Slayer-Reign in Blood is ...

Dodens Grav · Post by **Dodens Grav** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 1:45 am

Given the tastes of this board, it's really not surprising that so many people lean toward Show No Mercy over Reign in Blood, but to paint it as merely some kind of gateway album is utterly ridiculous, as though nobody could have a genuine appreciation to it. I personally consider it their second most accomplished work, and that's after Hell Awaits, with Haunting the Chapel and Show No Mercy following. Reign in Blood was much more of a step forward and demonstrated a much more keen sense of forward thinking than did Show No Mercy, so it's hardly lacking substance of any kind.

Ernest Thesiger · Post by **Ernest Thesiger** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 2:26 am

mordred wrote:Trouble turned completely bollocks after they started working with Rubin.

But their eponymous 1990 album is great!

My problem with Rubin's recordings is his merciless burial of bass players. Makes me wonder why Tom Araya even bothered strapping his bass on after 1986.

MEXDefenderOfSteel · Post by **MEXDefenderOfSteel** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 2:29 am

Ernest Thesiger wrote:
mordred wrote:Trouble turned completely bollocks after they started working with Rubin.
But their eponymous 1990 album is great!

My problem with Rubin's recordings is his merciless burial of bass players. Makes me wonder why Tom Araya even bothered strapping his bass on after 1986.

i found bass lines pretty cool on first and second Danzig albums

gauze · Post by **gauze** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 4:24 am

[quote="Korgüll"]I do remember when first hearing 'Altars Of Madness' a few years later & thinking that it completely destroyed RiB!!!!!!!!!!!![/quote]

I considered Alters of Madness the logical end point of where RiB was going, and honestly I consider it the last great metal record (this can't be a popular opinion!) as where metal went after this was just either repetition or into areas I didn't like (black metal, technical death metal, moshcore shit, "epic power metal", etc) again I am not a metal historian I'm sure there are some obscure thrash jems I don't even know about.

I've seen Pleasure to Kill mentioned a number of times in this thread, I like this record like everyone else but it wasn't the bomb blast that Reign in Blood was to me, and also I'd like to note when I saw them [Kreator] live in march 1987 they were like 10x better than the record. Maybe the best metal band I ever saw.

Also I love the 2 Rubin produced Trouble albums, Manic Frustration took a bit to grow on me but that is a damn fine album (which I need on vinyl if anyone is selling one!) certainly like these 2 more than Run to the Light, what a fucking let down that was after the Skull.

sovdat · Post by **sovdat** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:16 am

Avenger wrote:
sovdat wrote:Also saying that Reign in Blood was highly marketed is nonsense - it didn't even get any radio play!
I'm sure this album got play on many university and other major 1 hour Metal only radio shows that aired at ridiculous hours when no one would hear it.

So much that it got on Billboard while majority of other bands that were played on those shows didn't sell more than several thousand copies?

Avenger · Post by **Avenger** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 3:06 pm

sovdat wrote:
Avenger wrote:
sovdat wrote:Also saying that Reign in Blood was highly marketed is nonsense - it didn't even get any radio play!
I'm sure this album got play on many university and other major 1 hour Metal only radio shows that aired at ridiculous hours when no one would hear it.
So much that it got on Billboard while majority of other bands that were played on those shows didn't sell more than several thousand copies?

What do you mean?

sovdat · Post by **sovdat** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 4:37 pm

Avenger wrote:
sovdat wrote:
Avenger wrote:
I'm sure this album got play on many university and other major 1 hour Metal only radio shows that aired at ridiculous hours when no one would hear it.
So much that it got on Billboard while majority of other bands that were played on those shows didn't sell more than several thousand copies?
What do you mean?

Well do you mean that those odd radio shows aired at ridiculous hours and university radios meant that much for RiB - it got so much more attention that it sold for half a million to the rest that sold in several thousands? (I'm talking about those several hundred bands, that could've been just as "influental" if they were highly marketed at that time). Sure Slayer were already a known band in '86, but did all this mean that much, for RiB to become such a classic?

For example, Overkill were already there at the time - yet they were only selling 50.000 per album. Vio-Lence didn't even sell enough copies of their debut to keep the deal with the major label - I suppose that those didn't get much less airplay on those radioshows you were mentioning than Slayer in 1986?

