why this is the only Slayer album on this list. I personally preferred their next two albums which slow things down (slightly) and sound a bit more of a mature effort and not "look how fast we can play".
For thrash metal you have a hard time being much better. That doesn't mean it's great music but it's doing a great job of it. Raining Blood is a great song for angry music. Great playing, vocals are what they want to be. Worth being on the list. I preferred listening to it when I was 17 vs now.
I'm sure Slayer is the best at what they do. I chuckled at the lyrics a few times. Raining Blood is probably my favorite track on this. This isn't something I would revisit, but it seems well made.
One of the greatest thrash metal albums!
Oof so noisy
Not as bad as I expected. Lyrically very silly. Not for me. So far have only given 1's to records that really annoy me or where I have strong feelings about the artists. This album has not elicited this response so I guess that makes it a low 2.
Reign in Blood _I don’t like Nazis, I'm just interested in them_ Everytime we get one of these types of albums it always seems to follow the same pattern - Try to have an open mind before listening - Kind of don’t mind the first song initially - Start to lose interest towards the end of the first song - Get increasingly bored with each song musically - Get increasingly bemused by the tedious, adolescent lyrical bollocks - Don’t want to listen again For no discernible reason I didn’t mind this as much as other metal / thrash albums, it’s only 29 minutes and I can appreciate Rick Rubin’s hand in adding some clarity so it isn’t just one big wooly sludge. And I kind of admire how they doggedly stick to their template, which philosophically is really no different from bands I love in different genres sticking to their templates and repeatedly making similar songs and albums. However the issue is I don’t like metal or thrash, and I keep trying to articulate to myself why. I think it’s because it all feels so hollow - in relying solely on such self serious performative edginess, loudness, speed and guttural noises they really are only creating a juvenile approximation of aggression and danger, there really is no substance or weight to it, no real power or hardness. It’s not difficult or challenging in any way, there’s no tangible sense of in your face combativeness and aural assault that I get from something like Public Enemy - ultimately it just all feels like very guitar heavy background music. For no real reason I found it better than your Sepulturas, your Panteras, your Napalm Deaths, so therefore it probably sits on a par with Megadeth and Metallica, meaning a low 2. I’ll never listen again but it did perhaps help me think more about why this type of music doesn’t resonate with me. 🩸🩸 Playlist submission: They’re all much of a muchness, I’ll go Jesus Saves.
I like it when these bands have elements of, or passages of, nice harmony and melodic playing, just to show they can do it. It tricks you into thinking the noise must mean something as it's not the only string to their bow. Take Picasso. He spent years actually painting properly before he moved to drawing all women like Wayne Rooney. Megadeth actually do it on Rust in Peace. Metallica do it. So a big problem is the absolute lack of any variety whatever, or even hinting that they have melodic chops. Yes the guitar player can shred. It's technically proficient. But it's devoid of any affinity with the song, and any solo can be lifted and placed in any other song. It's more Napalm Death than Megadeth. 'Jesus Saves' has a pretty good power chords intro - actually sensed a bit of what Nirvana were doing on 'In Utero' in this. But when he starts singing it's back to formula - epileptic mode is activated as the drummer goes double time, and the guitar solos some random shred. There are a few decent bits - generally when there's no singing and no guitar soloing. And ITS NOT PANTERA. For that I'll scrape it a two.
I like heavy music, I do - but I didn’t like this. Really at all. Bummer.
Gonna be honest - I did not hate listening to this. Dare I say I had fun? SLAYER!!!!! Raining blood is an awesome song. I’m giving it a solid three and I’m not ashamed.
I guess this is fine but I was absolutely not in the mood for some heavy metal today.
Holy is this fast... just screaming, punk rock drums, and guitar solos
Not for me
Not my thing, but I get it.
Somewhere lying within the fiber of my being, in the deep epigenetic recesses of my DNA, there is a part of me that yearns for a bar-fight, that yearns to swing the hammer of the gods on a battlefield, that yearns to hoist the black flag and commence to slitting throats. I am of Scandinavian lineage, so perhaps it's my long since diluted viking blood bubbling to the surface every now and again. I can't be the only one, either. Maybe all the toxic male masculinity in the modern world comes from our being the descendants of savages. If this sounds like you, here's your LIFE HACK of the day. Don't suppress those urges, bros! Put your headphones in and blast THIS ALBUM on 10 and go for a flat-out run or lift some heavy objects while doing so. For me, it scratches the pillage-itch and I can go back to being the gentle and devoted father and husband that I strive to be day to day. Remember: Slayer + some fitness = a safe and happy Mrs.
Not a big metal fan, but I could appreciate the technical skill.
I had Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation...less than 20 albums ago and mentioned how much I love the Angel Of Death sample in She Watch Channel Zero?!. That track and Raining Blood (so fun on Guitar Hero) are my favorites. This isn't the type of music I'll listen to casually but occasionally I get in a mood for it. This album is most enjoyable to me when reading along with the lyrics and breaking down what the songs are actually about. They explore very interesting and complex topics that make me ask questions - I love that. I'm giving this a really high 4 only because it's not something I want to listen to all the time, but I wouldn't argue with any 5 star ratings for Reign In Blood.
Terror ball that has its place in someone's heart, just not mine.
Slaaaaaaayyeeeeeeeeer!!!!!!! This album just kicks your ass efficiently for 28 minutes straight. Thrash distilled to its purest essence.
I love metal
I guess it’s a thrash metal classic but jeez, would it have killed these guys to vary their tone once in awhile? The album plays like a frenetic 30 minute primal scream for angsty teenage edgelords.
Kicks ass. You all ready know if you like this. And I love it.
Okay I don’t think that we need songs like Angel of Death but hard to deny the album despite it not being my genre of choice.
Never really listened to Slayer before. Liked the music but not a huge fan of the vocals. Do not believe I will listen to this again.
Metal masterpiece.
Shock me shock me shock me with your lyrics, Slayer. Their music is tight and packs a powerful punch. Somebody's gotta push the envelope by writing about unsavory things, it might as well be these talented guys.
Angel of Death and Raining Blood are obviously some of the best thrash songs of all-time, but what's sandwiched between them never really did anything for me. Some songs are better than others, but in general I'm not a big fan of King's chest-pouding approach. Still a classic.
Not my favorite from Slayer, but a quick and good example of how they sound at their peak.
