Let's Rank All Of The Slayer Albums!
F’n SLAYERRRRRR!!!!!
That’s right. Slayer.
The kings - the most uncompromising metal band of all time. The standard for not selling out and doing it on their terms. Selling over 20 million records with ZERO radio play.
Controversial and accused of lots of stuff from being satanists to Nazis (they’re neither), they can certainly be an acquired taste. Slayer can be a lot if you’re not used to thrash or if you thought Metallica was thrash (okay they are sometimes), but once you get it, you GET IT.
I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with these guys on several occasions including one afternoon partying on their tour bus with just me, two friends and the band for a couple hours, and I genuinely like these guys. I was really bummed when guitarist and primary songwriter Jeff Hanneman passed away and I was happy to be able to see Kerry King, meet Gary Holt for the first time and hang with Tom Araya and his family for a bit after the show at Pine Knob on the farewell tour. Kerry is the least warm and fuzzy of all of them but I still think he’s a good dude. Tom is the opposite of Kerry - warm and personable. Jeff, Paul and Gary are all really nice and I’ve never met Dave Lombardo - the original GOAT thrash drummer.
I’m pretty sure these three pics are from around 2000…
My buddy Steve, Tom Araya, and me
Steve, Paul Bostaph, me
Me, Jeff Hanneman, Steve, Kerry King
The next two pics are from the farewell tour on 5/19/19…
Me, Kerry King, my brother-in-law Jason
Tom Araya, me, Jason
As for this album ranking as always there are a couple of ground rules: I did not include EPs, live albums or cover albums here, and I tried to judge them on the pure quality of the albums without taking into account how they are perceived by hardcore Slayer fans which will likely piss some of them off. They can be scary lol… I also found Slayer’s body of work difficult to rank. I wouldn’t carve this ranking in stone like I would some of my others since many are similar in quality.
Having said all of that, let’s get to it:
Let’s Rank All The Slayer Albums!
11. God Hates Us All (2001) Before you get mad right off the bat, let me stress there are NO bad Slayer albums. But, I’m sorry - it’s not great. I remember reading an interview where Tom Araya was quoted as saying something to the effect of needing to “find his anger” at first for recording his vocals on this album - that he wasn’t totally feeling it at first (I don’t remember the specific interview). Then when he found it I feel like he really found it. It’s not my favorite performance as a whole because as one of the greatest vocalists of all time he’s typically one of the most intense but still nuanced, and here I don’t hear as much nuance throughout. The songs are more angry as a whole, and keep in mind this album was RELEASED on 9/11 (obviously a total coincidence). With such an overly provocative title and album cover even for them I think fairly or not that still contributes to my thoughts on this album. It’s hard not to associate it with that horrific day. I guess I did purchase it (?) on that day but if I did, I did it in a daze and I remember not listening to any music for at least 3 days after the attack. Every American alive that day remembers that day too well and I lost people I knew including a friend. On top of that my dad was in a hospital across the country in Seattle without my mom being able to get to him… I was a mess. And songs like New Faith as an example are just too much - just a screaming disjointed mess and when the music stops for Araya to scream “I keep The Bible in a pool of blood so that none of its lies can affect me!!!!!” it feels like we’ve devolved into Spinal Tap levels of self-parody. Now, there are some great songs here. Disciple is really good - angry as all get out but still in the pocket and the second track God Send Death is solid before things drop off. What’s funny to me is all the criticism that the Diabolus In Musica album gets for allegedly being a “nu metal” attempt (it’s not) while God Hates Us All isn’t subjected to the same narrative when you’ve got funky rhythms like in the track Threshold and Here Comes The Pain which is the same exact approach as Stain Of Mind but this track doesn’t suffer for it - Here Comes The Pain actually kicks ass. The production is also flat and really noisy to my ears throughout (if that makes sense). It’s hard to get through it at times. Seven Faces (written by King) sounds like a rewrite of Overt Enemy (written by Hanneman) from Diabolus - kind of (dare I say) a filler track… Deviance and War Zone sound like outtakes from Diabolus as well, and not very good ones at that. War Zone could be the worst Slayer song. Ugh, okay let’s end it on a high note with the killer ending of Payback. Just pure fury this time in the best way with some speedy punk attitude and the ultimate revenge song that you can’t help scream along to. The one-two punch finish of Here Comes The Pain and Payback saves the album.
