Prior to the release of Reign In Blood I had been vaguely aware of Slayer for a few years but wasn’t really overtly familiar with their music. I had a couple of shaky tracks taped from the radio, “Die By The Sword” and “Chemical Warfare” if memory serves me correctly and I had liked what I heard. Then they signed to Def Jam for what was to be their third album and, horror of horrors, linked up with producer Rick Rubin, at the time more noted for his work with black artists. Other bands in the genre who signed to major labels were accused by their fan bases of selling out. Thrash was underground, it wasn't mass appeal music and the thought of a band actually wanting to sell and market their music to as many people as possible went totally against the ethos of what this new music was supposed to be about. 

Not so Slayer. “Reign In Blood” was more focused than the previous albums distilling Slayer's pent up aggression and anger to an absolute edge. Seeing them in my home town at the Playhouse Theatre to say I was blown away was an understatement. The “Reign In Blood” material was just so insanely fast and heavy, short and too the point that this could in no way be described as music for the masses. As soon as the album hit the shops in the UK I had it, in fact I have purchased it six times over the years to cover for lost/broken/stolen copies and it is still the absolute landmark by which thrash metal albums are measured and, if truth be told, one of the defining points in rock/metal in general.

Reign In Blood is simply one of those albums that changed the status quo and redefined where a genre could go. What can be said about tracks like “Angel Of Death”, “Raining Blood” and “Postmortem” that hasn’t been said a million times before. I don’t think there is anymore ways to wax lyrical about such a stonkingly good album. If you like the thought of music tearing your face off then this album is a must buy. It is truly a 10/10 record, and that's just because the scale doesn’t go any higher - other than for Spinal Tap Marshall stacks of course!

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Track Listing

Angel of Death
Piece by Piece
Necrophobic
Altar of Sacrifice
Jesus Saves
Criminally Insane
Reborn
Epidemic
Postmortem
Raining Blood

Line Up

Jeff Hanneman - Guitar
Kerry King - Guitar
Tom Araya - Bass/Vocals
Dave Lombardo - Drums