It's a classic, but it's far from a top 3 Slayer to me. Their 2 main hits are on it, but as full albums, they can do better : Show No Mercy, Hell Awaits and the masterpieces South Of Heaven and Season In The Abyss. Still, it deserves its place here, I guess?
This album honestly had me laughing in spots. The vocals are straight up silly, even though there are some cool heavy guitar riffs. “Angel of Death” is a particularly dumb track in my humble opinion.
not bad
Raining blood
Thrash metal not my jam. Raining blood was kind of sick. Will listen to slayer again, but only when working out.
Not my thing, but if it were, I feel like this would be very good
Hugely influential thrash metal album. I'm currently listening through a backlog of albums, out of order, and put this on after Joe Ely's "Honky Tonk Masquerade" because it felt like the biggest 180 I could make. What's really interesting about this album is how producer Rick Rubin sought them out to work with them. Rubin was previously known for helping to bring hip hop acts to the mainstream. How he ended up wanting to produce a band like Slayer, I have no idea, but it worked well for the band, as it helped them develop their sound and put "Reign In Blood" among the best known metal album of the late 80s, alongside contemporaries Metallica, Anthrax and Megadeath. Yes, it's over the top, but that's part of the very definite charm.
I asked Slayer to write a little ditty about reviewers of metal: Title: “Verdict of the Damned” [Intro – Thunderous Riff] Verse 1 In the void where riffs scream out, I prowl the wasteland of brutal sound. Distorted carnage, chaos unbound— Death metal albums bleed their truth profound. Pre-Chorus My pen’s a blade, slicing through decay, Exposing venom in every vicious play. Chorus I am the reviewer, judge of the damned, Unleashing verdicts with a merciless hand. In the forge of metal, my words ring clear— Only the unrelenting survive the sear. Verse 2 In the slaughterhouse of sound, each track ignites, Guttural roars and shattered riffs fuel the nights. I rip apart pretenders, carve every scar, Forging legacies in chaos where legends are. [Bridge] Shredding silence with echoes of demise, My words tear the veil from blinded eyes. [Outro] As the void swallows the fading noise, True metal stands, forged in unyielding poise.
This is not my favourite Slayer album, but you can't deny the influence this record had and still has on metal music. Classic thrash metal album, with a great sound and some great riffs. In 1986, this was the heaviest thing. Kerry King's nonsense still makes me wanna stab my eardrum though
Reign in Blood will make you run through a wall with your face, high speed, angry metal. The anger is tempered into fun where instead of bringing you down, it makes you want to move.
Pummeling. In the first 30 seconds you know exactly what you're going to get. This album is ingrained in my psyche. There are some of the greatest metal songs ever on this record. The Raining Blood riff is a masterpiece, and then the drums kick in. Perfect dog walking music at 5am on a Saturday.
I wish I understood
Noise, shred, noise, shred, noise, shred. Is it possible to smell music? I could smell this, it smelt like sweaty men. There just seemed to be nothing melodic about it. I can't stand these sort of guitar shredding solos for the sake of it, "OK you can play notes fast, congratulations". Not for me. 2⭐️
This is one of the better thrash metal albums of the early thrash years. Although, hearing it now a lot of the lyrics are pretty juvenile. Ooh, devil, blood, surgery, blood. Obviously all for shock value and it gets old quick. However, there is some great music here. I really liked the beginning of Jesus Saves and Raining Blood stands out. If you're looking for fast and loud with a sprinkling of satanic-panic you will find it here.
Thrash!
Tiene su cosa pero está muy pesado y hay demasiado grito. Agradecí que dura poco, no es muy mi onda.
Ein sehr energiegeladenes Metal-Album. Viele Lieder waren mir sehr ähnlich, aber es gab auch einige, die ich cool fand. Zum Beispiel der Opener Angel of Death und Raining Blood. Wenn man in der Stimmung ist, kann man es hören.
Get me adrenaline.
There’s like two good songs on here. The rest is just amorphous metal.
Makes you want to push the gas pedal through the floor. Great stuff.
09/02/2025 Of all the bands doing this music at the time, this is one of the better albums to come from it.
2,5
Good thrash album. Some of the songs would have been better if they extended them. The beginning of “Raining Blood” is great. 3/5 Might listen again
Added this to my “gonna go out and fuck some shit up” playlist.
Yea I'm not listening to this
3 stars. Found many songs sounded fundamentally the same (same drumbeats, lyric pattern, same guitar riffs).
not my thing. would give it an extra .5 if possible for the technical proficiency but unsurprisingly i didn’t like it at all
Juvenile
This was totally fine but all the songs sound exactly the same. I get why a lot of hardcore sounds like this and it seems fun to play but damn this shit was kind of boring!!
Not really for me
So good I had to listen to it twice. Reign In Blood is easily my favorite Slayer album and something I've listened to for countless of years. It's hard hitting, insanely fast and aggressive. Simply relentless. All the songs follow a similar structure and if you've heard one of them you kinda get how the rest of the album sounds as there's little variation. But as this album clocks in about 28 minutes you'll be doing yourself a disservice not listening to the whole album. It's a masterpiece from beginning to the end. I especially like the transition between Postmortem and Raining Blood but the whole album is filled with bangers.
