Reviewing EVERY Slayer Album! 

RU-vid, the way to see, The way you want to review, Slayer, albums to be Discussed in his own view The Metal Meltdown, March to the apartment of the man, Infamous RU-vidr, THE METAL MELTDOWN!

Divine Intervention has always been a top 5 Slayer album for me.

SLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Show no Mercy: Solid debut with memorable tunes here and there. Hell Awaits: My personal favourite. Equal parts Brutal, fast and evil. Reign in Blood: I mean that album speaks for itself really. South of Heaven: My introduction to the band and I love both the slow and fast songs. Seasons in the Abyss: My second favourite, good mix of the fast and slow songs. Divine Intervention: I really like this one, even though Dave is gone, Bostaph did a great job and I think it's underatted. Diabolus in Musica: Not awful but not one of my favs. God Hates Us All: I'm not a mega fan of this one but it does have great songs such as Bloodline and Exile. Christ Illusion: Probably my fav of the 2000s albums. World Painted Blood: Good songs but a very horribly detached sounding production (especially shows with the drums) Probably due to tensions with Dave and the rest of the band. Repentless: Not bad. Good songs here and there but not amazing.

Divine Intervention is criminally underrated! The production is questionable but for an album from the 90s, it still has legs.

Long comment: Show no mercy- very solid, I’d rather listen to venom Hell awaits- ALMOST a death metal album Reign in blood- this is thrash metal. The Bible. The definition South of heaven- the slow songs>>>>> the fast songs Seasons in the abyss- second favorite, perfect fusion of RiB and SoH Divine intervention- my least favorite, slayer going through the motions just kinda boring... still solid Diablous In Musica- hey man at least it’s different and interesting God hates us all- some great songs, buuut pretty one dimensional Christ illusion- VERY solid and a shame it’s overlooked World painted blood- best since SitA, one of their best Repentless- what if seasons in the abyss wasn’t good I’m only halfway through the video btw. Definitely agreeing with you for the most part!

Great, eloquent and fun reviews as always! I had previously thought of south of heaven as a bit of a dud, but I'll give it another listen with what you said in mind!

Just as I was about to start their discography

Thanks for giving some love to Diabolus In Musica! I ALWAYS liked that album a lot. The grooves and riffs are so great man. Song writing and structure nowhere near the earlier ones, but what is? I still jam this album today

I’d argue Seasons is better than South Of Heaven

Glad to see some love for Diabolus! Cool vid!

The “true metal heads” attitude against Diabolus in musics and God hates us all is Toxic fandom 101. Really close minded perspective of the fans. Both amazing killer albums .

Love Slayer. Everything from Show No Mercy to Divine Intervention is incredible. I also love Undisputed Attitude which as everyone knows is a covers album. Christ Illusion is my favorite Slayer album since Divine Intervention and I rate it above everything that came after it as well.

I've seen Slayer twice in concert in 2016 in Abbotsford and 2018 in Vancouver. Both times I saw them, Anthrax were on the bill. The second time I saw them was in 2018 in Vancouver. Opening acts for the 2018 show were Testament, Behemoth, Anthrax, Lamb of God and Slayer. Unfortunately, the 2018 concert I saw from Slayer was the last time I saw them, as their 2018-2019 tour was their last.

Divine Intervention is in the top 5 of my favorite Slayer albums.

So I guess we're drinking and listening to some slayer tonight

Well done, Robert! Reign in Blood is their best one in my opinion, also. I love all of their stuff, really, but that one is very special. It's the first one of theirs that I ever bought. The only thing I don't seem to believe is when people complain that metal was dying out in the '90s. In the underground, it was flourishing in the realms of doom metal, death metal, and black metal. More importantly, metal is thriving in the twenty-first century. I'll see you in the next one! 🤘🤘🤘

I do love some Slayer and they are always no exception, always really liked your segment here. Their discography is consistent for the most part and their selection of albums has been one of my favourites, though I do not like Diabolus really. The earlier stuff is where it's at for me but I do like a few later ones.

I always loved how satanic and violent Slayer can be, but it seems like Tom Araya is a man of God. I also am a man of God but damnit I can't stand Christian music. It's really weird that some of my favorite music comes from Slayer and Cannibal Corpse. Yes I'm a man of God but I'm a full blown metal head.

