South Of Heaven - Slayer

Slayer's South of Heaven album was released in 1988 and was the band's 4th album, it was also their commercial peak and having perfected their heaviness on the album Reign in Blood, they tried something slightly new and for me it didn't quite work. The guitarists were slowed down, not ideal for a band who had so far specialised in speed metal, to a slow doomy style pace on top of which Chilean American vocalist Tom Araya used his trademark satanic shouting style sounding ever so slightly like Sylvester Stallone at the end of the last Rocky film where he's missing some brain cells (not that he was ever Einstein)' Slowed down, the tracks almost sound ...  Read the complete review

I was once quite comfortable with my attitude to Slayer. I hated them and I hated their music. Number two, hating their music, came first, after I listened to "Reign in Blood", their infamously heavy early album and discovered that it had all the heaviness of a buzz-saw. That is, none. It was loud, high-pitched, and fast, but it didn't seem at all heavy. Number one, hating them as well as their music, came along after tuning in to the old Radio One to hear them live at Donnington "Monsters of Rock". The sun was shining outside, but as they were announced it was covered by cloud as quickly as I've ever seen it covered, which seemed a ...  Read the complete review