Monday, March 11, 2013

#790 Slayer - South of Heaven

Sometimes you need to rage, and you're really, thoroughly, definitely bored with Reign in Blood. I guess in that case you could be forgiven for going to this album, but its undeniably an overslick shadow of its legendary predecessor. Sure, the guitars are ear-burningly fast, the beats are frantic and dense, and the subject matter is decidedly twisted and heavy, but the production strips away the magic. The guitars in particular are cleaner and more precise, but lack that wild edge. The vocals fare even worse, especially when Araya tries to jam rhymes into place: he sounds like a man, not like the force of nature that rampaged over Reign in Blood.

And that's the heart of the problem: this just sounds like an album, transcending nothing in particular, leaving hints of ridiculousness clinging to a band along the way. When you're a band striving to have your message of menace taken deadly seriously, those are the kinds of hints that can break the spell 3/5

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