Great video, very balanced view, thanks mate.

Lol this just in! Slayer just reunited and they already have 2024 tour dates. Even despite Kerry King having a solo band, album, and it's own tour dates. And i wonder what made Tom want to do it again?

FINALLY! Someone who has the courage to admit that Diabolous in Musica is actually a pretty decent album, especially considering the awful musical landscape of the time. I would even go as far as to argue that it’s better than anything they released afterwards 😬🤭 (sorry, but from God Hates Us All onwards Tom’s vocals become increasingly unlistenable 🙄)

Man you hit the nail on the head on every album. I say pretty much the exact thing about every album. Great job.

I've been a Slayer fanatic since Reign in Blood came out in 86'. I backtracked to Show No Mercy not long after that and my initial reaction was similar to yours. It sounded almost nothing like RIB and I never really went back to it until a year or so ago. First of all I'm not sure what you are calling "80's metal" but unless you also classify Venom and Mercyful Fate as "80's metal your logic is flawed because SNM sounds like a hybrid of the two. It's fast and heavy like Venom but very precise with some impressive soloing like Mercyful Fate. I think becoming more familiar with those two band's music over the years allowed me to hear it in a new light when I went back to it. Slayer was finding it's footing but they hadn't completely found their voice as a band yet. It's auctually become one of my favorite albums since going back to it. I also highly recommend the 2 eps that came after SNM. Both are absolutely amazing.

After watching you do a good job on the Judas Priest vid, I thought I'd check out this one and I mostly agree (my all time fav is Seasons btw) we are decades apart in age and you have a great ear for high quality. My only small complaint is you spend 5x longer on albums you hate- we get it already. That said, nice work overall.

Finally, someone else who likes Diabolous! I've always loved that album, especially Overt Enemy, Point, and Deaths Head. Seriously though, NOTHING beats Reign in Blood. Skeletons of Society was my favorite in high school! 🤘😈🤘

I got to see Slayer on their farewell tour at Toronto 2018, along with Lamb of God, Anthrax, Behemoth and Testament. That night was definitely the most craziest show I've ever experienced. Fucking Slayer!!!!

Show no mercy is their best. It's the only record of theirs that I have not gotten bored of listening to after all those years. DIE BY THE SWORDDDDD

0:58 - check out the Maiden-alike "cryonics"...

I agree that Diabolus in musica is a good album and doesn't deserve the hate it gets.

I'm gonna argue that Divine Intervention is better than you give it credit. Yes, it's no master piece but it was their most technical album by far, Fictional Reality, Circle of Belief, Serenity in Murder and Mind Control. Not to mention the intensity of songs like Killing Field and Dittohead. It might be a little hohum if you just blasted through the first 5 albums but on its own it's phenomenal for what was coming out at the time and is easily my second favourite behind Seasons in the Abyss. I'd give it a solid 4/5 but to each their own.

Hey but what about the artwork of repentless and the titletrack?

I was way late to the party Diabolus in Musica was my first Slayer album I bought. As sonic as their sound track to Hell sound is...this album eased me into there brand of music and then went backwards to Divine Intervention and the rest...4\5 album for me...Bitter Peace is just epic!

Good ol Slayer. I worked stage for the Jägermeister Music Tour in 2005; Slayer, Mastadon, Dog Fashion Disco, Killswitch Engage, good times.

1. Hell Awaits 10/10 2. Reign in Blood 10/10 3. Seasons in the Abyss 10/10 4. Show No Mercy 10/10 5. South of Heaven 10/10 6. Divine Intervention 10/10 7. Christ Illusion 10/10 8. Haunting the Chapel EP 10/10 9. World Painted Blood 9.55/10 10. God Hates us All 9/10 11. Repentless 8.75/10 12. Undisputed Attitude 8.65/10 13. Diabolus in Musica 7.75/10 As you can see, I really like every album by slayer

I was lucky enough to see them on riot fest before all this crap happened, with testament and anthrax right before them , and it was a pretty epic show ..:I just happened to stay at same hotel as testament as well

I've really only listened to Show No Mercy and Slayer's golden era. I got into them relatively late and don't get the urge to go through their lesser work.

My favorites are probably Show No Mercy, Hell Awaits, and South Of Heaven. I just can’t get into anything else by Slayer really.

