REIGN IN BLOOD

'''Reign in Blood''' is the third studio album and major label debut by the American thrash metal band Slayer. Released on October 7, 1986, the album was the band's first collaboration with record producer Rick Rubin, whose input helped the band's sound evolve. ''Reign in Blood'' was very well received by both critics and fans, and was responsible for bringing Slayer to the attention of a mainstream metal audience. ''Kerrang!'' magazine described the record as "the heaviest album of all time", and a breakthrough in thrash metal.
''Reign in Blood's release was delayed because of concerns regarding its graphic artwork and lyrical subject matter. The opening track, "Angel of Death", references Josef Mengele and details acts committed at the Auschwitz concentration camp, which provoked allegations of Nazism.^[1] However, the band stated numerous times they do not condone Nazism, and are merely interested in the subject.^[2] The album was Slayer's first to enter the Billboard 200; the release peaked at number 94, and in 1992 was awarded a gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Contents

Record label changes

Recording

Reception

Lombardo's departure

Legacy

Live performances

Controversy

Artwork

Lyrical themes

Appearances in media

Track listing

References

Record label changes

Following the positive reception to ''Hell Awaits'', Slayer's producer and manager Brian Slagel realized the band were in a position to hit the "big time" with their next album. Slagel negotiated with several record labels, among them Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons's Def Jam Records. However, Slagel was reluctant to sign the band to what was at the time primarily a hip hop label. Dave Lombardo was made aware of Rubin's interest, and made a move to contact him. However, the other Slayer members were apprehensive at leaving Metal Blade Records, with whom they were under contract.
Lombardo contacted Columbia Records — Def Jam's distributor — and managed to get in touch with Rubin, who along with photographer Glen E. Friedman agreed to attend one of the band's concerts. Friedman had produced Suicidal Tendencies's self titled album, in which Slayer vocalist Tom Araya had made a guest appearance in the music video for the album's single "Institutionalized", pushing Suicidal Tendencies's vocalist Mike Muir. Around this time Rubin asked Friedman if he knew Slayer.
Guitarist Jeff Hanneman was surprised by Rubin's interest in the band, and was impressed by his previous work with the hip hop acts Run DMC and LL Cool J. During a visit by Slagel to a European music convention, Rubin spoke with the band directly, and persuaded them to sign with Def Jam. Slagel paid a personal tribute to Rubin, and said that Rubin was the most passionate of all the label representatives the band were in negotiations with. Following the agreement, Friedman brought the band members to Seattle for two days of publicity shots, possible record shots, and photos for a tour book; Rubin felt no good photos of the band had been taken before that point. One of the photos was used on the back cover of the band's 1988 release ''South of Heaven''.

Recording

''Reign in Blood'' was recorded and produced in Los Angeles with Rick Rubin. The album was the label boss' first professional experience with heavy metal, and his fresh perspective led to a drastic makeover of Slayer's sound. Rubin drew tighter and faster songs from the band, and delivered a cleanly produced sound that contrasted sharply with their previous recordings.^[3] This resulted in drastic changes to Slayer's sound, and changed audiences' perception of the band. Araya has since admitted their two previous releases were under-par production wise.^[4]
Guitarist Kerry King later remarked that "It was like, 'Wow—you can hear everything, and those guys aren't just playing fast; those notes are on time.'"
Hanneman has since admitted that while the band were listening to Metallica and Megadeth at the time, they were by then finding the repetition of guitar riffs tiring. "If we do a verse two or three times, we're already bored with it. So we weren't trying to make the songs shorter—that's just what we were into", resulting in the album's short duration of 28 minutes. King states hour long records seem to be the trend; "You could lose this part; you could cut this song completely, and make a much more intense record, which is what we're all about." When the record was completed, the band met with Rubin, who asked "Do you realize how short this is?" Slayer looked at each other, and replied "So what?" The entire album was on one side of a cassette; King stated it was "neat", as "You could listen to it, flip it over, and play it again."^[5] The music is abrasive and faster than previous releases helping to push the gap between thrash metal and its predecessor hardcore punk,^[3] and is played at an average of 210 beats per minute.^[7]

