Quote:
Originally Posted by The Batlord
I think that album is one of those that was underrated when it first came out, cause everyone was hoping for Reign in Blood Pt. 2, but later on people realized that it was still a solid album, and now that everyone is over that realization we can all agree that it's still too tepid to be a proper Slayer album.
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86-88 were such incredible years for music. At the time I was all about Swans, Pussy Galore, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers and metal was kind of just all bunched up in my head. I bought South of Heaven when it came out and loved it but didn't really think much about it in terms of it being a kind of departure from the Reign in Blood sound. I just thought of South of Heaven as a great record. I didn't even know strict metal heads had an issue with it. I found the grooves completely absorbing, hypnotic, and very fun to bugout on.
I respect they way you're looking at South of Heaven as a whole and how it stacks up overall to those other Slayer releases but for me personally I really love it song for song. That said, at the very least, South of Heaven, Silent Scream, and Mandatory Suicide all still command so much respect I would be shocked if you're not still in complete awe even today when one of those three tracks start up. They are so ****ing definitive of what great metal is I mean, I don't know, it's ****ing crushing. Like listening to those riffs actually make you more powerful as a human being. Borderline supernatural or some ****. And time hasn't watered down the effect at all. It's timeless.
Compare this to ...And Justice for All which I also bought right when it came out but I was so disappointed. From that point on I was done with Metallica.
At that time though, I thought Celtic Frost, Napalm Death/Godflesh (especially that first (?) EP with Avalanche Master Song) and Extreme Noise Terror (which I classified as metal not punk- and I loved that Extreme Noise Terror/Chaos UK split) - well I thought all those bands were more important than Slayer. And I still hold all those bands in very, very high regard - along with the sadly mostly forgotten Head of David- but then some time in like the late '90's I think I started really deeply re-examining Reign in Blood. I always knew it was great but it started to like melt my brain or something. Like it has the power of a giant asteroid. Like so good it reaches that point where it's impossible to be better. Any genre any artist all you can do is tie it.
This is a bit of a ramble but...