Diabolus rules! I was happy to hear someone else say they like it, too. I'm old enough to have grown up in the Reign in Blood era and I fucking love Diabolus.

I actually kind of wanna listen to some Slayer now🤘. One of the bands I have listened to since I started listening to metal back in early 2000s is Nevermore and it would be awesome to hear your thoughts on that band. Really fucking sad that Warrel Dane kicked the bucket that early

The top three in my opinion is Reign in blood, Seasons in the abyss and South of heaven in that order. Masterpieces. Love it all though.

I agree with you about Diabolus. I don't think it deserves the hate it gets. It still sounds like Slayer with a touch of groove in it. So fuckin what. Of all the Big 4, for better or worse they stayed closest to their origins(which I don't give a shit either way, if you alter your sound, and it's good, great).

Reign in Blood South of Heaven Seasons in the Abyss The unholy Trinity of FUCKIN SLAYER

The vocals from Seasons onwards always killed the music. Nothing but monotonous yelling in the same pitch. RiB did it right

Good call!! 3 grand slams on reign, south and seasons.

Small thing Papsmear was a name of a punk band that Jeff wanted to put together as a side project.

divine intervention doesn’t deserve all the fucking hate 💀 literally on par with their last 3 albums and people still shit on it constantly

I myself have Asperger's and I sure as hell won't sit still during War Ensemble or any other fucking Slayer song.

Hard to pick one best, my favorite would be diabolus in musica just for the fact that it is how i discovered them. Bitter peace is my all time favorite slayer song damn it is vicious and it slaysss so fucking bad!

My Slayer ranking is a bit strange I suppose but... Seasons Hell Awaits South of Heaven Reign in Blood Show No Mercy Haunting the Chapel Christ Illusion Haven't jammed the others enough to rightfully rank them tbh

God Hates Us All’s release date is the very definition of Bad Timing.

Only Slayer album I ever heard was Seasons in the Abyss, great album imo.

Agree on almost everything. Except, I love Repentless.

Big relief to hear some Diabolus love. I don't really hear any of the nu metal vibes.. more hardcore and punk imo

Idc what anyone says (imo) slayer is one of the MOST influential bands for any extreme metal and even most modern “heavy metal” etc etc and south of heaven will always be my fav tho such a goddamn complete album man

How old were you in 1983?

Slayer is cool, but I like when they slowed down. Slowyer is my favourite 1988/1990

Finally, someone else who appreciates Diabolous In Musica🤟

Show no Mercy - My favourite one Hell Awaits - For some reason I never understood why people like it so much Reign in Blodd - There is nothing to say, what hasn't already been said. South of Heaven - I agree with EVERYTHING you said Seasons in the abyss - When you can't decide if you wanna hear Reign or South, you usually end up with this one Divine Intervention - Booooooring! Diabolus in Musica - I love it when bands try new shit. But this is literally shit. God Hates Us All - It took me a while, but this is actually a really good album Christ Illusion - Boooooooring! World Painted Blood - The album that should have come out in 1994. Probably I would have liked it then Repentless - It's acutally not thaaaat bad like you say Nice analysis you did!

I thought I was the only one that like Diabolis in Musica.

I love the Bostaph era records, all of them and never understood the big disliking of any of them. Just my opinion.

Wait What I never Knew Def Jam Records Actually Signed And release Albums With Slayer!!! That is Insane bro

Divine Intervention absolutely smokes - it's in my top 4

It’s a shame Haunting the Chapel always gets skipped over. It’s an important bridge between the Show No Mercy style and Hell Awaits.

Cool video

Groovy Kreator shirt!

South of Heaven He’ll Awaits

It's a shame that one of the better songs on Repentless still wasn't even as good as it's low quality B-Side from World Painted Blood. Atrocity Vendor would've been the best song on Repentless if they just kept it as fast and aggressive as it was on World Painted Blood. Hate that Kerry also changed a verse because he thought it was "uncool and too sensationalized". Real shame

Ironic this comes out when I rank Slayer albums on a different platform (Not a video platform)

Love the first 3 albums, and like South/Seasons. After that it's super hit or miss for me unfortunately.

I haven't ever really understood the Nu-Metal sound people say they hear in Diabolus In Musica. I mean it does sound different from the rest of their discography, but Nu-Metal? I'm just not hearing it.

