Many fans of thrash metal might have gotten into Slayer thanks to their major label debut Reign In Blood<\/i>. But Tom Araya and crew\u2014just like the other three bands of metal\u2019s \u201cBig 4\u201d\u2014cut their teeth on earlier releases, albums which might not have had the same level of polish, but had the same intensity.<\/p>\n
For Slayer, their debut effort Show No Mercy<\/i> is similar to their genre-mates, in that their birth cry on vinyl might have had its weak moments, but had enough promise to suggest greatness in their future. It\u2019s not a disc I go back to often, but when I do, it is enjoyable enough to make me wonder just why I don\u2019t listen to it that much when compared to other albums in their discography.<\/p>\n
There has been some criticism leveled by others regarding the overall production and sound of this disc\u2014but, to be fair, it\u2019s actually not that bad. The dual guitar attack of Jeff Hannemann and Kerry King is evenly balanced with Araya\u2019s bass and vocal work, as well as Dave Lombardo\u2019s drumming. No one sound overpowers the other, and any effects used on Araya\u2019s vocals are, thankfully, kept to a minimum.<\/p>\n
Musically, there are songs here which have rightfully stood the test of time; tracks like \u201cThe Antichrist,\u201d \u201cBlack Magic\u201d and \u201cDie By The Sword\u201d still sound as good today as they did nearly 40 years ago. While Slayer might still have been discovering their signature sound in 1983, Show No Mercy<\/i> demonstrates they were well on their way.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say this is a perfect release. There are still some tracks which don\u2019t live up to the same potential. The opening song \u201cEvil Has No Boundaries\u201d at times sounds like a stereotypical metal song of the \u201980s, and doesn\u2019t suggest that Slayer was about to break any new ground with their music. Similarly, tracks like \u201cThe Final Command,\u201d \u201cFight Till Death\u201d and \u201cCrionics\u201d just go nowhere; they\u2019re pleasant enough to listen to, but that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n
Still, Show No Mercy<\/i> proves to be a fairly solid, if slightly uneven, debut effort from Slayer. Would I have predicted the level of success they eventually achieved? Honestly, probably not\u2014but I would have definitely called them someone to watch had I listened to this in 1983. (Yes, I was late to the party\u2026 again.) Even today, it\u2019s still worth dusting this one off, if only to hear where Araya and crew came from\u2014and where they were eventually headed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6475],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-46518","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-slayer","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46518","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=46518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46518"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46518"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}