Published on Dec 2, 2000
This review is actually an accident.
You see, I had intended on going back to the first release from
the speed-metal band Slayer,
Show No Mercy, to re-educate myself in this band’s music and
trace their musical progress up to their most recent work. Instead,
I found myself in the car with
Hell Awaits, their third album (second if you count
Haunting The Chapel as an EP), my education shot down in
flames.
Oh, it wasn’t that I was disappointed with my selection; if
anything,
Hell Awaits proved that Tom Araya and crew demanded to be
taken on their own terms – and if you accepted, then you had better
prepare yourself for one intense musical trip.
Their overall sound was still coming together, and while this is
a decent representation of what Slayer’s sound was like in 1985, it
still wasn’t the perfect picture. (That would come on their
major-label debut,
Reign In Blood.) Possibly this is because the music industry
(even a label dedicated the genre like Metal Blade) didn’t quite
know what to do with such a sound at that time in metal’s history.
After all, while there had been bands with Satanic leanings, and
there most definitely had been speed metal bands, nobody had
combined the two with such furious power as Slayer had.
You can tell this from the title track alone – though I do
admit, after spending so much time listening to
Live – Decade Of Aggression, I do miss hearing “The
Anti-Christ” immediately following this song. The way that the band
– bassist/vocalist Araya, guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman
and drummer Dave Lombardo – handle the style and speed changes on
this particular track is nothing short of phenomenal. There’s a
reason why this track has remained a fan favorite all these
years.
The entire first half of
Hell Awaits taps into that power and keeps the listener
engrossed from note one to the end. “Kill Again” is a track that is
one of those “coulda-shoulda-woulda” songs (that is, it should have
been a breakthrough hit for them), while “At Dawn They Sleep” just
oozes intensity and power from every beat.
The second half of this album falters only slightly – and this
is not to say that tracks such as “Necrophiliac” and “Crypts Of
Eternity” are bad. But they pale a little bit in comparison to the
highlights of
Hell Awaits. Even so, they’re still guaranteed to warp the
paint off your car. I do like the way they go back to the album’s
opening riffs at the close of “Hardening Of The Arteries,” thus
ending the album. Nice touch.
Hell Awaits is a great portrait of a band just about to make
its big break onto the metal scene, and it’s just as enjoyable
today as it was 15 years ago. Evil never felt so heavenly.