10. Show No Mercy (1983) It gets a little tricky here because the debut doesn’t have good production - the band had to finance the recording themselves and not all of it holds up that well. I don’t listen to this album much. But as a historical document with the groundbreaking they were doing in the genre of thrash with songs that did hold up as classics like The Antichrist, Die By The Sword and Black Magic I don’t think it should be last. If you think it should be higher I wouldn’t argue. As I mentioned at the outset, I’m not carving these rankings in stone.
9. Hell Awaits (1985) A step forward with their sophomore album but the production is still bad - maybe even worse than Show No Mercy which is a shame. The opener is one of their best and just plain awesome to see live. That opening riff is so damn heavy and so evil. I love it. The material overall is slightly stronger here than on the debut and this is the album where they went long with some of the ideas with multiple tracks stretching out past 6 minutes. The material is strong throughout and the performances solid, so the album gets high marks. Kill Again, At Dawn They Sleep - good tunes. But damn if it isn’t hard to listen to.
8. Repentless (2015) Repentless seems to be heavily criticized by Slayer fans and clearly part of this comes from it being the band continuing without Jeff Hanneman after his tragic passing. Yes Hanneman wrote the majority of Slayer’s material but Kerry King is no slouch and wrote plenty of Slayer’s classics as well. I like the album and I’ve never had any issue with this lineup of the band. Gary Holt loved Hanneman, he’s a legit O.G. as a founding member of Exodus who toured with Slayer decades ago and Hanneman himself gave his blessing on his old friend Holt taking his place. The opening blast of the title track (after the cool and evil instrumental intro of Delusions Of Savior) is a Slayer classic in my book and totally worthy. Vices kicks ass as well - “A little violence is the ultimate drug - let’s get high!” is a clever lyric and the opening riff in particular that the song is built on is killer. Bostaph returned for this one on drums too after another and seemingly final departure for Lombardo after some pretty ugly disagreements over money. The whole thing does get confusing though because Lombardo apparently worked with King on a lot of this material before his departure but isn’t credited at all on the album, and Hanneman doesn’t appear on the album either while dealing with his health challenges - Holt does with some solos, but they included a song written by Hanneman in Piano Wire which is really good. In any event at the end of the day it all comes together as Slayer, the material and performances are strong and it’s a solid swan song.
7. Diabolus In Musica (1998) Don’t @ me if you don’t like this album. I don’t want to hear it. It’s not “nu metal.” It does kick ass. Maybe it’s just a Reddit thing but even Kerry has distanced himself from this album and I’ve never understood the criticism. The most well known song on the album that they kept in the live sets for some time is kind of a funky thing in Stain Of Mind, but I find it to be NO less heavy and no less Slayer than anything else I’ve heard, and it’s a powerhouse vocal by Tom Araya. Incredible really - one of his best. Bitter Peace is a speedy pounding opener and Death’s Head is a killer too. From there do they experiment a little? Yes. Does that equal some kind of sellout? NO. I mean were they for just a minute possibly influenced by some other things that were happening? Sure. But sheesh, relax… If every single thing they ever recorded was the exact same formula how interesting would that be? I give them credit - this ain’t Nothing Else Matters or Load. It’s still Slayer. Now there are actually a couple of duds here which keeps it from being ranked too high like In The Name Of God and Love To Hate, and Scrum is a bit goofy being about rugby although there’s still some solid thrash there about halfway through the song when the speed kicks in. One of the funnier moments we ever had with these guys was when my buddy Steve told Araya on the bus that he wasn’t a huge fan of the song Desire from this album which Tom wrote lol… Tom just smiled a huge smile and said “You know what? I don’t care!” The two gems at the end the album feel like they are of a piece and they are so good…. Point and Screaming From The Sky - heavy AF.
6. World Painted Blood (2009) The last album by the classic lineup. The opening title track is a quintessential thrasher with an awesome and evil riff - pure Slayer. The second track Unit 731 I’ve already discussed on this blog before as Lombardo puts on a clinic… Actually the album as a whole is a no-nonsense speedy thrasher and the riffs keep coming - Hate Worldwide would have fit nicely on the Divine Intervention album and yet a song like Beauty Through Order kicks just as much ass even at a slower pace and would have felt right at home on South Of Heaven. The original 4 were still at the top of their game over a quarter century in all the way through to the closer Not Of This God.
