This review is actually an accident.<\/p>\n
You see, I had intended on going back to the first release from
\nthe speed-metal band Slayer,
\nShow No Mercy<\/i>, to re-educate myself in this band’s music and
\ntrace their musical progress up to their most recent work. Instead,
\nI found myself in the car with
\nHell Awaits<\/i>, their third album (second if you count
\nHaunting The Chapel<\/i> as an EP), my education shot down in
\nflames.<\/p>\n
Oh, it wasn’t that I was disappointed with my selection; if
\nanything,
\nHell Awaits<\/i> proved that Tom Araya and crew demanded to be
\ntaken on their own terms – and if you accepted, then you had better
\nprepare yourself for one intense musical trip.<\/p>\n
Their overall sound was still coming together, and while this is
\na decent representation of what Slayer’s sound was like in 1985, it
\nstill wasn’t the perfect picture. (That would come on their
\nmajor-label debut,
\nReign In Blood<\/i>.) Possibly this is because the music industry
\n(even a label dedicated the genre like Metal Blade) didn’t quite
\nknow what to do with such a sound at that time in metal’s history.
\nAfter all, while there had been bands with Satanic leanings, and
\nthere most definitely had been speed metal bands, nobody had
\ncombined the two with such furious power as Slayer had.<\/p>\n
You can tell this from the title track alone – though I do
\nadmit, after spending so much time listening to
\nLive – Decade Of Aggression<\/i>, I do miss hearing “The
\nAnti-Christ” immediately following this song. The way that the band
\n– bassist\/vocalist Araya, guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman
\nand drummer Dave Lombardo – handle the style and speed changes on
\nthis particular track is nothing short of phenomenal. There’s a
\nreason why this track has remained a fan favorite all these
\nyears.<\/p>\n
The entire first half of
\nHell Awaits<\/i> taps into that power and keeps the listener
\nengrossed from note one to the end. “Kill Again” is a track that is
\none of those “coulda-shoulda-woulda” songs (that is, it should have
\nbeen a breakthrough hit for them), while “At Dawn They Sleep” just
\noozes intensity and power from every beat.<\/p>\n
The second half of this album falters only slightly – and this
\nis not to say that tracks such as “Necrophiliac” and “Crypts Of
\nEternity” are bad. But they pale a little bit in comparison to the
\nhighlights of
\nHell Awaits<\/i>. Even so, they’re still guaranteed to warp the
\npaint off your car. I do like the way they go back to the album’s
\nopening riffs at the close of “Hardening Of The Arteries,” thus
\nending the album. Nice touch.<\/p>\n
\nHell Awaits<\/i> is a great portrait of a band just about to make
\nits big break onto the metal scene, and it’s just as enjoyable
\ntoday as it was 15 years ago. Evil never felt so heavenly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25665,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6475],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36871","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-slayer","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36871"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}