Slayer Hell Awaits 40th Anniversary

[Pagan Saviour]

Personally I think Show No Mercy to Decade is Flawless.

Lot of time for Divine though it's not in the same league as what preceded it. Think the fact it was so heavy/dark compared to what their peers were up to.

[Sworntothecans]

Personally I think Show No Mercy to Decade is Flawless.

Lot of time for Divine though it's not in the same league as what preceded it. Think the fact it was so heavy/dark compared to what their peers were up to.

It's always the production and mix that lets Divine Intervention down.

Andy Wallace would have done wonders with it.
 

[Necro Red]

Personally I think Show No Mercy to Decade is Flawless.

Lot of time for Divine though it's not in the same league as what preceded it. Think the fact it was so heavy/dark compared to what their peers were up to.

It's always the production and mix that lets Divine Intervention down.

Andy Wallace would have done wonders with it.
 

I actually really like the production on Devine. Its dark and not overly produced like the what thee rest of the big four were doing at the time. I don't think they lost their edge until after this album

[Pagan Saviour]

I think they were lost afterwards full stop. Though I do like Undisputed even though it's not an album proper. In some ways you've to admire them for both Undisputed and Divine - easier paths they could've taken. But they really went off the rails after that. Only really like World Painted Blood after Undisputed - it's the only record that sounds like "Slayer"

[Mr Barlow]

Devine is very good. Has some class tunes. It was the beginning of shouty Tom though. Down hill after that for me.

[Carnage]

Is Divine an essential Slayer album? If so it's their last one, they were never great after. God Hates Us All is probably the best of the post-DI albums for me.

[Neuromancer]

For me, "Hell Awaits" is top 3, maybe even my favourite - my only small issue would be the production, I like the reverb and the separation of instruments, but overall its a little thin and lacking the punch/heaviness/depth it deserved, especially looking at their peers and what was out in 1985 - what they were competing with sonically. It suffers in the same way that "Killing Is My Business..." did until the recent remix/remaster.

"Haunting The Chapel" sounds better and you only have to listen to "Decade Of Aggression" to see how ferocious it should have sounded - but the riffs, themes, lyrics, darkness, all somewhat compensate. But Slayer have never really been a band with top drawer production/mixes.

Conversely, I've never understood any of the criticism levelled at "Divine Intervention", production/mix could have been better, but it's not particularly jarring/offensive and the material itself is like a distillation of everything that preceded it, the only real difference is that it's light on the Satanic type material, but they'd have been laughed out of the hall for entering into the realm of Satan in 1994!

[Bürggermeister]

RIB has one of the finest productions ever, IMO. That guitar tone is ferocious, all the instruments are clear without being overly generous on the treble and everything still has loads of low end. It's a great sounding album, better than the vast majority of the identikit Sneap-inspired mixes you hear now and, if you put on SOH immediately after, SOH sounds thin and weedy in comparison.

[Pagan Saviour]

material itself is like a distillation of everything that preceded it,

I'm not sure I'd agree - I think the style of the tracks musically is very different. Some of the riffing is excellent and they've never come up with material like that before or since I think. Fictional Reality is a real workout for example - it's amazing to think King came up with most of this stuff given the shite he churned out during Slayer's twilight. Hanneman's stuff Divine, 213 etc sounds closer to familiarity.

Bostaph's performance on this one is also very unlike them - to this day one of my favourite Drum performances.

[Carnage]

RIB has one of the finest productions ever, IMO. That guitar tone is ferocious, all the instruments are clear without being overly generous on the treble and everything still has loads of low end. It's a great sounding album, better than the vast majority of the identikit Sneap-inspired mixes you hear now and, if you put on SOH immediately after, SOH sounds thin and weedy in comparison.

Interesting, I'd have said the exact same thing but switching the albums - RIB, while still sounding great, has a slightly inferior production/mix to me. It's not bad - far from it - but SOH has the clearer, more precise and yet heavier sound to my ears. The last few seconds of Spill The Blood alone are the best they've ever sounded.

[Bürggermeister]

There's no low end in SOH apart from the bass drums. The bass is practically non-existent, which appeared to be the fashion in 88, the guitars are all upper mids and the whole thing sounds empty to me when there's no double bass drumming. It's clear, for sure, but that's because it's thin as fuck to make room for those bass drums. Go straight from the end of Postmortem into Silent Scream, skip the long intros and outros of the tracks either side of them, and you'll hear the difference. RIB is a thick sounding album, it's raw and aggressive but still has clarity.

SOH on its own is a fucking great album, but I can't put on SOH straight after RIB, I need to clean my ears to accept that mix 

[Carnage]

Foe me RIB is just the warm up for the main event, I usually play them together. 

Ah you're probably right. RIB was the last of the (then available) Slayer albums I got back then, and it's never measured up to SOH for me. Even though I picked it up a few months after SOH, my tastes were already shifting toward DM at that stage and so it probably got left behind somewhat. I distinctly remember thinking 'is that it?' after listening for the first time, so hyped up had that album been before I'd gotten to it. (See also: Kill 'Em All, Spreading The Disease and Killing Is My Business...)

[Trev]

I always thought Divine Intervention was a very natural follow on from Seasons

If there wasn't a four year gap and it had another Larry Carroll artwork I reckon it would always be talked about as part of their classic run

[Paul keohane]

I was 15 when DI came out; so was lapping up everything as a young lad.But even I knew at the time it was an underwhelming album.Id reach for the 2/3 albums that came after it now ahead of DI tbh.

[Necro Red]

Is Divine an essential Slayer album? If so it's their last one, they were never great after. God Hates Us All is probably the best if the post-DI albums for me.

I would say so and agree with ya about GHUA. There are still a good few songs scattered on albums though that are decent