Granted, I came about 20 years late to the party, but I never understood the hype about "Reign in Blood"... it's a good album, but it lacks in memorable songs. There are exactly three things that stick to the memory after each listen: 1. The scream at the beginning of "Angel of Death". 2. The lyric "Auschwitz, the meaning of pain, the way that I want you to die". And 3. The intro to "Raining Blood". The entire middle part of this thing is a whole bunch of short riff sketches, that were never completed into real songs. I much prefer "South of Heaven" to this...

Seasons is underrated

I personally prefer God Hates Us All to Diabolus In Musica,mostly because it doesn't have those pseudoindustrial vocal effects,which in my opinion take away from Slayer's music. But both of those get too much shit honestly. Everyone adapted in the 90s and Slayer did it better than others. Also,I am one of those people,who have Hell Awaits as a favourite) South Of Heaven is a close second though,love it,when Slayer makes a great slow song and then goes into a killer fast track,gives the album more dynamic Great review as always,man! Definitely disagree in places,but you present your points in a great way and sound invested in the music

Divine intervention is great. Ditto head is too slow tho...🤣 🤘🇬🇧

1.5/5 on repentless your being very generous

-Show No Mercy: overall a good album, but Haunting The Chapel had better songs -Hell Awaits: Slayer’s first banger, Nekrophiliac rules, great album -Reign in Blood: Amazing album, but I kinda wish it was a bit longer, the fact that the middle section of the album has a bunch of 1:30 to 2:30 songs kinda prevents it from being my top spot. It’s second place tho. -South of Heaven: masterpiece. Slow, heavy, somber, has some really sick riffs and passages, my favorite Slayer album no doubt. -Seasons In The Abyss: they kinda doubled down on the somberness in this thing, which on one hand is amazing, but on the other it steers dangerously close to doom metal for me (or at least as close as Slayer can possibly be), which make me not enjoy this album as much as South of Heaven. Third place still. -Divine Intervention: not a fan at all. Araya’s vocals were never my favorite part of Slayer, but my god is he annoying to listen to in this thing. -Diabolus In Musica: Araya isn’t as annoying here as he was on Divine Intervention, which is good. And this is the only good thing about this album. -God Hate Us All: Aside from Bloodline, Disciple and maybe Exile, Araya doubled down on his Divine Intervention antics, making this thing my least favorite Slayer album of all, I just can’t fucking stand Araya singing (if I can even call it that) on this thing. -Christ Illusion: What a *massive* step up, this may be my favorite latter day Slayer album, the riffs are on point, Araya is back to not interfering with my enjoyment of the album, and Lombardo back brings a whole new vibe to the album. -World Painted Blood: I genuinely cannot remember a single song from this thing with exception of the title track, which is pretty good, I guess. -Repentless: I… remember it more than World Painted Blood… but not everything tho… title track is decent… there’s two good song by the end of the tracklist… that’s about it I guess.

Out of all of Slayer's releases, I think "World Painted Blood" has the weakest sounding guitar tone on it. I think that contributes quite a bit to it's "just ok-ness". It almost reminds me of surf rock in certain areas. When I was an avid Slayer listener I loved their nasty burly guitar tonality and "World Painted Blood" just didn't have it. I think that's where I got off the Slayer train and completely immersed myself into Black Metal.

I’m so glad I played Guitar Hero 3 look I like Metallica but I think Slayer is better musically. Reign in Blood goes unbelievably hard and was almost impossible to play on my Xbox controller. I can still feel my fingers cramp. I heard God hates us all recently and I gotta admit that album goes hard as fuck.

Slayer albums ranked: 1. Show No Mercy (1983) 2. Reign in Blood (1986) 3. Hell Awaits (1985) 4. Seasons in the Abyss (1990) 5. Divine Intervention (1994) 6. Christ Illusion (2006) 7. Repentless (2015) 8. World Painted Blood (2009) 9. South of Heaven (1988) 10. Diabolus in Musica (1998) 11. God Hates Us All (2001)

Metal was not on its way out in 94, thrash and hair metal was out by then,

12. Undisputed Attitude 11. Show No Mercy 10. South Of Heaven 9. Hell Awaits 8. Diabolus In Musica 7. Reign In Blood 6. Divine Intervention 5. Christ Illusion 4. World Painted Blood 3. Relentless 2. Seasons In The Abyss 1. God Hates Us All Doubt anyone will agree with this list, (especially where I put with Repentless) but this is my ranking.

