We've three albums left to go, and I've been having a hard time finding the last, so it may end up only being two. We'll see. Meanwhile, with such irony that proves or maybe disproves the existence of God, Slayer's ninth album hit the shops in 2001. In September. Eleven days into September. That's right: with stunningly bad timing, did they but know it, “God hates us all” was released on September 11 2001. That could surely not be a good omen. The album cover, showing a partially burned bible with the band's logo branded into it, could not have gone down well after the attacks and may mistakenly have been seen as some sort of tacit support for Islam. I don't know this of course, I'm just guessing here. But anyone who releases an album that decries and denounces God on the day so many people lost their lives in the worst terrorist incident of the twenty-first century (so far) is asking for trouble.
God hates us all --- Slayer --- 2001 (American)
Not that Slayer would have cared about that I suppose. Perhaps the controversy just fuelled album sales. I don't remember hearing about Slayer albums being burned in the streets, so perhaps they weren't quite commercially famous or important enough for the general public to take notice, and metalheads wouldn't care: they'd know the score. So maybe Slayer dodged a bullet. Either way, the title was in fact not a slur against God as such: Hanneman explained that it was based on the fact that when things fall apart we all seem to blame God (whether we believe in Him or not) and it always seems like He's letting really bad stuff happen --- 9/11 being a good and relevant example. But with Slayer's reputation for being something less than choirboys, people would make the obvious assumption and jump to the wrong conclusion.
Again using backwards masking and sound effects for only the second time, “Darkness of Christ” starts off with a somewhat muddy, confused melody as King and Hanneman's guitars chop riffs and in the background voices talk and scream. The song lasts just one minute and thirty seconds and is really more an intro to the album, as Slayer blast into “Disciple”, with a powerful vocal from Tom Araya and the title of the album shouted in the chorus. Sort of mid-paced, it's slower than a lot of the usual Slayer material for about half its length, until on the back of a King solo it pumps up to full speed and crashes to the end, taking us into “God send death”, which alternates between sludgy, stomp-along rhythms and manic speed.
This album is very much the creation of Kerry King, having seven of the thirteen tracks written by him --- both music and lyrics --- and “New faith” shows his talent in a really rockin' powerblast of a song with, um, a hook? Yeah, it's there, believe it or not. Best track on the album so far. Really just pounds along and the vocal follows the rhythm rather than just seeming as if Tom is screaming or roaring in time. “Cast down” is another great one, supposedly watching society through the eyes of a fallen angel who has turned to drugs --- I don't see the fallen angel part myself really, but again what do I know? A great sense of anger and frustration in the lyric as Tom bellows
”America! Home of the brave! Land of fucking disenchantment!” Bit tame for Slayer, really. Powerful drumwork from Paul Bostaph on his last outing with the band.
There's a real sense of pain and the feeling of drowning in “Threshold”, as an overbearing love affair pushes a man to violence which spills out beyond the borders of his own doomed relationship, and the speed kicks right back up for “Exile”, as paranoia boils over into unimaginable violence, Tom bawling
”You self-righteous fuck!/ Give me a reason/ Not to rip your fucking face off!” and Kerry's guitar wails in counterpoint, like an avenging beast waiting to be set free, waiting to ravage rape and kill. In contrast to the ultra-violence and passion of the last two tracks, a laidback guitar opens “Seven faces” with a dark, heavy crunching beat and a scream from Tom before the vocal proper begins. Another powerful fusilade from Bostaph, his drums rolling and echoing, and a spoken vocal from Tom in the midsection as the song slows down to almost doom metal speed.
There's slow, dark guitar too to open “Bloodline”, which strides along with brash arrogance, crushing everything in its way, I think it's about vampires, though I could be wrong. “Deviance” seems to be another serial killer tale. Yeah, another one. Good song though, if not original: some really atmospheric guitar and more sound effects, great sense of brooding and very ominous aura about it. Jamming their feet down hard on the pedal Slayer open the throttle to full and blast off at incredible speed as “War zone” once again has Tom singing about the horrors of war. An angry, almost maniacal vocal and near-psychotic guitar work makes this something of an event on the album, one of the heaviest songs on “God hates us all”.
The longest track at four minutes thirty-two seconds, “Here comes the pain” delivers what it promises, with a crushing guitar assault from Kerry and Jeff, skullcracking drumming from Paul and a marching beat as Tom roars like the Antichrist revealed. Kerry does a very passable Tony Iommi here, while the raw brutal energy Slayer have made their trademark and become known for closes the album in “Payback”, which just puts its head down, charges blindly and goes for it. The vocal delivery is so fast it's hard to make out the words, but the intent is clear: someone's gonna die tonight!
There are two bonus tracks on the international version of the album, and the first is “Scarstruck”, with a sort of boogie beat to it and something of a mid-paced song, while “Addict” takes a somewhat different approach, with an echoey slow guitar building the atmosphere as the song crunches along, picking up speed as the beat increases and Tom roars the vocal. With a searing solo from Kerry we pound towards the end, with the shock revelation at the end being that the addiction being sung about is murder!
TRACKLISTING
1. Darkness of Christ
2. Disciple
3. God send death
4. New faith
5. Cast down
6. Threshold
7. Exile
8. Seven faces
9. Bloodline
10. Deviance
11. War zone
12. Here comes the pain
13. Payback
14. Scarstruck
15. Addict
The themes may generally remain the same, but this has turned out to be one of the Slayer albums I have most enjoyed so far. I'm not quite sure what it is --- the songs are basically nothing new and the playing is top-notch if sometimes a little too fast to appreciate --- but there's just something about the cohesiveness of this album that speaks to me. Who knows what it is that makes one album better than another, but this is for me their best effort since “Seasons in the abyss.” Great stuff.
That leaves us with two, maybe, before we wrap things up.
Ah, but wait. Before the tenth album was put out there was an EP, which we must also look at. Five years after “God hates us all” and two months before the new album came this little taster. After waiting patiently for half a decade for fresh material from their heroes this must have been like manna from Heaven (or Hell) to the legions of Slayer fans.
Eternal pyre --- Slayer --- 2006
Okay, scratch that. Now that I research it further, the EP contained one --- one! --- track which would be available on the album later and the rest of it was made up of videos of live performances of tracks we've already reviewed. To quote Kerry King, f
uck that s
hit. We'll press on.