Reception

Although the album received little radio airplay, it was the band's first release to enter the Billboard 200, where it peaked at number 94.^[8] The album also reached number 47 on the UK Album Chart,^[9] and on November 20, 1992 it was certified gold in the United States.^[10]
''Reign in Blood'' was well received by the underground and mainstream music press. Reviewing for ''All Music Guide'', Steve Huey awarded the album five out of five, describing it a "stone-cold classic." ''Stylus Magazine'' critic Clay Jarvis awarded the album an A+ grade, calling it a "genre-definer", as well as "the greatest metal album of all time."^[11] Jarvas further remarked the song "Angel of Death" "smokes the asses of any band playing fast and/or heavy today. Lyrically outlining the horrors to come, while musically laying the groundwork for the rest of the record: fast, lean and filthy." ''Kerrang!'' magazine described it as the "heaviest album of all time",^[12] while ''Metal Hammer'' magazine named it "the best metal album of the last 20 years".^[13] ''''Q'' magazine'' ranked ''Reign in Blood'' among their list of the "50 Heaviest Albums of All Time",^[14] and ''Spin'' Magazine ranked the album number 67 on their list of the "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005."^[15]
Adrien Begrand of ''Popmatters'' observed that: "There's no better song to kick things off than the masterful "Angel of Death", one of the most monumental songs in metal history, where guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman deliver their intricate riffs, drummer Dave Lombardo performs some of the most powerful drumming ever recorded, and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya screams and snarls his tale of Nazi war criminal Joseph Mengele."^[16]
When asked why ''Reign in Blood'' has retained its popularity, King replied: "If you released ''Reign in Blood'' today, no one would give a shit. It was timing; it was a change in sound. In thrash metal at that time, no one had ever heard good production on a record like that. It was just a bunch of things that came together at once."^[17]

Lombardo's departure

Slayer embarked on the ''Reign in Pain'' tour with the bands Overkill in the United States and Malice in Europe; they also served as the opening act for W.A.S.P.'s US tour in 1987. After a month of touring drummer Lombardo quit; he said, "I wasn't making any money. I think I had just gotten married, and I figured if we were gonna be doing this professionally—on a major label—I wanted my rent and utilities paid." To continue the tour Slayer enlisted Whiplash drummer Tony Scaglione.
Rubin called Lombardo daily to insist he return, telling him, "Dude, you gotta come back in the band." Rubin also offered Lombardo a salary, but he was still hesitant about returning; at this point Lombardo had been out of the band for several months. Lombardo's wife convinced him to return in 1987; Rubin came to his house and picked him up in his Porsche, taking him to a Slayer rehearsal.

Legacy

''Reign in Blood'' is regarded by critics as one of the most influential and extreme thrash metal albums. In its "Greatest Metal Bands Of All Time" poll, MTV praised Slayer's "downtuned rhythms, infectious guitar licks, graphically violent lyrics and grisly artwork", which they stated "set the standard for dozens of emerging thrash bands", while "Slayer's music was directly responsible for the rise of death metal". MTV described ''Reign in Blood'' as essential listening,^[18] and the album was ranked number 7 on IGN's "Top 25 influential Metal Albums".^[19] When asked during a press tour for 1994's ''Divine Intervention'' about the pressure of having to live up to ''Reign in Blood'', and how it feels to have recorded "the best thrash metal album of all time", King replied that the band do not to try better it, and just wish to make music. In 2006, ''Blabbermouth's Don Kaye drew a comparison to the band's latest album ''Christ Illusion'', and concluded that "Slayer may never make an album as incendiary as ''Reign in Blood'' again".^[20]
Rapper Necro was heavily influenced by the album, and has remarked that it takes him back to the 80s, "when shit was pure".^[21] Ektomorf vocalist Zoltán Farkas describes the album as one of his primary influences.^[22] ''Reign in Blood'' was the first album the death metal band The Scourger had listened to, exposing him to an all new genre and influencing his band's style.^[23] Paul Mazurkiewicz of Cannibal Corpse stated Lombardo's performance on the album helped him play faster throughout his career.^[24]
Hanneman has said that the album is his personal favorite, reasoning it is "so short and quick and to the point."^[25] Araya has remarked that Slayer's 2006 album ''Christ Illusion'' "comes close", but that "nothing can surpass ''Reign in Blood'' for intensity and impact. No one had heard anything like it before. In the twenty years since then, people have got more desensitized. What was over the top then might not be now."^[26] Bostaph first heard the record when he was a member of Forbidden Evil. During a party Bostaph walked towards music he heard from another room, and approached Forbidden Evil guitarist Craig Locicero. When asked what music was playing, Locicero shouted "the new Slayer record". After listening closely to the record, he looked at Locicero, and concluded that his band was "fucked".

Live performances

Guitarist Hanneman drenched in the DVD ''Still Reigning''.