Slayer це, однозначно, найкращий #thrashmetal гурт усіх часів. А якщо говорити про екстремальну важку музику загалом - то і найвпливовіший. Адже саме їм ми маємо, в першу чергу, дякувати за народження такого жанру як дез метал. Що найменш, без Slayer він звучав би зовсім інашке. Slayer завжди були максимально «щирими» у підході до створення своєї музики. У них ми не чуєм оверпродʼюснутого звучання як це, наприклад, було у Metallica, та вони не намагаються вражати нас технічністю як Megadeth. І якщо говорити про конкретний альбом, що найкраще характеризує Slayer як гурт, то Reign In Blood (1986) - це якраз «той самий альбом». На ньому вони «видали максимум» та створили «есенцію» для майбутнього розвитку екстремальної музики. Звісно, почали вони це робити ще на Hell Awaits (1985). Але він відчувається ще дуже «сирим» та недоробленим. А ось вже на Reign In Blood (1986), не без допомоги блискучого Ріка Рубіна, вони досягли свого ідеального звучання. І що для мене є найбільш феноменальним у цьому альбомі, так це його спроможність залишатись таким само «сирими» та злими як і Hell Awaits, але при цьому мати гарне та «чисте» звучання. Також вражає ідеальний «таймінг» - кожна пісня тут закінчується саме тоді коли потрібно і встигає показати все, що в ній задумувалось. І як на мене, гітарні соло на цьому альбомі, якщо їх звісно можна так назвати, це ідеальний приклад того, якими вони мають бути в треш металі. Проте справжня перлина цього альбому - це його «енергетика». Вона тут, прямо «первисно-агресивна» і знаходиться на піку, який це жанр може подарувати. Адже щоб іти далі та, справді, експериментувати із «важкістю» - потрібно грати #deathmetal. А якщо хочеться більш «сирої» та «холодної» злості, то #blackmetal. І в цьому полягає проблема треш металу, як такого. Для мене він завжди залишався «перехідним жанром» між класичним хеві та спід металом та більш екстремальною важкою музикою. Навіть сучасні, найбільш цікаві треш метал виконавці, постійно інкорпорують якійсь елементи із блеку або дезу в свою музику, щоб надати їй додаткової потужності, атмосферності та цікавості. Є ще шлях більш «прогресивного трешу», але давайте не будемо про погане (пробачте мене Voivod). І цим всім, я хотів сказати, що «справжній сирий треш» на Reign In Blood і закінчився. Він став «фатально неповторним» альбомом, який багато хто намагався копіювати, і у багатьох виходило, навіть не погано. Але при цьому - це завжди було «щось не те». Ніби музично гарно, але саме тих емоцій - подарувати не взмозі. Між іншим, це розуміли і самі Slayer, та не намагались більше робити щось подібне. Той самий South of Heaven (1988) - це вже зовсім інша, в багатьох аспектах, музика. Коротше кажучі, Reign In Blood - це унікальна та неповторна робота, що зробила Slayer справжніми «зірками» мейнстріму, остаточно сформувала жанр і тим самим, фактично, «прикінчіла» йога. І якщо провести аналогію із відео іграми, то я би назвав Reign In Blood - Diablo 2 від світу важкої музики
I find it intriguing how metal is, much more than any other genre of music, an island of its own. A lot of metal is exclusively listened to by metalheads, and reversely, a lot of metalheads exclusively listen to metal. Now I am most definitely not a metalhead, and as such, this music all sounds like the following to me: fast but unoriginal guitar riff - juvenile lyrics about death and/or christianity - formulaic guitar solo that sounds the exact same as all the ones that preceded it - back to singing - end. Clearly these guys really know their ways around their instruments, but the songs all sound tiringly homogenous and devoid of any authentic emotion to me, poor non-metalhead. I guess the world's simply divided into two groups of people: those who can identify with the phrase - as the top review so eloquently puts it - "FUCKING SLAYERRRR", and those who can't.
Guitars seem both super loud but also hard to hear... I think I'm spoiled by modern mixing. The jntro holocaust track is odd. I don't really see an artistic angle here, it's just describing the horrors people went through??
Like I understand why it’s beloved but I don’t know doesn’t do a bunch for me.
Enjoyed more metal for my metal-curiosity, but this was too fast for me. I don't think thrash metal is my thing.
Not as bad as we expected but wouldn't choose to listen to it
Again, the sort of continually and artlessly loud metal that turns (mostly) dull within a minute, and this one has some cringeworthy emo lyrics to boot.
It’s just not my deal. Solid guitar work of course.
Kinda fun, except for the lyrics.
I love hard rock and metal. But never been into the superfast thrash metal that this album represents. No real melody, indecipherable lyrics. On many occasions it seemed the band couldn't manage to keep in rhythm with itself!!. I assume it's on the 1001 list because it was "groundbreaking". Possibly in the same way as an album of white noise would be, or 45 minutes of drilling? However! I gave this album 3 listens and it did grow on me a bit. Besst track Jesus Saves
Completely insane 30 minute album. Super awesome, but I feel like the thrash sound is overplayed just a touch. Too many of the songs sound similar to the previous ones, but there are a few standout tracks. Kinda wish I was listening to this in my teens haha.
I couldn’t believe this record was only 28 minutes long. Is Slayer the Beach Boys of 1980s thrash metal?
I was VERY excited to see this on the list. But man, first thing in the morning and that first scream on Angel of Death... I had to put this one away till later in the day. You can love Slayer and still, there's a time and a place... Goddamn this album is so fucking brutal. I love the speed, the insanity. I could listen to this on loop. 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘 also, I just recently learned this is a Rick Rubin production. It's amazing how many things that guy has touched. Hilarious he was working on this at about the same time as Licensed to Ill. LOL. oh and PS: Fuck all the people on this site who I'm sure have given this album a terrible review. If this has above a 3 global rating, I'll be shocked.
It's a stretch to call this music.
I will not be listening to this under any circumstances. Namaste.
Crap
SLAYER!!!! This is the penultimate Slayer album. Rick Rubin is a genius producer and made Slayer sound like they were playing in a studio and not in a garage like they did on Hell Awaits. Raining Blood is the best song on this, but don't miss Angel of Death and Jesus Saves. 5/5 because SLAYER!!!! and this album was and may be one of the best metal albums of all time.
Times when I wished it was more like Metallica. Times I wished Metallica were more like this. Enjoyed it. Strangely relaxing to have on in headphones while all the other normies are sat on the train.
Actually got into the head banging after a while. Last song was the best.
All time greatest no one can ever step to this album absolute best metal album ever.
Relentless, it all sounds the same, no differentiation between the songs. If you're into this, it would be good....
no me gusta el genero
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Satanist, something, something, death, something. WEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Omg, well I usually listen to every album at least twice but there is no need with this one. It holds very little of interest for me, and really the screaming and the lyrics tip it well over in to ludicrous territory. The occasional discernible pleasing riff and I appreciate they have skill but this genre is not for me
Raining blood is a fun song but the rest of the album is quite boring in comparison
Like okay, It wasn't as bas as I thought I'd be sure but that wasn't a high bar in the first place. Idk what the vocals/lyrics were supposed to be. Having Pantera and Sepultura come up next didn't help much because that means the singing doesn't HAVE to be ass they just chose so.
LACERATED SKY
Not going to lie I’m really behind on the metal albums, so this band got two songs. This is the music Cody Walsh listens to. It’s both magnificent and stupid. I like the guitar and sound effects.
