POLLING Has No Boundaries -- Best Non-Reign in Blood Slayer Studio Album POLL

Christ Illusion is one of their best albums.

How do you feel about later Simpsons seasons?

Christ Illusion is a great record. World Painted Blood isn't great but it's better than any Bostaph album.

CI is half great, half meh to my ears. WPB is my fav post-1994 album of theirs (I'll still take Divine over it tho).

re-listened to Repentless the other day. it's not holding up well after time. I initially liked it, even if that like was faint, and many of the songs sounded good live last week, but I couldn't even finish it the other day - though I recall it gets better towards the end.

I wouldn't have even brought it up but seeing Undisputed Attitude above Christ Illusion in that poll made me momentarily cross for some reason. Each to their own of course - anyone who appreciates Slayer is a friend of mine on one (very important and fundamental) level at the very least. I genuinely love Christ Illusion and have some warmth for WPB, but it's not in the same league.

IDRG The Simpsons joke. I like the show enough but all the episodes I've watched have been completely out of sequential order. Same with Seinfeld.

Happy birthday RIB.

IDRG The Simpsons joke.

Don't worry about it, it was dumb. The Simpsons and Slayer are both things I love dearly but they've both spent a lot of time trying to tarnish their early greatness with a lot of mediocre product. I'll check out CI again someday but the first time around I was left with the strong desire to listen anything before Seasons In The Abyss instead.

Give it a few more years... it's a bit early for "later Slayer stuff: actually not that bad" revisionism ;)

diabolus is 18 years old

i was about to be like "you know i loved god hates us all at the time" and

hated God Hates Us All

aw

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson)

The Simpsons and Slayer are both things I love dearly but they've both spent a lot of time trying to tarnish their early greatness with a lot of mediocre product. I'll check out CI again someday but the first time around I was left with the strong desire to listen anything before Seasons In The Abyss instead.

― "raw buttin' these toilet seats" (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Saturday, October 8, 2016 7:05 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think the concept of listening to every Slayer album at least once is something that will always apply to me since basically listening to them in high school kinda transformed me into a full-time metalhead after previously only dipping a few toes in the water.

that said, I still don't get the critical lovefest for Christ Illusion. 40% of the album sounds like GHUA retread to me, and the songs I do like, well....other than maybe "Jihad", I don't exactly clamor to hear them live or anything. I remember racing across town after work to get it the day it dropped and being crushed with disappointment. there's a laziness about 21st century Slayer, riff-wise, that always bothered me, where they used to enjoy meandering around and doing crazy things, now they self-plagiarize a lot more and don't like to veer from a template. the de-tuned, 'groovy' almost post-thrash Slayer doesn't work for me. it isn't the slower pace - some of my fav Slayer tunes are tunes like "Live Undead". It's just not what I associate with Slayer - breakdowns, plodding, etc. at least when Testament did Low they managed to come across as Testament (I still like taht album)

to me, World Painted Blood is the only nu-Slayer one needs. It's not free of those flaws either (there are rips from "Raining Blood" and "Angel of Death" within, like, the first ten minutes of the album), and taken individually, none of the tracks are really A+ Slayer, but there's a consistency to it that they hadn't had in a while, solid B plus album.

ya knew Hanneman dying was going to hurt but Repentless is such a humongous step backwards in every way, I have a hard time even listening to it now even though I did like it faintly when it came out.

(nu-Slayer meaning "since 2000" in my definition, cos I will stan for Divine Intervention until the end of time)

I read in some interview somewhere that Tom Araya is pretty much sick of Slayer & is ready to quit whenever Kerry King is.

I always wondered why this Catholic guy doesn't have a problem yelling King's angsty teen atheist (after the late 90s anyway) lyrics--I guess the answer is he just doesn't care anymore.

Poll got it right but I am always surprised at the lack of love for Hell Awaits. In some way it's their 'scariest' record

it's my current fav due to my burnout on RiB. "Kill Again" is the best Slayer song to my ears.

just read that Araya interview. was going to say "well he sure LOOKS like he's having a good time up there" but he makes clear that he enjoys performing in the article, just not any of the things that go along with it.

honestly it makes sense, dude has spent his entire life in Slayer. as far as the Catholic thing, they did kinda move away from the whole Satan thing a bit after RiB, and I'm sure the old songs are just words at this point. I'm not sure how traditional he is in that regard either, it is mostly a near death experience that propels his beliefs.

I kinda think Kerry never wants to retire. which if so, ok, but I'm not sure I need another studio album from them. i'd be content w/ one more tour and that being it really.

vocally speaking, it's kinda interesting. Tom's voice sounded a lot less powerful, tired even, around the late 90, and yet he yells louder than ever now. I was kinda surprised when I saw them last month that he actually did the high-pitched shriek on "The Antichrist", which I didn't think he could still do.

there's a laziness about 21st century Slayer, riff-wise, that always bothered me, where they used to enjoy meandering around and doing crazy things, now they self-plagiarize a lot more and don't like to veer from a template.

Totally. I kind of date that back to Seasons In The Abyss, actually, it's a pretty template-ish record. But it went from being a small flaw to being their m.o.

Poll got it right but I am always surprised at the lack of love for Hell Awaits. In some way it's their 'scariest' record

I don't know if I mentioned it upthread but a lot of my favorite music stems from the murky, downtuned evil of Hell Awaits. The best death metal bands sound like they were inspired by Hell Awaits way more than RiB... (IMO)

^^^ Definitely agree with this

The tremolo riff on Kill Again prior to the verse is essentially a pre-cursor to the death metal of the 90s imo

said it before but "Kill Again" is mah JAM yo.....

"Silent Scream" rules despite the fucking lyrics

listening to SoH right now and god Lombardo's drumming really elevates this album

Yeah the dry production really highlights how insane he is. I love the frantic little fills in Live Undead particularly.