The tracks "Angel of Death" and "Raining Blood" have become permanent additions to Slayer's live set, and are Hanneman's favorite live tracks.^[27] The band played the album in its entirety throughout the fall of 2004, under the tour banner "Still Reigning". In 2004, Slayer released a live DVD of the same name, including a finale which featured the band covered in fake blood during the performance of "Raining Blood".^[28]
King later said that while the idea of playing ''Reign in Blood'' in its entirety was suggested prior to the DVD by their booking agency, it was met with little support. The band ultimately decided they needed to add more excitement to their live shows, and to avoid repetition incorporated the ideas of raining blood.^[29] When asked about using fake blood in future performances, King remarked "It's time to move on, but never say never. I know Japan never saw it, South America and Australia never saw it. So you never know."^[30]
Although it was omitted from a number of concerts because of short time allotments, Slayer have often said that they enjoy playing the album in its entirety. According to Hanneman: "We still enjoy playing these songs live. We play these songs over and over and over, but they're good songs, intense songs! If it were melodic songs or some kind of boring 'clap your hands' song, you'd be going crazy playing those every night. But our songs are just bam-bam-bam-bam, they're intense."^[31] The band was on stage for 70 minutes, which only allowed seven or eight additional songs to be played following the album's play. King stated this arrangement "alienates too many people".^[32]

Controversy

Artwork

Def Jams' distributor, Columbia Records, refused to release the album due to its controversial lyrical themes and cover art. ''Reign in Blood'' was eventually distributed by Geffen Records; however, due to the controversy it did not appear on Geffen's release schedule.
The artwork was designed by Larry Carroll, who at the time was creating political illustrations for ''The Progressive'', ''Village Voice'', and ''The New York Times''. When the art was finalized, one band member was unhappy with the result. However, when another member showed it to his mother, and was given the description "disgusting", they decided to retain it, and felt they were "onto something". The cover art was featured in Blender magazine's 2006 "top ten heavy metal album covers of all time".^[33]

Lyrical themes

For the album, Slayer decided to abandon the satanic themes explored on their previous album ''Hell Awaits'', and write about issues that were more on a social level.^[34] ''Reign in Blood's lyrics include meditations on death, insanity, and murderers, while the lead track "Angel of Death" details human experiments conducted at the Auschwitz concentration camp by Josef Mengele; who was dubbed "the Angel of death" by inmates.^[35] The song led to accusations of Nazi sympathizing and racism, which have followed the band throughout their career.
Hanneman was inspired after he read a number of books on Mengele during a Slayer tour. Hanneman has complained people usually misinterpret the lyrics, and clarified, "Nothing I put in the lyrics that says necessarily he was a bad man, because to me — well, isn't that obvious? I shouldn't have to tell you that." The band utilized the controversy to attract publicity, incorporating the Reichsadler into their logo, and writing a song titled "SS-3", which mentions Reinhard Heydrich, the second in command in the Schutzstaffel.^[36]

Appearances in media

"Raining Blood" was covered by Tori Amos on her 2001 album ''Strange Little Girls''. King has admitted that he thought the cover was odd: "It took me a minute and a half to find a spot in the song where I knew where she was. It's so weird. If she had never told us, we would have never known. You could have played it for us and we'd have been like, 'What's that?' Like a minute and a half through I heard a line and was like, 'I know where she's at!'" The band however liked the cover enough to send Slayer t-shirts to Tori Amos.^[37] The song was also covered by Malevolent Creation, Freaklabel, Chimaira, and Erik Hinds, who covered the entire album on a H'arpeggione.^[38]
In 2005, the Slayer tribute band Dead Skin Mask released an album with eight Slayer tracks, including "Angel of Death".^[39] The death metal band Monstrosity covered the song in 1999,^[40] while the track was featured on the classical band Apocalyptica's 2006 album ''Amplified / A Decade of Reinventing the Cello''.^[41] A Slayer tribute album titled ''Al Sur Del Abismo (Tributo Argentino A Slayer)'', compiled by Hurling Metal Records, featured sixteen tracks covered by Argentina metal bands, including Asinesia's version of "Angel of Death".^[42]
"Angel of Death" was featured in the multi–platform video game ''Tony Hawk's Project 8''. Nolan Nelson, who selected the soundtrack for the game asserts; "one of the greatest heavy metal songs ever recorded. Don't know who Slayer is? I feel sorry for you."^[43] "Raining Blood" was included in the '' in–game radio station .^[44] The song was featured in the 127th South Park episode Die Hippie, Die aired on March 16, 2005.^[45] The plot centers on the town of South Park, which has been overrun by hippies. Eric Cartman states "Hippies can't stand death metal" and proceeds to drill through a hippie concert onto the main stage to change the audio to "Raining Blood", making the hippies run away. King found the episode humorous and expressed his interest in the show ending the interview with "It was good to see the song being put to good use, if we can horrify some hippies we've done our job."³⁰
"Angel of Death" has appeared in several movies, including '', at the point when the character Mohawk turns into a spider,^[46] and '', where it is played during a car stunt scene.^[47] In the 2005 Iraq War documentary Soundtrack to War, the song is cited during an account of the role of music in the contemporary battlefield.^[48] The half-time riff was sampled by Public Enemy in their 1988 song "She Watch Channel Zero", and by KMFDM in 1990 for the single "Godlike".

