Slayer: Haunting the Chapel EP - 1984
This is an obvious choice for me, and a good way to illustrate some of my criteria for "scuzzy, low-rent metal". Anything from
Reign In Blood on is just too polished. Not that there's anything wrong with that. The debut would apply, but it lacks that raw ugliness that is all over this and
Hell Awaits. And this beats out
Hell Awaits simply because it's more primitive. So,
Haunting the Chapel...
I think this EP is the only time that Slayer ever truly crossed over into full-on, first-wave black metal. It all starts with "Chemical Warfare", quite possibly Slayer's darkest song of all time. From the word go you are assaulted with a wall of raw, heads-down, guitar riffing, from which all of the pretty melodies from
Show No Mercy have been removed. Tom Araya's hateful growl then belches forth from the dark abyss, and the ugliness is complete. The stripped-down production, heavy on reverb, gives this a dense, claustrophobic atmosphere, that truly makes this song a masterpiece of early black metal. The next two songs that make up this EP are much the same, if not
quite as monumentally brilliant as "Chemical Warfare". It's a shame they charge full album price for this EP over at FYE or I'd have bought this years ago. **** FYE.