Thrash metal all sounds the same to me. The riffs on some songs were great, but not enough to make this listenable. Stand-out: Raining Blood
Heavy Classic Metal
Powerful heavy rock🤘🤘
Raining blood should be the opener for this album. Bizarre decision to put it mid album! It’s all very much one tempo but that is thrash metal, or it was at the start. Other bands did it better but maybe not as fast. This album is too monotonous for me despite being a metal fan.
Not my usual style of music but this album RIPS. Angel of Death and Raining blood especially to open and close the album are awesome. Not something I will be coming back to much, but doesn't overstay it's welcome and has some ripping songs
Nope
Not a masterpiece, but a fun listen. None of the songs are very distinct from one another, but it flows really well, and I like that it’s just a solid 30 minutes of fast metal. If it were longer, I wouldn’t like it as much, but I think it works really well as a short album.
Not my cup of blood, but recording is really fascinating in comparison to other metal records of the time and previous Slayer records. Super tight and fast as hell!
Wall-to-wall hardcore metal theatrics played at a breakneck pace. And I really mean theatrics! These guys clearly love putting on a show. The vocals are all wild wails from the depths of hell and the guitar solos are absurdly fast. I love the tempo/riff changes too. The music is dense and I’m sure there’s plenty more to discover on repeat listens. I haven’t had any coffee yet today so this was a lot but I had fun with it. I’ll have to bank it and put it on for a workout sometime.
Like all metal heads, I adore this album. In my opinion Slayer are the Metallica of heavier heavy metal, and this record is their "Master of Puppets". "Angel of Death" and "Raining Blood" are two metal staples. That first vocal yell on "Angel of Death" will forever be funny to me and I love how they start this album with such a fast bone crushing riff, only for the first voice sounded to be a bit silly before it gets to his normal singing voice. In most death metal outfits, you can't hear the lyrics that well; they are often grunted, shouted, or screeched through vocal chords into the diaphragm of a $100 dynamic mic. Tom Araya on the other hand actually has a really clear voice with wonderful diction. I love when death metal bands can do this and while you tend to get this a little more often in thrash metal compared to death metal, it's still a treat and always something that I enjoy. Great soloing by Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman (RIP) on this record. It's so chaotic and frenzied and wild. I haven't listened to this record in so many years and it's really bringing me back to being a late teens / early 20's long haired dude and blairing this while partying with my friends. I don't know if a night went by where one of these songs wasn't on the playlist. Hard rate for me. I want to say it's a high 4, but that feels like a disservice to such an important album to the genre. Is there a better thrash album? The best that come to mind are of "Master of Puppets" (although at this point they have shed their true thrash sound for a more "heavy metal" one)... "Kill Em All", Megadeth "Peace Sells...", or "Rust in Peace", Sepultura "Chaos AD"? To me, this album contends with all of those as being "best of the best", so it has to be a 5 for me. I'm writing this part of my review as I'm just getting to the start of "Raining Blood", and it's more clear to me that this is a 5. That intro riff is just so beloved and this song is so perfect for the style. Death/thrash metal struggles often with "catchyness", but here I am not hearing this song in probably decades and I can hum along to every riff, vocal part, and guitar solo. Can't say something isn't catchy if the hook is still in my mouth decades later. SSSLLLAAAYYYEEERRRRR
Album 639 of 1001 Slayer - Reign In Blood (1986) Rating : 2/ 5 Not really my cup of tea but still listenable. The biggest plus was the shredding guitars and the fact that the album is only just over 27 minutes long.
Nope.
Refused to listen.
2.8 When I was younger I used to love metal. And I used to really love thrash metal. Obsessed with Metallica, I heard Angel of Death and Raining Blood, saw in Music Zone or wherever I shopped back then and thought "holy shit this will be the greatest thrash album ever". Cue handing over my hard earned money (3 hours washing dishes in a cafe this cost me) and ultimately, crushing disappointment. These absolute stellar 5*thrash anthems bookend what is an ultimately forgettable 20 minutes. Tom's vocals are monotonous, the drumming monotonous, the riffs monotonous. I couldn't tell you the differences between most of the songs in this album. Metallica at least varied their vocals and riffs substantially within a given album. I think this album marked the end of 80s thrash for me the disappointment was so severe. Just stuck with Metallica and Megadeth for a year or so and then moved on to progressive metal.
Thrash Metal. The opening track "Angel of Death" sets the scene for the rest of the album. I don't usually like Thash Metal, but this album isn't bad.
fui automaticamente transportado pros meus 15 anos com esse época boa de ser metaleiro tr00zão chei de ódio de tudo reign in blood é paulera demais, tinha uns 10 anos que eu n escutava e valeu d+
caralho cortaro minha onda natalina na alta não é minha pira, mas eu até que gostei. pra mim esses cara fraga de trash metal. musica rapidinha e agressiva, ngm fica cansado, bao demais.
Primal awesomeness. Speed, hysteria and thrashing chaos.
I can only take Slayer in small doses. Typical thrash metal.
Relentlessly fast, but knows how to slow it down and get groovy. This album changed my life when I was 14. To the shock of nobody reading this, I was an edgy, athiest teenager and this music made me feel like I wasn't alone in my rural hometown. Slayer's Neo-Nazi imagery has aged poorly, which is unfortunate. What played as transgressive 40 years ago just doesn't work today. That being said, this music fucking rips and paved the way for so much music being made today. Any band that inspires people to literally carve the band's name into their body with knives is legendary in my book.
Umm, not my cuppa tea really. I mean maybe if I took up arc-welding or something.
Enjoyed it
After enduring a Sepultura album a few weeks ago, I was not looking forward to listening to even a half-hour of Slayer. However, I was surprised, in a good way, as I quite enjoyed this offering from a metal genre that I usually avoid like the plague. I won't be adding it to my Tidal library any time soon, but I wouldn't mind listening to it again sometime.
It’s slayer!