I love old Overkill, as well as Vio-Lence, as well Pleasure to Kill. In my opinion all of these were too "limited" to their own audience to become a widely recognised classic as Reign in Blood ...

khiijol · Post by **khiijol** » Tue Nov 24, 2009 9:51 pm

i can't choose a clear favorite between all material up to and including RiB. pretty much my favorite music of any genre. south of heaven drops off drastically in quality when you get to side B and SitA is grossly uneven. i don't like anything after that, the absolute nadir being the atrocious cover album

Avenger · Post by **Avenger** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 1:54 pm

sovdat wrote:
Avenger wrote:
sovdat wrote:
So much that it got on Billboard while majority of other bands that were played on those shows didn't sell more than several thousand copies?
What do you mean?
Well do you mean that those odd radio shows aired at ridiculous hours and university radios meant that much for RiB - it got so much more attention that it sold for half a million to the rest that sold in several thousands? (I'm talking about those several hundred bands, that could've been just as "influental" if they were highly marketed at that time). Sure Slayer were already a known band in '86, but did all this mean that much, for RiB to become such a classic?

For example, Overkill were already there at the time - yet they were only selling 50.000 per album. Vio-Lence didn't even sell enough copies of their debut to keep the deal with the major label - I suppose that those didn't get much less airplay on those radioshows you were mentioning than Slayer in 1986?

I love old Overkill, as well as Vio-Lence, as well Pleasure to Kill. In my opinion all of these were too "limited" to their own audience to become a widely recognised classic as Reign in Blood ...

Marketing doesn't necessarily mean radio play. What I meant was that the radio play that all "REAL" Metal bands got was next to nothing other then specialty airings. Thrash Metal just isn't commercial and "easy listening" enough as a whole to receive major network radio play nor did it have a large enough audience even back in the late 80's. I'm not comparing "Reign In Blood" to any top selling album of all time from other genres of music but compared to the average Metal album, "Reign In Blood" was quite highly marketed in terms of a Metal release. This explains it's massive praise, hype and fan base. In fact, now that I think about it, I even have a friend that doesn’t even listen predominantly to Metal music as he's a grunge/90's alternate rock guy and he even likes "Reign In Blood".

DMR · Post by **DMR** » Wed Nov 25, 2009 5:51 pm

Who voted for "rap metal"?

deathster · Post by **deathster** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 3:46 pm

Being kid in 1987 and behind Iron Curtain with non existing English I did not know anything about promotion and such stuff then. It was pure death metal aggression at that time (on 5th generation copy tape). I still remember how I felt listening to it at that time. My fave from Slayer. It was tough to get this recording at that time where I lived.

Next recording that shaked my world ca 2 years later was S.O.D. "Speak English or Die". Damn it was brutal. I did not know how they looked and waht they sang, but I löoved the music. I was really surprised later that this album came in 1985 (I thought its 1989 release, again on my 5th or 6 generation cassette).

The Sentinel · Post by **The Sentinel** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 10:01 pm

Great record with some awesome tunes but nowhere near their first classics. The records after "Reign In Blood" are rubbish except "Divine Intervention" which has some great tunes as well.

DTP · Post by **DTP** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 12:17 am

DMR wrote:Who voted for "rap metal"?

the only song on RiB that *could* be classified as that would be the beginning of "Criminally insane" (opening drumbeat plus Tom's bouncy "night will come and i will follow" delivery), that, or the fact that it's on DEF JAM...

i can certainly see why ppl would call it overrated, in a way it is. but i still enjoy the majority of the LP, spin it once a year; but i agree other titles are a bit more aggressive in comparison (pleasure to kill/party with god/illusions/etc)

the problem w/ RiB, as somebody mentioned, is that it cast a VERY long shadow over the rest of the thrash scene, so a ton of great acts were overlooked or ignored in the long run.

p.s. South o' Heaven was the beginning of the end, for me. i still dig 1/2 of it, nice SABBATH-y vibe goin on....

Satrapold · Post by **Satrapold** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 8:40 am

Voted for "not as good as...", I still think it's one of their best and also the last I would classify as great. The second option is funny though, as I think "Angel Of Death" and "Raining Blood" are not even the best songs on the album, plus they are overplayed to death. My favorites were always "Altar Of Sacrifice" and "Jesus Saves", and I consider them as one song, they just can't be played separately!

MassOfKthulu · Post by **MassOfKthulu** » Sat Nov 28, 2009 3:38 pm

actually,angel of death and reign in blood excluded,it is all one track to me,and thats how i always listen to it-piece by piece to postmortem