Track listing

# "Angel of Death" (Hanneman) — 4:51
# "Piece by Piece" (King) — 2:02
# "Necrophobic" (Hanneman/King) — 1:40
# "Altar of Sacrifice" (Lyrics: King; Music: Hanneman) — 2:50
# "Jesus Saves" (Lyrics: King; Music: Hanneman/King) — 2:54
# "Criminally Insane" (Hanneman/King) — 2:23
# "Reborn" (Lyrics: King; Music: Hanneman) — 2:11
# "Epidemic" (Lyrics: King; Music: Hanneman/King) — 2:23
# "Postmortem" (Hanneman) — 3:27
# "Raining Blood" (Lyrics: Hanneman/King; Music: Hanneman) — 4:17
# "Aggressive Perfector" (King/Hanneman) 1998 reissue bonus track — 2:30
#"Criminally Insane (Remix)" (Hanneman/King) 1998 reissue bonus track — 3:17
:'I': "Aggressive Perfector" was shorter and had clearer production than the previous version featured on the re-issue of the EP ''Haunting the Chapel''. The reissue also fixed a problem with early CD pressings which set the beginning of "Raining Blood" into the blank pause in "Postmortem".^[49]

References

1. Kerry King: Maniac. Guitar Legend. Botanist? Hess, Mike
2. Slayers Tom Araya on Satanism, serial killers and his lovable kids Cummins, Johnson
3. Reign in Blood - Slayer Huey, Steve
4. Slay Ride La Briola, John
5. An exclusive oral history of Slayer
6. Reign in Blood - Slayer Huey, Steve
7. Andrew Haug speaks with Dave Lombardo from Slayer Haug, Andrew
8. Artist Chart History
9. Slayer's 1985-1986 discography
10. RIAA - Artist Slayer
11. Reign in Blood Jarvis, Clay
12. Lostprophets scoop rock honours
13. Golden Gods Awards Winners
14. Q 50 Heaviest Albums of All Time
15. 100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005
16. The Devil in Music Begrand, Adrien
17. Kerrang! interview with Kerry King about God Hates Us All album
18. Why They Rule - #6 Slayer
19. IGN Top 25 Metal Albums D. Spense, T. Ed
20. SLAYER Christ Illusion (American) Kaye, Don
21. Death-Rapper NECRO To Make European Live Debut In London
22. Interview with Zoltan Farkas of Ektomorf Yiannis, D
23. The Finnish Speed - and Thrash Metal Special - Part 2 Lahtinen, Luxi
24. Interview With Paul Mazurkiewicz of Cannibal Corpse David L. Wilson
25. Interview with Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman Steffens, Charlie
26. It's carry on thrashing
27. Knac.com interview with Jeff Hanneman Davis, Brian
28. Slayer: Still Reigning The landmark metal album performed in its entirety. Patrizio, Andy
29. Kerry King of Slayer
30. Songs about God and Satan – Part 1: An Interview with Slayer's Kerry King Atkinson, Peter
31. SLAYER — Jeff Hanneman Lahtinen, Luxi
32. Kerry King of SLAYER Lahtinen, Luxi
33. The Top Ten Greatest Heavy Metal Album Covers of All Time Popoff, Martin, Dunn, Sam and McFadyen, Scot
34. Slayer - Tom Araya - January 2007 Gargano, Paul
35. moreorless : heroes & killers of the 20th century — Josef Mengele
36. Master of Death — Heydrich
37. A Conversation With Kerry King Barker, Samuel
38. RIB - Erik Hinds Couture, François
39. SLAYER Tribute Band DEAD SKIN MASK To Release CD
40. Interview With Monstrosity's Lee Harrison Lehtinen, Arto
41. APOCALYPTICA: 'Amplified' Collection To Feature New Recordings
42. SLAYER: Argentine Tribute Album Detailed
43. Electro vs. Metal – Music is the key of life.
44. Vice City Radio - V Rock
45. Die Hippie, Die
46. Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
47. JACKASS CD
48. Soundtrack to war
49. Slayer (US) — Reign in Blood