Listened Before? Y SLAYYYERR!!! This is a real love it or hate it album. Personally, I love it. I also get the gripes from other reviewers about he lack of variety of sound... you have to remember though, that this was fairly early in Slayer's careers and they did improve their variety of sound and musicianship in general from here. I also disagree with people saying the lyrics are shallow... this band was producing music about forbidden topics at the height of the Satanic panic. At the time, the lyrics were bold and terrifying. Just because modern bands freely worship Satan or talk about their WAP on the radio doesn't diminish what Slayer was doing in the 80s. Added to Library? It was already there so Y Songs added to playlist: Raining Blood
not a metal girly but it's alright, 2.5 maybe men om jag ska vara ärlig så lyssnade jag inte på hela
This album single handedly proved that I'm no longer young. Thanks for that.
Made my morning commute more energetic.
classic trash
I fucking needed this. Extremely aggressive and extremely fast. Thrash's finest hour. And listening to this album in full makes "Raining Blood" just hit SO much harder
Aggressive riffs, snarling vocals, heavy hitting drums. It all sounds the same, but what a sound!
Not my usual genre but I really love this album.
Good noise
MF’n Slayer.
SLLLLAAAAAYYYYYEEEERRRRRRR!!!! I definitely have a soft spot for Slayer, so when I saw this album, it brought me great joy. Just a super fun thrash album, get thrown in the deep end straight away, and it's just a meshing assault for the rest of the ride. Love it.
9/10
Не моя чашка чаю
Not my type
Never really cared for Slayer in the past, but I figured I'd give this an honest shot. While the guitar work is definitely top-notch, and I love metal in all it's various types, this just isn't doing it for me. I _hate_ the vocals so much. It just sounds like the band wrote a bunch of songs, and the singer came in and yelled a bunch of silly poetry on top, not even on the beat half the time. And I'd love it if the drums did anything other than blast beats 90% of the time. So...not for me.
I don't have time for this
It's been years since I've listened to Slayer and this album. I didn't miss them. Metal is often a laughable genre and I again know why. I'm not denying that his album has some power and gets you going, but come on, be honest, every track sounds the same. This album is only on this list because apparently you have to have some metal on it. Even there's a lot better stuff (looking at you, Mastodon).
The riffs get 5 stars. The solos get 3 stars. The vocals get 1 star.
Meh
I was never really into Metal, and Thrash Metal is worse.
This was not a hit with my girlfriend on Thanksgiving. Oh well. Love the gf love Slayer and only one of them will break up with me.
Every song here basically sounds the same. I'm sure these guys are good if this is a genre you're into, but I'm not, and am rating according to my enjoyment of it.
Probably the only thrash metal album you’ll ever need to hear Perfection
I get it. I understand why people like it. It is still rubbish though
I'm not the biggest Slayer fan in the world but this is a bona fide classic. A pummeling, nonstop 28 minutes that continuously beats you down, and when it's done, you want to put it back on. Whilst it picks one lane and sticks to it, the brief runtime prevents it from becoming stale, it's a bit like how short a lot of old hardcore albums are - brief, but it serves the music This is absolutely the best-produced 80s thrash album, it sounds fresh and punchy without sounding too sleek and lifeless like a lot of modern metal does This also deserves respect for the massive influence it had on death metal (side note, Pleasure to Kill by Kreator should be on this list for the same reason) and setting such a high bar for thrash metal (along with Master of Puppets and Rust in Peace) that countless bands have been trying to recreate for nearly 40 years A must listen within the metal genre Highlights: Jesus Saves, Criminally Insane, Raining Blood, Piece By Piece
fathers of thrash metal
I have tried this one a few times. Did like it better this time. Very intense though.
Weak metal
Raining blood
11/20/24. Simply put, this album kicks you right in the ass... but in the greatest way possible! Definitely a landmark example of thrash metal and the musicianship is outstanding.
Titans of Thrash Metal. A major influence on everything that came after them and some of their contemporaries. I never bought an album, but I respected their intensity. No real interaction with them past this... When I was in high school in the early nineties, the art teacher was a pretty chill dude. His son was a few years older than me but we were in some of the same friend circles and we had some interaction. While I never took any art classes, I would always stop by and chat with the Mr. B as he was often by his door as I was walking to another class. He was just a really nice guy with a good sense of humor. Mr. B papered the door to his classroom so that anyone could draw a bit here and there. I don't think that anyone ever abused it by putting anything TOO graphic or out of place and the paper would stay up most all year as it filled and filled throughout. In the top left quarter of the door, someone had done a Slayer namepiece along with star. I had walked by it countless times never really taking it in, but one day while chatting to the Mr. B I noticed something was off. The name was a good representation of the font but the background star was not 5 pointed. I asked, "Did someone draw a star of David instead of a pentacle for the Slayer background." He replied with, "It definitely seems so, but I don't ask any questions." I said, 'Fair enough." made my goodbyes and then headed on to class. It always stuck with me. He asked no questions, made no judgments, no critiques(other than maybe a supportive 'NICE!' here or there) on that door. It was always there for anyone to draw on and with no questions, judgments, or critiques offered...everyone felt free to do so. Plenty of people were dismissive of Slayer fans, or metal fans, or WHATEVER fans. Just dismissive in general. I wish more people were like Mr. B.
It’s thrash; one of those genres where you’re in, or you’re not. I’m in.
No me gusta
Noise
Reign in Blood is Slayer's third studio album, and their first while working with famed producer Rick Rubin. This is regarded as one of the best metal albums of all time, and the best speed metal album. Slayer makes intricate, technical metal that is played as fast as is possible. Tom Araya's vocals/screams focus on the darkest of topics: death, violence, torture, and the occult. The band is very good at making dark, angry music.
The kind of music they made so your mom could tell you to turn it down
Blech. I didn’t enjoy this one much, but I guess the technical skills are there for playing at a high rate of speed. I can rock but need a bit of melodic beauty to temper the chaos.
29 minutes of this was painful. Couldn’t have listened to another second.
well, it is what it is. Im sure many ppl liked this a lot and it is just absolutely not my style whatsoever.
Noise, shred, noise, shred, noise, shred. Is it possible to smell music? I could smell this, it smelt like sweaty men. There just seemed to be nothing melodic about it. I can't stand these sort of guitar shredding solos for the sake of it, "OK you can play notes fast, congratulations". Not for me.
