Thankfully, with “Undisputed attitude” behind us, we can now return to proper Slayer fare, and their eighth album, which took for its title a Latin phrase supposedly meaning a forbidden chord or something, literally the devil's music. Jeff Hanneman pretty much wrote all of this album --- all the music bar two tracks, one of which he collaborated with his axe partner on, and much of the lyrics, and there are some surprises along the way, as Slayer once again break the mould and enter the murky world of nu-Metal and even Groove Metal. Yeah.
Diabolus in musica --- Slayer --- 1998 (American)
Meaning “the Devil in music” (as if you couldn't work that one out) the title of this album at least assured Slayer of the surely by now coveted Parental Advisory sticker, and zero airplay once again, but once again they didn't give a
fuck. They had their fans, and those fans didn't listen to the charts, probably not even the radio, so what did they care? On “Seasons in the abyss” Slayer had been tasked by their label with producing a hit single. When they snarled “You write it, we'll play it” that put paid to any further discussions, so nobody was going to try to suggest they write anything commercial for this or any other album.
But it did turn out to be quite experimental, as we shall see. Slayer experimented with themes and ideas they had not previously, and brought in influences from subgenres previously considered unlikely ever to feature on one of their albums. It's also --- barring the previous album of Punk covers --- one of the longest Slayer albums to date, running for forty minutes and having thirteen tracks, a feat only surpassed by the next album, which also has thirteen tracks but a running time of forty-two minutes. “Seasons in the abyss” is the same length --- 42 mins --- but has only ten tracks.
But enough nerdism. To the album. We begin with “Bitter peace”, one of several songs on the album carrying on Slayer's tradition of speaking out --- well, screaming or growling out I guess --- against the futility and insanity of war. With a big grinding doom-like opening it's heavy as Hell and almost two minutes before the vocal comes in, on the back of some pretty sweet bass from Tom as the tempo kicks into the sort of thing we've become used to. Not as fast as the Punk on the previous album, true, but for my money that's too fast. This is a tempo I've all but become accustomed to, and it's somehow comforting to hear it again. Big, powerful guitars plus a blistering solo from Kerry: what more could you ask for in an opener?
“Death's head” opens with a very groove metal bass and guitar, and romps along nicely with an almost diabolic (yeah) vocal from Tom and some great feedback guitar from Kerry before he launches into another solo. But Tom gets to display his prowess on the bass here too, with several extended passages peppering the song. “Stain of mind” is another heavy thunderer, though betraying a flirtation with nu-Metal in a semi-rap run off by Tom at the beginning. Not really sure that works: I never believed rap and Metal mixed, probably never will. Still, Araya doesn't make it too obvious that he's rapping --- after a fashion --- and the song is still very recognisable as a Slayer one.
The first time, I believe, that Slayer used sound effects other than the likes of thunder and rain, “Overt enemy” starts with a voice intoning things like
“God's war/ Against Man/ Holocaust/ Man's war against himself” and pulls in Slayer's continuing protestations against the Church and against organised religion. It's slower, a cruncher rather than a screamer, with low, dirty guitar and some thick bass from Tom again.
And returning lyrically to the themes explored in “Sex, murder, art” on the “Divine intervention” album, “Perversions of pain” doesn't need too much explanations, another hard-hitting rocker though without the megaspeed again this time. Until Kerry cuts loose in about the second minute, then it all takes off into the stratosphere. “Love to hate” is thicker, sludgier and with an angry vocal from Tom, seeming to tread the old inside-the-mind-of-the-serial-killer ground again. One criticism I would have to level at Slayer --- and one which may not be unexpected --- is that they tend to rehash the same ideas over and over again. War. Death. Pain. Serial killers. Religion. We have heard all of these before, but in general I don't see any new ideas, no new themes, no new subjects, which is a pity but as I say not unexpected.
On any other album by any other band (well, most) you might think “Desire” could be a ballad, but haven't you been listening? Slayer don't do ballads! As it happens, this appears to be a song about necrophilia, revealed in the lines
”Forbidden fantasies/ Uncontrollable heat/ Find yourself all alone and dead” and while “In the name of God” is certainly not a title you would expect to find on a Slayer album, throw the word lies in before it and you have the true picture. No, they haven't gone all Christian Thrash --- is there such a thing? --- they still hate Jesus, and he probably hates them. Bet he doesn't have one single Slayer album in his collection.
Plenty of anger of course in this song, a hard heavy beat and steamhammer guitars, though the refrain at the end reminds me of something. Can't think what. Come to think of it, what I was saying just a short time ago about Slayer having no new ideas? Scratch that, as “Scrum” has to ---
has to --- be a song about ... rugby! Yeah I know, but listen to the lyric:
”Full contact/ Why I live and breathe/ Sidestepping all the human debris” and
”base line goal line/ Overtime killing time”. Sure it could be about American Football (No I will not...) but
”Living on adrendaline/ Your try is crushed” I think settles the question. No touchdown guys. No touchdown. Of course, why a bunch of Americans would write about rugby is another thing, but there it is.
“Screaming from the sky” seems to put us in the head of a German Stuka divebomber pilot (more allegations of Nazi glorification no doubt) and marches along on a great military beat and a hammered out vocal, while “Point”, for some reason, is the last track Spotify have on this album, but there are two more, so a-YouTubing I must go. For the record, “Point” reminds me a little of Sabbath's “Into the void”, though much more aggressive of course. So then, the first of the two tracks Spotify doesn't give me is “Wicked”, and it's a whole six minutes long, making it easily the longest track on the album and one of the three longest Slayer tracks up to this point. It starts with a nice downtuned guitar then bursts into life on the twin axe attack of Hanneman and King. The song may be about Armageddon, always a little hard to be sure. It's a real cruncher, stomping along and massacring everything in its path.
Finally, “Unguarded instinct” (seems these two may be bonus tracks, though it's not mentioned on Wiki, but would explain why Spotify doesn't have them; that means I've been tricked into covering bonus tracks, something you know I don't usually do) is another heavy cruncher, and sad to say, seems to go down the tired old well-trodden serial killer road. Oh well: guess you can't expect too much in the way of originality. Decent song though; think it should have been part of the original album, but sure, what do I know?
TRACKLISTING
1. Bitter peace
2. Death's head
3. Stain of mind
4. Overt enemy
5. Perversions of pain
6. Love to hate
7. Desire
8. In the name of God
9. Scrum
10. Screaming from the sky
11. Point
12. Wicked
13. Unguarded instinct
It's a heavy album, of that there's no doubt, but as I said earlier the lack of variety, the refusal to change much and, though this is seen as something of an experimental album, the sameness of Slayer's music is, I have to admit, boring me. Nobody would ever accuse them of being progressive, but hey, you may hate Genesis or Marillion or even ELO, but at least they tried to do something new on successive albums, even if it was only new lyrical themes or song structures. To a great extent, I sort of feel that (the covers album aside) the last three albums have all sounded pretty similar to me, and while I don't expect to see Slayer bring in keyboards or orchestras or even a double bass, I would like them to do something a little different.
But I guess this is how their fans like them, so they're unlikely to change. Still, for an album touted as being so “different” to anything else they had done, I don't see it. More of the same. Kind of yawn, y'know? Hey! Put down that burning cross! If I don't turn up for the next review people will come looking for me, you know...