5. Christ Illusion (2006) Yes you may be noticing a pattern - Slayer does indeed take a lot of shots at religion. This album marked the return of Lombardo and therefore a reunion of the original 4 members with their first studio album together in 16 years at the time. After what you could call the slight detours of Diabolus & God Hates Us All they waste no time making it clear what they’re here to do with the opener Flesh Storm, and the speed assault continues for the next two tracks which both destroy - Catalyst and Skeleton Christ. Jihad is a searing and scary look into the mind of a religious extremist. It’s pretty clear where they stand with lyrics like “Religion is hate, Religion is fear, Religion is war, Religion is rape, Religion’s obscene, Religion’s a whore!!!” in the first single which doesn’t appear until the penultimate track of the LP - Cult. I think it’s worth mentioning that there were times over the years where I’d get uncomfortable with the extreme lyrics - as a Jew I actually enjoy my religion! I’m not orthodox - I’m not hardcore but I do acknowledge the idea that religion has indeed been responsible for a lot of war and bloodshed in the history of the world. These guys explore topics of evil like a good horror filmmaker. In any event the song Cult is indeed a ripper with an extremely dramatic opening with the twin lead guitars and the punishing riff that kicks in at the 1:10 mark - it’s everything great about this band. This album was a real return to their top form at the time.
4. Divine Intervention (1994) Here’s where the separation starts for me. The 4 albums between 1986 and 1994 are “peak” Slayer. And while I have this one ranked the lowest of the 4 it honestly may be my favorite Slayer album. There are a handful of fans that are with me on this. I won’t try to argue that it’s their best or most influential etc., but it’s just the one I enjoy the most from beginning to end. I’m not sure I can put my finger on it but it’s just in that zone. The songs are great, it’s Paul Bostaph’s first album with the band and he proves he’s every bit worthy of sitting behind the kit. There’s plenty of speed and just good ol’ thrash here but there’s a lot of complexity and even the occasional odd time signature that shows up immediately on the first track Killing Fields which - well, IS that even a time signature? It throws you off when you first hear it because it doesn’t seem to make any sense unless I’ve been missing something for the last 30 years. Like avant garde thrash? Lol - and yet that’s totally its charm. I don’t know how but it just works. The next track Sex. Murder. Art. is one of two Slayer tunes to show up on my list of best songs under two minutes long - what a song! I think a couple of the reasons I love this album are that it was the first new LP of originals to be released after I became a fan. I was a bit late to the game becoming a fan not long after Seasons In The Abyss was released during my junior year at Michigan. I was fully caught up and on board when Divine Intervention came out so my anticipation was high and I can still remember buying it while I lived in Cleveland at a store in Coventry Village. The other thing is I think it’s a more “mature” revisiting of the speed they displayed on Reign In Blood - with a few more albums under their belt with solid production and the largest gap between studio albums up until that point. It’s tight, it’s fully realized, it’s heavy and aggressive without being overly noisy - polished but not too polished. Just my two cents. The title track might be the best prog rock thrash song that I’m sure not many people stop and think of as prog, but it is. Different stages and real storytelling at 5:33 long, it’s a true overlooked epic. Followed by the most underrated, aggressive gnarling and frantic Slayer song in existence Circle Of Beliefs “The resurrection’s waiting for a war without a sin” - great lyrics and incredible delivery by Araya. I could go on and on but everything here is great right up to the kick ass closer Mind Control.
3. Reign In Blood (1986) A real milestone for the band and for the genre. Pure speed and fury and the first time the band was afforded some care and resources in the production. It pays off in spades. You can finally hear the band the way they should be heard. The songs on Hell Awaits average about 5 1/2 minutes in length, while the songs here average under 3 minutes. And on top of that, maybe the best metal song ever recorded is here - Raining Blood. It’s perfect really, and when that speed is unleashed at the 1:06 mark? Holy moly… And what a visual - Raining Blood from the lacerated sky! If Prince’s Purple Rain is the good, then this is the evil. The extreme opposite ends of the spectrum - light and darkness, heaven and hell! Heck that might make a good blog post in and of itself, but I digress… The opening blast of Angel Of Death kicks this one off and the band brings it. Frankly it’s not my favorite Slayer song… I know I know… and I get that they are looking for evil topics to cover but I have a hard time enjoying songs about the Holocaust and those early Tom Araya screams that show up on that track, Necrophobic and Postmortem haven’t aged all that well. What can I tell you. Songs like Reborn and Epidemic don’t distinguish themselves enough either. Those are my only real criticisms of this album and before you get upset keep in mind I’ve got this album at #3 - that’s hardly disrespect. Just because I feel the need to justify why it’s not #1 doesn’t mean I don’t acknowledge that it’s a metal masterpiece. Reborn and Epidemic DO work in the context of this album in the purity of aggression that doesn’t let up for 30 minutes. And Criminally Insane and Postmortem are two of their best. Context is important because there may not have been an album quite like this one before it arrived and I get that. But an album has to hold up completely for it to be hailed as the GOAT doesn’t it? The results the band got on subsequent releases when they expanded their sound a bit is where the material gets stronger overall, and it’s where I spend more of my time.