Take the intensity of Metallica's "Master of Puppets," or "Ride The Lightning", cut out any slower bits, and scrunch that intensity into 30 minutes (whereas early Metallica's albums are 50-55 minutes long), and that was pretty much this album. There's a couple of songs, like "Reborn" where it seemed like there were too many words for the singer to sing at the speed they were playing. But ultimately, this is hardcore metal. Definitely something I should listen to more often. It's funny but as a kid my tastes did not go to metal. But now I appreciate them more and more. Top tracks: "Angle of Death," "Altar of Sacrifice," "Jesus Saves," "Epidemic," "Raining Blood"
This is classic thrash, which is both its blessing and its curse. The pulse to start songs like Angel of Death or Raining Blood is incredible. Heavy guitar. Frantic pace. But the album is too spastic. While the songs I mentioned have some real melody to them, they also go off the deep end at other times of the song and it's just angry noise. And that's the blueprint for pretty much every song on the album - some hang onto the melody longer than others but they all get to be a little exhausting. These guys are mega talented musicians and this is a landmark album for thrash metal. But it's just a bit too much for a whole album. So I can't go above 3.5 here.
Too much yelling for me
So edgy, I cut myself several times. I can't take it seriously. Raining Blood was alright, I guess. It had a discernable melody.
Raining bloodin (oho vau sanaleikki albumin nimessä) kitara on sairas! Muuten levy sais olla mielenkiintoisempi. Menee vähän räimeeksi minusta, ei keksitä muita hyviä melodioita kuin ensin mainittu.
Vaikka tämän levyn parhaat puolet ovatkin parhaimmillaan niukasti annosteltuina, en voi kiistää, etteikö kysymyksessä olisi jollain tapaa erityinen kokonaisuus. Bändi keksii jotain uutta lähes joka sekunti: rytminvaihdoksia, uusia osia ja koomisiä rääkäisyjä. Soolotkin ovat oleellista kuultavaa - myös niille, joille yleensä riittää Neil Youngin kitarointi. Matala 3
A mäh! Inte efter Limp Bizkit. Jag jämför inte men lite lugn och ro skulle vara skönt. Fattar att man kan uppskatta detta men mina öron orkar inte. Till slut blir det till komiskt med texterna och hetsen. Undrar hur en konsert skulle vara? Kommer aldrig gå på det så det får man inte veta. Men undra kan man.
Gillar verkligen inte trummorna. Dadadadada... Det är ju faktiskt inte alls bra. Men likt gårdagens album förstår jag att man kan digga detta, med dess image. Men musikaliskt är det snark. Även om det kanske kan argumenteras för att det tekniskt är "bättre" än limp bizkit. Jag hittar inte mycket här som är njutbart.
Avsaknad av melodier (eller i alla fall väldigt sparsmakat med), sång (det skriks) och tempoförändringar (det går så jävla snabbt hela tiden) gör tyvärr att man får andnöd av att lyssna på detta. Och då gillar jag ändå metal generellt.
Does what it says on the tin Short sweet
Not got long to live and want to make what little time is left to you feel much longer? Then boy do I have the album for you! This short album will make 28 minutes seem like over an hour with this one neat trick: playing the same song over and over and over again. Your early death will seem like a blessing after subjecting yourself to this.
Maybe I should stop listening to these while working, but this just merged into one big mush of heavy guitar. Nothing even remotely standing out. Simpsons: No
Raining Blood is a classic but the rest of the album does sound all the same tbf. I like the sound but it's not something I'd really be interested in enough to play normally.
I have heard of slayer before but never really listened to them. I do like some metal music but I think this was just too much for me.
I felt like thrash metal might be my mood yesterday. It was okay. A about Mengele and the holocaust for shock value didn’t sit right with me. You can say it’s to educate and inform but I don’t believe you, you just want to be an edgy boy.
This is not a style of music that I normally like, I expected not to like this album...first song, not bad, mostly because the vocals do have at least a bit of nuance. I can do without the speed lead guitar solos, but they are short enough not to be totally annoying. And the album is under 30 minutes long. After listening to the whole thing mostly as background music I'll give it 3 stars
Produced by Rick Rubin, this legendary Thrash Metal album not only became one of the best known Metal albums of the 80’s with Slayer being one of the big 4 of Thrash but it also paved the way for how Death Metal was recieved in the eye of the common Metal listener and in a way being an important step in the full creation of the genre that would officially come with the debut album by Death a year later. But that came with a cost because of the way they made and showed of the album as this satanic and violent piece, it was banned for many children from their parents which did in a way make them wanna listen to it even more. One thing is clear, this is one of the best Metal albums of the 80’s and most likely of all time. The very energetic and fast paced ‘Angel of Death’ opens the album with some really good vocals that work perfectly with the songs sound and structure. It’s this really grimy and dark song that even though it isn’t even 5 minutes long, still stays as the albums longest track. I really like the riffs and the general playing as well as the overal performance that just plays really well with the ideas of Thrash Metal and this whole satanic image and results in an incredible track full of great moments like the guitar solo near the end. The hints of Death Metal appear on ‘Piece by Piece’ which still continues the obvious Thrash Metal sound and create a loud and energetic song that plays with apocalyptic imagery that is even portraited in the music itself. But it’s mainly the vocals that make this such a great listen. ’Necrophobic’ is the shortest song with less than 2 minutes of playtime and has even more of the hints of Death Metal as well as a really fast paced instrumental that really plays out into a manic solo that just helps the entire song feel even crazier and more out there. I’m also impressed with how fast the vocalist is able to get these words out of his mouth. This is a great song. With ‘Altar of Sacrifice’, they continue the loud and manic styles with a guitar solo that is really everywhere at once and switches between notes so fast that I am genuinely impressed with how they managed to pull all of this together. It’s genuinely such a great song even though it might’ve been even better if they put a bit more structure into the chaos but still better than if they had thought all of it out into the littlest detail and maybe ruined it in the end, so I am not mad with how unstructured it is because it is still really great. Side A of the album ends with ‘Jesus Saves’ which does take some time to start and once it does it feels unstructured but not really in the “great” way. It feels thrown together and unfinished. The hook of him saying the title is strong as is the guitar solo but it’s all a bit too fast and without enough focus which is why it’s good but not great. ‘Criminally Insane’ starts the second half with a still fast, chaotic and manic song but one that is fleshed out more and better. In fact, it’s a really entertaining song that pretty much does everything correct that it could’ve made correct. I don’t think that it’s perfect but it is close and I might actually prefer it over ‘Angel of Death’. The vocals are just