Title: Hell Awaits
Label: Metal Blade
Release Date: 1985
Rating: 5 Skulls
Title: Show No Mercy
Label: Metal Blade
Release Date: 1983
Rating: 4 Skulls
Artist: Slayer
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Title: Hell Awaits Label: Metal Blade Release Date: 1985
Rating: 5 Skulls |
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Title: Show No Mercy Label: Metal Blade Release Date: 1983
Rating: 4 Skulls |
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Godispoe's Review:
Perhaps the most extreme debut album in metal history, Show No Mercy took the word "evil" to soaring new heights. The album belonged to a 4 piece group of thrashers, who called themselves "Slayer", and they destroyed and killed everything that got in their way on becoming the loudest, darkest, and most outrageous metal group of the 1980's. Their themes were simple: satan, death, and just out right pure evil. Their music was simple: vicious ear shattering guitars, high pitched screams and harsh growling vocals, insanely heavy drums, and furious bass lines. And their motive was simple: To be as heavy as possible.Show No Mercy was definetely about as heavy as possible. Songs like "Evil Has No Boundaries", "The Antichrist", and "Black Magic" simply left fans in awe and made them forget about the metal heros at the time like Venom, Black Sabbath and Motorhead. While some groups weren't at all serious about the themes in their songs , Slayer stayed true to their tales of darkness and death, to the point where Lucifer himself could have written their material.
The music itself is as fast and aggressive as they come. Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman take soloing to a whole other plateau and their guitar riffs crush even the strongest of hell's statues. Skin beater Dave Lombardo, pounds on his kit with amazing fills that leave that heads down blast impression to anyone who listens. Finally, Tom Araya's brutal approach to singing, and his ferocious bass attack ties the music together beautifully.
Show No Mercy is classic Slayer to the core. Each tune is heavier than the next, taking extremely heavy speed/thrash metal and deathly, demonic, lyrics that are as evil as can be. If you're against satanistic lyrics in any way, don't even think of buying this album (but I'm sure u won't intend on it after seeing the cover). Slayer struck debut gold with Show No Mercy.
Show No Mercy:
Death's Review:
Hell Awaits holds the coveted title of "Slayer's 2nd best album," at least in my book. I remember the first time I heard and paid attention to Slayer: watching their performance on the original Ultimate Revenge video, which was taken from the tour supporting this album. Those opening chords from the title track, and that incessant, headbanging beat which gives way to the chaos and rapid-fire, tounge-twisting vocals of the title track say it all. I remember going to the Clash of the Titans tour at Darien Lake amusement park with Pestilence, Famine and War, and after a day of riding coasters in the sun, moving into the concert arena just as Slayer took the stage to the tune of said title track, and slowly watching the dust rise from all of the activity in the gravel-covered pit. It was surreal. And it smoked. Literally.Hell Awaits bridges the gap between the almost traditional metal, early thrash sounds of Show No Mercy, and the classic thrash/speed/early death of Reign in Blood. On Hell Awaits, you have songs with both melody and speed. Of course, speed be damned, my favorite track on the record and one of the all-time best Slayer tracks is "At Dawn They Sleep," a horror-tale set to a pounding, incessant, headbanging rythym. The track also has an intricate, dual-guitar harmony run/riff at the beginning, a precursor to the sound that would become so identified with the band with riffs such as the middle part to "Angel of Death," the beginning riff to "Raining Blood" and the main melody line to "South of Heaven." Other tracks on Hell like "Crypts of Eternity" and "Necrophiliac" are also classic Slayer. Overall, on Hell, Slayer made a major move from the traditional metal of Show toward technical thrash, stopping short of the clean musicianship of later records like Pleasures of the Flesh era Exodus and other more technical acts like Testament, yet maintaining that chaotic punk vibe that played such an important part in Slayer's early development and appeal. Sure, the chaotic solos are not always as expertly executed as one might like, and Lombardo's drumming only got more intense on Reign, South and Seasons, but, as Abyss mentioned in his review of the new Emperor album, Hell Awaits began a string of four KILLER releases from one of metal's most classic acts, and this fact alone is more than enough to solidify the record as one of metal's all-time greats.
Hell Awaits:
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