I saw them for the first time on Sunday. It was an outdoors show on a windy day so the sound wasn’t the best but holy hell they tore it up. Just as brutal and precise as I hoped.

They’re definitely an AC/DC - Unsane level of single mindedness. They do Slayer and if that’s not your bag…

Reign in Blood is a perfect album. Almost no bands have reached the level of changing popular music in 30 mins.

Not crap.

Gramsci wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 4:09 pm I saw them for the first time on Sunday. It was an outdoors show on a windy day so the sound wasn’t the best but holy hell they tore it up. Just as brutal and precise as I hoped.

They’re definitely an AC/DC - Unsane level of single mindedness. They do Slayer and if that’s not your bag…

Reign in Blood is a perfect album. Almost no bands have reached the level of changing popular music in 30 mins.

Not crap.

Don't forget Seasons in the Abyss. I can't tell the difference between that and Reign in Blood. I listened to so much of both of them as a kid, they blend into each other for me. Really, they are of equal quality.

The classics are classic for a reason. Love me some Slayer. Relatively reliable, but nobody is paying attention to the stuff sans Hanneman. I'll take God Hates Us All with Bostaph, but come on Dave Fuckin' Lombardo did all the best ones.

Speaking of GHUA, what a day to drop a record. I wonder what those guys thought about the coincidence.

Hanneman dying of complications related to necrotic flesh brought on by a spider bite is without a doubt the most metal way to leave this planet. Fuckin' brutal.

I love Slayer, and they are maybe on par with Sabbath as far as a band that inspired every band you like and dislike in the genre.

Essential yet overrated. The first couple of albums sound like shit. I love Divine Intervention, yes of course Lombardo is the best yadda yadda yadda but Paul Bostaph is a monster in his own right, and that record captures their sound the best IMO.

Love ‘em. I don’t know how many times I’ve listened to Live Undead, Reign In Blood, and South Of Heaven, but it’s in my DNA, at this point. Lombardo is my main reason for listening to them, and so I’ve never paid attention to the non-Lombardo albums. Maybe one day, I will.

The “live” version of “Black Magic” on Live Undead always gives me a proper kick in the pants when I’m sluggish. All of it does, but there’s something special about that one.

Tom Araya has lived quietly on a farm with his family in East Texas over the last couple of decades. Quite a contrast.

An easy not crap - but tbh I’m only versed in the first 4 - 5 records, plus that second last one which was enjoyable.
Yes to Lombardo. It’s rare in the metal arena that the drummer is the star player- but there u have it. Some of their latter day politics seems questionable unfortunately.
South of Heaven for me - especially the line “chaos rampant in an age of distrust”… sound familiar?

Iancee wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 8:21 pm An easy not crap - but tbh I’m only versed in the first 4 - 5 records, plus that second last one which was enjoyable.
Yes to Lombardo. It’s rare in the metal arena that the drummer is the star player- but there u have it. Some of their latter day politics seems questionable unfortunately.
South of Heaven for me - especially the line “chaos rampant in an age of distrust”… sound familiar?

It's not just latter-day politics; I love the riffs on "Dittohead" but the name comes from the term for Rush Limbaugh fans, and the lyrics read like the grumblings of a Reagan-era cranky old white man.

I like them all up through Divine Intervention. That album had a really dry-yet-eerie sound when most of those bands were trying to sound like Pantera. Decade of Aggression rips.

I don't know what the deal is with "Dittohead." Kerry King wrote that and he's vocally anti-Trump. Maybe he was taken by Rush's hateful ramblings and Roy Cohn yearnings.

Angel of Death and the Nazi imagery has left them open to accusations of white supremacy. They’ve always strongly denied that. Lemmy had a bigger collection of Nazi memorabilia than Hanneman. Although Latin Americans are totally capable of racism Araya has repeatedly committed on the band being half Latino wouldn’t endear them with the Aryan Brotherhood.

Unlike Anselmo they’ve never made public actual racist gestures or comments. I probably think Araya is a rather dull Reaganite Republican with libertarian tendencies. I love that on top of the quite rural life he’s a practicing Catholic. King, again, seem like at worst a douchey libertarian, or just not particularly political.

Anyhoo. I finally got to see Slayer and would have paid my £100 just to see Raining Blood and Angel of Death 20 metres from the stage. It was transcendent.

ChudFusk wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 7:22 pm Essential yet overrated. The first couple of albums sound like shit. I love Divine Intervention, yes of course Lombardo is the best yadda yadda yadda but Paul Bostaph is a monster in his own right, and that record captures their sound the best IMO.

Bostaph's performance on the punk covers record is also steller; he does an absolutely amazing job on the Divine Intervention-era live video: