It’s strange to say this, but I actually grew up disliking Slayer. My diet was a steady one of Metallica, with their long songs featuring the organization of a top army. They were a well-oiled machine, while in my eyes, Slayer had these short songs which jammed whatever they could in a very messy manner. Slayer had tempo jumps, out-of-key guitar solos which eschewed regular playing for lots of whammy dives, and fun tricks, with some songs that had no verses or choruses. Slayer was a whirlwind of broken glass. On top of that, Metallica seemed to have been tackling social issues by the time they rolled around to “Master Of Puppets”, and their albums featured art that got you thinking, but wasn’t scary. Slayer on the other hand was talking about Satan, murder, and Josef Mengle, aka the “angel of death” during “Reign In Blood”. Slayer’s albums were adorned with skulls and blood, a scary thing for young teenager such as myself at the time.

It’s funny how things change, as I describe Slayer in exactly the same way today as I did back then, but all the reasons I didn’t like them became the most endearing part about them. I guess it did take more epic songs such as “Seasons In The Abyss” and their take on social issues in “Expendable Youth” (a very introspective song about youth gang violence) to finally hook me in, but it wasn’t just that. Looking throughout death metal, thrash, black metal and even metalcore today, ask many bands, and many (especially in the death metal crowd) will point to “Reign In Blood” as the album that got them up and playing, and the album they wanted to beat in some way. Slayer, the band to outrun in tempo, out-heavy in brutality, to offend more with scarier lyrics, or simply to outdo them by going in some crazy sideways direction, I’ll dare to say that Slayer has probably gotten more people up and playing more than any other band.

With all the new music coming out today, it can be overwhelming to take in. Often people will revert to what they listened to that got them passionate about underground music. For me, it’s different because while I was exposed to Slayer and saw them around, I didn’t take them in until later on in life, but any time I feel like I need some musical direction because there’s too much of something, I can always throw on “Reign In Blood”.

Do you have a Slayer story of your own? Any story involving Slayer will do, we’d love to hear about it, so go ahead a leave a post about one of the greatest metal bands ever!