My favorite Slayer album is “Seasons In The Abyss”. What a way to start a review on “Reign In Blood”! Well, “Seasons ...” was the first I bought and heard thus I feel closer to it. Still the masterpiece offered by the American thrashers was, is and will be “Reign In Blood”, Rick Rubin’s first ever rock / metal production! The great and high-requested producer (also co-head of Columbia records) before Slayer had released LL Cool J, Beastie Boys and Run DMC, all of them successful artists but in the hip hop genre. 

After their first, two, strong releases and a series of explosive, live shows, the band from California needed refreshment. Rick Rubin was co-owner of rap label Def Jam Records but when he heard about the band, traveled to California to watch them perform on stage. Brian Slagel, owner of the small, at the time, label of Metal Blade, negotiated hard since he felt that Slayer could move to greater status than a pure, hip hop label. Rubin’s personal contact with the band members (at first with Dave Lombardo) and their live show he attended were the main factors that led to this ‘unheard’ collaboration.

Τhis was debut for sound engineer Andy Wallace and also the first, extreme record that all instruments (skip the bass guitar sound…) could be heard perfectly clear. Rubin’s subtractive perception and his love for classic rock patterns (verse – bridge -‘catchy hook’ etc) had definitely a lot to do with the sound and duration, too. Kerry King had a beautiful idea to have the whole album played in both sides of the cassette since it was only 29 minutes; and yes, it’s such an intense experience you can hear it twice! The album became the fastest, thrash album for many years with envied riffs and mad drumming that kept Dave Lombardo on the top of metal drummers for many metal fans through the years.

The album starts furiously with the five minutes of “Angel Of Death” and ends in a bloodbath with the five of “Raining Blood”; two major, metal classics. When “Piece By Piece” invades, the unsuspected listener realises it’s going to be a total speed experience! The rest is a pack of two-minute dynamites that explode and fill with moving energy the most calm metalhead (not just him…), with a personal preference in the epic “Postmortem”. Thrash metal changed forever after the release of “Reign In Blood” and it meant ‘the new Slayer album’, whenever that would come out, for many people. The record was a 50%, at least, influence for death metal that followed (see Cannibal Corpse, Deicide etc) and the 10 commandments for all new, thrash acts.

The greatness of the album is not big only for the metal crowds since it reached Billboard’s 94 in the official charts and turned gold by 1992! The band has become the most covered metal after Metallica with most significant the one with Tori Amos performing “Raining Blood”!!! Many tracks of the album are still used for video games (Grand Theft Auto, Tony Hawk etc.). With “Reign In Blood” Rubin and Slayer created the most important thrash record of all times and one of the best in musical history! The big producer has stated: ‘I try to make the artists write songs not just for an album but for ages!’


Tracklist

1. Angel of Death
2. Piece by Piece
3. Necrophobic
4. Altar of Sacrifice
5. Jesus Saves
6. Criminally Insane
7. Reborn
8. Epidemic
9. Postmortem
10. Raining Blood