2. South Of Heaven (1988) This was a deliberate move to slow things down a bit by the band after the breakneck speed of Reign In Blood and whoa… the Dave Lombardo fills at the beginning are the metal answer to Tom Sawyer or In The Air Tonight for me right off the bat - holy crap. Air drummers everywhere should have this in their repertoire. Talk about serving notice - and with those twin leads by Hanneman & King… wow. But here’s the thing - there IS still speed on this album. This is thrash, there’s just more songs with fully developed ideas here and the tempos do vary. The goal isn’t to see how fast we can play for 10 straight songs, but the second track Silent Scream is plenty fast and it’s a Dave Lombardo clinic once again. The whole album is. Next up - Live Undead, Behind The Crooked Cross, Mandatory Suicide & Ghosts of War? C’mon… what an insanely good lineup of tunes. Behind The Crooked Cross serves as an attack on the swastika - a “crooked cross” as the opposite of righteousness. Mandatory Suicide refers to soldiers having to follow orders and Ghosts Of War is my ringtone for my buddy Steve - it’s his favorite with the “I deal in pain!” refrain at the end. Of the maybe dozen times I’ve seen Slayer live I’ve never seen them play it. Cleanse The Soul is fantastic thrash, Read Between The Lies a great title and mid-tempo jam and Dissident Aggressor a rare Slayer cover (Judas Priest) - the only one to appear on a proper Slayer LP (not including one-offs or a cover album like Undisputed Attitude). Spill The Blood is an epic closer at almost 5 minutes long.
1. Seasons In The Abyss (1990) Yes, Seasons In The Abyss sits atop this list. But only by a hair if that. There is no clear cut “best” Slayer album and this is the first album ranking I’ve done where at different times I had 3 different albums on top before I finally decided on the order. This one starts shot out of a cannon (pun intended) with War Ensemble - one of the best Slayer songs of all time. Seasons In The Abyss is everything great about Slayer and dare I say this could be the most accessible Slayer album? That’s not why I have it at #1, but Araya’s vocals are indeed the opposite of God Hates Us All here where he’s singing instead of screaming. It’s more effective and listenable to me. You can follow the beats and the riffs - they’ve got their own bit of groove, but just enough to still be in the Slayer zone and still be thrash. Genius really. Twin melodic and minor chord guitar leads show up throughout and the lyrical themes are memorable. Same topics as usual - mostly the horrors of the human condition whether it’s warfare on the aforementioned opener, serial murder (Dead Skin Mask), gang warfare (Expendable Youth), the rotting of society (Skeletons Of Society), and a little Satan (?) thrown in for good measure (Spirit In Black). There IS speed here too for the thrash adrenaline junkies such as Hallowed Point and Born Of Fire, but the riffs are still more digestible and that’s not a criticism in any way. To me it’s just a measure of the material being so strong, fully developed and executed throughout. The solos are masterful - everyone at the top of their game. The closing epic title track is incredible. One of the best metal songs ever recorded. The first two instrumental minutes of it are just sublime - a thing of menacing beauty. This album marked the end of an era - after 5 albums and an EP in 8 years it would be another 4 and a new drummer before the next one, and it’s actually a great place to start for the uninitiated.
So what do you think? I know you have thoughts hehe… Slayer fans are passionate AF. Please comment below (just don’t be rude - there’s no need for that)!
M10 Social is owned by Doug Cohen in West Bloomfield, MI and provides social media training and digital marketing services from the Frameable Faces Photography studio Doug owns with his wife Ally. He can be reached there at tel:248-790-7317, by mobile at tel:248-346-4121 or via email at mailto:doug@frameablefaces.com. You can follow Doug’s band Vintage Playboy at their Facebook page here. You can also visit our other business Detroit Jerky at the website www.DetroitJerkyLLC.com!
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