so incredibly well made and every second feels at least somewhat valuable. This is really incredible. Sadly, ‘Reborn’ does the thing again where it just plays a bit too fast and makes the vocals sound washy at points. The chorus is pretty much perfect though and the solo also rocks but there are still moments pulling it down and leaving it at great although it could’ve been more. On ’Epidemic’ they do make a pretty strong song but I personally just think that some parts of it are just a tad bit samey and although it is a good song it does feel a bit like it’s been done already on the album and done better. It’s good and I like the solo as well as the vocal delivery but it doesn’t reach further although it very well could’ve. ’Postmortem’ pulls off the best riff so far and easily one of the best deliveries both vocally and instrumentally. This is what a Thrash song is supposed to be and I absolutely love it. There is not much to say here excpet that the song deserves its reputation and is without a doubt a perfect song. 80’s Thrash Metal perfection with hints of Death Metal and some amazing vocals… what would you want more? I tell you what you want more: the closing track ‘Raining Blood’ which is the 80’s version of ‘Black Sabbath’ (the song) with the rain and thunder sounds while still being their crazy Thrash Metal. It’s everything the previous songs tried to be but better and more METAL!!! Yeah, this is easily their best song ever made. The riffs, the vocals, the effects: All is just perfected to the most perfect possible. favourites: Raining Blood, Postmortem, Criminally Insane, Angel of Death least favourites: Jesus Saves Rating: strong 8 https://rateyourmusic.com/~Emil_ph for more ratings, reviews and takes
I knew by the cover I’d hate it. Listened to three tracks for 2 seconds each which confirmed my hate. 👎
I feel bad to people who can't stand metal, but this album is very influential and important in music history. (Also just because someone screams does not make it screamo or death metal, but it will always be funny when I read these review) This is one of those bands you know the drummer is jacked even if you've never seen him. When I first heard this album I didn't like it, besides angel of death and raining blood. Every song really sounds the same when they play so fast and you dont pay attention, but over the years this album has really grown on me. It is short and sweet and has some great riffs. Like that breakdown in the middle of Angel Of Death *chef's kiss*. Also it is impossible not to head bang to the "your time slips away" breakdown. The angel of death scream is so cool too. The halftime parts in Piece By Piece are great. The Criminally Insane drum groove is criminally underrated. One of the funniest things is that the expanded version of this album on spotify adds one remix and that's it. Some expanded version. High 5.
I had forgotten how short this is, because it feels like being run over by a truck. Repeatedly. Starts with 'Angel of Death', end on 'Raining Blood', and everything in between is just as perfect. Dave Lombardo is a beast.
Possibly the greatest metal album ever. It’s just absolute perfection from start to finish.
It’s not complex, it’s not subtle but that’s the charm
Funny how time changes things, huh? There was a period of my life where simply looking at this album cover was a death sentence. My dad told me the "lore" behind it from his Christian perspective, and it scared the living shit out of me (but of course, also enticed me. I love how when you're a kid, your parents unintentionally make the "bad" things sound like the greatest fucking things ever.) If I had ever been caught with this album in my possession, I would've been grounded, beaten, and probably starved from dinner that night. That's how much my parents wanted me to stay away from it. And I did. I was literally scared that if I listened to this, I would A) summon the devil to my house and B) buy a one-way ticket to hell. But of course, time makes fools of us all. When I finally did listen to this, my main thought was, "I don't get the fuss. Doesn't SOUND evil to me, just really fast and technical. That's not evil." And then I heard it today for the first time in years and thought, "Eh, low end's pretty weak throughout." I laughed at my past fears, and then thought more on how something so harmless like a mainstream studio album (produced by god damn Rick Ruben) could insight so much fear in me. Then I realized, it's not the world that instills fear, it's the people who want to keep you strapped to their ideologies so they remain in power. So, you know, fuck the fascists. Vote blue 2024.
I prefer my metal to be less reined in.
I like metal, but I'm not a huge fan of speed metal or nu metal. This is just a bit too frantic for me.
Fast Power Rangers Music
Short n sweet thrashy goodness. Grim lyrics (id lean on potentially distasteful) but iconic album nevertheless
njaa jag kan inte riktigt gilla detta
This was hard for me to get through. I am apparently not a fan of thrash metal. I can appreciate this for what it is, but to my ears, all the songs sound the same. It just sounds like harshness for the sake of harshness. Would not listen again.
No no no no no noooooooo! Death metal puts me in a bad mood every time, and this is even worse than average.
Fast, raw, hardcore, with rythym, sounds like a sexual thing but Im talking about the music. Insane display of mastering all instruments. This band is loyal to their roots and they could have gone mainstream and vecone billionares like metallicawhen they went pop rock but these guys are true musicians. Album must be considered one of the top 10 ever metal albums. Only 12 short songs but they are all powerful and the perfect length. Im a fan and this has been a staple of my metal soundtrack since high school back in the 90s.
It’s just not really exciting to me.
Me gustó Raining Blood. 🤟🤟🤟
I'm not really a fan of speed metal. I appreciate it though. The musicianship, especially when it comes to timing and speed is spectacular and worthy of the highest praise. The singing doesn't do it for me though.
Fast-paced, rocking, rolling, very fun, very heavy, influential, a bit same-y, quite good. Key tracks: Angel of Death Raining Blood
I’m resisting the urge to just write, “Fucking Slayer!!!! 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻” To me, Reign in Blood is the best thrash metal record ever made, and maybe one of the best metal records, period. This was metal for punk kids, with punk’s breakneck speed and lyrics critical of religiosity, but adding in the chugs, shreds, and opera shrieks and grunts of metal. Reign in Bloods biggest issue is that its opener, midpoint, and closer stand leagues above the rest of the songs, but that’s only because they’re 3 of metal’s high water marks. Even without them, this is a brilliant and consistently amazing record. It may suggest some of the tropes that Slayer (particularly King) would be clowned for later in their career, but here, they’re innovative and still fascinatingly fresh. It’s consistently intense, and yet consistently catchy, never stopping for a moment. The fact that it still holds up as an intense listen today is a testament to Rubin’s production and Slayer’s compositional ear. Also, I love having my face melted off, so fuck yeah, I love Reign in Blood.
I'm no fan but I can admire the sheer ferociousness of the thing. Landmark metal.
no
Meh
I like metal music, but the lyrics always come up short for me. Not sure what I'm hoping for, but I guess this wasn't it.