Interesting takes, man. My favourite is Hell Awaits, and my second favourite is Show No Mercy. I don't think the latter is generic in the sense that it's an also-ran album; it's genre-forming still and this is the same year Kill em All came out. A lot of these songs were already being performed live. Sure, there were NWOBHM bands that played a bit fast, and sure, Venom was evil (and Black Metal is one of my favourite metal records), but this thing was still special. You said yourself how unhinged it was. And Venom never had a guitar duo trading off wild 'n' crazy solos. This record also features most of Slayer's most melodic guitarwork. I think it rules real hard. And hell Awaits, to me, is the most evil Slayer record. Not going to rave about it here. I do feel that, even though it's not an album, it's really important to mention haunting the Chapel, because that, specifically on "Chemical Warfare", is where the Slayer sound really started. I always have time for Undisputed Attitude. That was the new Slayer album when I first got into the band. Not big on Slayer playing slow so much, so "Gemini" doesn't do a lot for me, but I love most of the punk covers, and that was also the first time I heard of many of those bands. Finally I'll keep this last one short but: For me, Seasons in the Abyss is not that great while Divine Intervention may be underrated. Somehow I just like the latter album more and I don't agree that it's so by-the-numbers. it has some of their fastest and even most technical playing on it; Tom's vocals are way more angry and some of the songs are dark as hell. I don't really vibe with Slayer after the punk covers album. It's probably me and not really the band, but I was getting into metal as the nu metal thing was starting up and so I ended up looking backwards through bands' discographies and mostly appreciating their older material way more than their newewr stuff, and while I've warmed up a little bit to stuff like sepultura's Roots since then, most of these thrashy bands trying to gain "modern acceptance" just kind of annoyed me. What can I say -- that's just the way it was for me; I'm not here to trash anyone else's musical preferences, but for me, getting into metal around 95/96, nu metal was the enemy. I did see Slayer on the Diabolus tour though. Still the only time I bothered to see the band live, but I figured I had to do it at least once, and despite not liking the album, I wasn't disappointed at all.

I came into thrash metal because of my love of punk, and I love Slayer for their aggression I associate with hardcore punk. My fav tends to be Hell Awaits, but from there through SOH and ending masterfully with SITA we get all the best qualities from Slayer, but honestly since then I haven’t really enjoyed much, which makes me happy to hear that we’re very much on the same side. I fucking love their cover album for obvious reasons, DIM is weird and odd in places but fine, Christ Illusion kinda meh, and I actually really dig WPB, but Repentless sucks ass! But man, I’ve ended up in some stupid fights with some of their fans for speaking just mildly critically of their favorite band, man those fans have at times taken away my enjoyment of this legit great band!

I never really been into Slayer.. I do love Reign in blood. I'm mostly into Technical death metal so Slayer never really did it for me. Also someone said that their racist lol, I don't know. If they aren't I'll be willing to check out Slayer's discography.

I think south of heaven is there best 👌

Guys I think he’s a Slayer fan

They retired in 2019 actually. They officially died in 2013

I always thought Stain Of Mind was the worst song Slayer ever wrote, and it absolutely mystified me why they insisted on playing that sub-Coal Chamber piece of crap live so often.

God hates us all was...prophetic

Look at me I swear

You can tell he's young. In musica 3 out of 5. All slayer list depends on the person and age.

0:22 they retired in 2019

Gotta disagree on divine intervention. 213, killing fields, and fictional reality are classics.

Show no mercy 10/10 Hell awaits 8.5/10 Reign in blood 9/10 South of heaven 9.5/10 Seasons in the abyss 8.3/10

giving Christ Illusion a 2.5/5 is blasphemy

kinda agree world painted blood was bad and repentless was terribly !

Isn't def American the same as def jam. Thought it was just a name change

South Of Heaven, Seasons In The Abyss, Diabolus In Musica and Divine Intervention are some of their best albums. Reign In Blood is kind of one dimensional.

Reign in Blood Show No Mercy Hell Awaits South of Heaven .... Jesuschrist