Angel of Death Raining Blood
Leaf Karen has started another loud contractor project that is keeping me from working. Slayer may be appropriate.
That was…interesting.
If there were half stars I’d give this a 2.5. Not my thing but I can see why people like it.
There's certainly good musicianship here, but the lyrics are a little dark for me. If anything, it's great music to thrash around the room to.
Reign In Blood is pretty iconic and holds up in the genre nearly 40 years later, which is a big positive to me but other people might think that says something about speed/metalcore. The title track closer is outstanding, the middle run from Altar of Sacrifice to Reborn is strong, sure there's unnecessarily crude shock-value lyrics that lack nuance and that's been shown up by the evolution of metal since, but the sound is tremendous and immediately recognisable, it's a low 4 from me Clive.
Not my jam, too angry and too noisy. But, apart from that, it's not bad at all - on the spectrum of this kind of stuff, the lyrics are more intelligible, the music is hard and harsh but not unlistenable, and there's certainly some semblance of a tune there. Lyrics are a bit much in places, trying to show off how scary they are and it comes off as insecurity to me really Doesn't go on too long either, which a lot of the metal albums we've had have done. Can't imagine I'll ever come back to this, but see why other people might like it, so gets a 3.
This is still just as raw and moving as it was in the late 80s. We would play this at keg parties in the bronx, its the kind of album that defines your appreciation for metal. 4/5
short and sweet but also hard as fuck. perfect for a metal album
Not my type of music at all but I fucking loved this album. Those drums!! Big as an atomic bomb. Surprised to learn Rick Rubin produced it but of course he did. I also enjoyed that it was less than 30 minutes. All killer no filler (which is probably not on this list but should be #justiceforsum41)
Maybe I just hate James Hetfield specifically
screamo but its oddly satisfying right now. Let's see if this is tolerable.
The average song on this album goes Thrash, Thash, Thrash, Thrash, Death, Thrash, Thrash, Thrash, Terror, Thrash, SLAYER!!!!, Thrash, Thrash, Thrash. I got old by track 2. 2/5
Voor de vorm geluisterd, maar makkelijke 5 sterren dit, al is het maar voor Angel of Death en Raining Blood. Als ik dan toch een puntje van kritiek zou moeten geven: de gitaarsolo's. Die klinken vaak alsof de gitarist ze zelf ook niet zag aankomen en dacht: hooooo ik moet nu snel ineens wat doen.
Bunch of awful noise
woooooaaaaaaaaaaaahh
Somethin for the honeys
Fast and furious.
Slayer were always my second favorite out of the big 4 thrash bands - I probably woulda gone with "Seasons in the Abyss" over "Reign in Blood" but it's still a sold pick, so I won't quibble. They really went balls to the wall to push everything OTT - yes, it's very silly from certain angles, but that's part of the fun! I was probably leaning towards a 4 for this, but the specter of metalhead teenage me materialized and demanded a 5 while yelling SLAYurrrrrr over and over again. Fave tracks - "Angel of Death" is an immense opener and a declaration of intentions. "Jesus Saves" is lolz. "Raining Blood" is an excellent closer.... 🤘
Lärm und sonst nichts!
this was so astronomically dumb i couldn’t stop laughing…it really sounds like they put all the grossest edgy bullshit that a 15 year old redditor would find cool in a hat and pulled them out at random to compose (generous word there) the lyrics. there was an instrumental break (end of “altar of sacrifice” into “jesus saves”*) that i found mildly interesting but as soon as the vocals started again it was back to total dumbass horse shit. the best part of this record is that it’s less than half an hour long. thank god for small mercies. *even typing these song titles is making me laugh
i just couldn't do it i listened for maybe 30 seconds
The understated songwriting of Paul Simon with the unmatched harmonies of CSN. You won’t find them here. This is thrash metal. Angry, “I want to see your skin rot and melt away” thrash metal. It certainly has its place, and I can see how some are drawn to it as an outlet for pain and frustration. But I can’t say I enjoy listening to it.
Not my speed.
I've tried to listen to it before, but it's just not my thing. I know this is a thrash metal classica and it's going to ding my metal cred, but here goes. Don't like the singer or the lyrics. All the songs sound pretty damn similar. 2.5* rounded down.
Not my style of music, I didn't really enjoy the album.
High energy metal that unfortunately all sounds the same. Got me pumped tho
Well-produced and super tight thrash metal from the masters. Just an all-out frontal assault for 30 minutes and I'm totally here for it!
Reign in Blood isn’t nearly as offensively bad as I expected. Songs about nazi psychopaths (they are not pro nazi), witches getting their revenge, I can dig. The Satan stuff is comically stereotypical. Overall it’s fast, short. Nothing dynamic about it 3.9/10
apparently I like Thrash metal...but reading about Angel of Death being based on Josef Mangele immediately turned me off of this album and band. Maybe unfairly given their comments about the song. But I just didn't have much interest in getting through this one as a result...
This is #day40 of my #1001albumsyoumusthearbeforeyoudie challenge, and... I'm sipping my morning coffee to some thrash metal... Not my usual breakfast fare, but that's part of the fun. One of the things I love about music is how it can spark memories. It's like a bridge to different stages of life, just needing a spark to light the way. The name "Slayer" has been familiar since my teenage years. I remember seeing it in the teen zines I devoured around age 13-15, I can recall Kerry King's tattoos, the name "Dave Lombardo", and a feature about their album God Hates Us All. But I never listened to their music until now. My initial thrash metal experience was with Metallica, actually, their 90s works (I know, it's a far-from-thrash Metallica but still), which set a high bar for me. Reign in Blood doesn't quite live up to that, and, I guess, it shouldn't because it's a pure inferno spread across a little more than 28 minutes runtime. As I listen to the penultimate track, I can only identify it by checking the tracklist. Maybe that's the whole point of it? A kick-in-the-teeth punk thrash? This isn't something I'm hell-bent on revisiting in the future, but it's definitely a cornerstone of the genre. This is a 3 out of 5 because I'm not a fan of the satanic lyrical content. Looking forward to #day41.
Good thrash metal album
Great for those times you need to break a detainee. Guaranteed to speed up any CIA interrogation.
Awful
Chaos!
This is the pinnacle of thrash. Not a wasted note, not a single moment of respite. Just a brutal kick in the teeth from the first second to its short end. \m/