For those of us who grew up with this music, lived life, changed, and are now listening to this again, Welcome Back and for those who never left, I wish you good fortune in the wars to come.
First heard this in the spring of 86. I was sitting in my best friends chevelle before high school in the parking lot. He bought it the day before along with a few other used tapes at our local record store. We couldn't believe what we were hearing. I talked him into skipping school and we drove around all morning getting stoned and cranking this as loud as it would go. Good times! FUCKING SLAYER!!!!
I love hearing stories like yours. Knowing others had the same joy as me. I was 13 when I heard it and it was instant love totally blew my mind. I made my Dad buy me South of Heaven on cassette for Xmas the year it came out and my dad and the guy in the shop kept looking at it asking are you sure? Do you know what that is? Are you sure? Tiny little Goth girl jumping up and down going yes yes YES! I still love this song just as much. Bless my awesome Dad. Every time I put it on I smile and remember good times. Also seeing Slayer in the UK in the early 90s and being the only girl in the mosh pit, heck often the whole gig! And singing my heart out. Saw them so many times. Clash of the Titans and once lying on an embankment at Monsters of Rock totally out of it but hearing the intro and tearing to the front like lightning. So so many times Slayer made me happy and I'll forever love them for it.
I would put it in top 3. But fk ya. this was mayhem in Chicago. fuck i cannot remember the venue. BUt Reign in Blood at the ARAGON ballroom was dangerous. still have an injury that acts up in the cold/damp weather. I don't get sport injuries. I have SLAYER injuries. still bothers my knee in shit weather. some dude twice my size pummelled us from behind. i guess the 2 hits of alice didn't encourage awareness huh?
I grew up in the 80's, have been a metal fan all my life... and I still believe this is the best "intro" ever to any metal song...the intro itself has 3 amazing riffs in it...absolutely awesome!
This song changed my life forever. I normally never listened through an entire album from beginning to end, but after the first riffs of Hell Awaits I just couldn't stop. So even if there is a possibility that Reign in Blood is an even better album, for me Hell Awaits was something special. I was socially awkward, addicted to horror movies, role playing and my Commodore 64 (or maybe I even still had my VIC 20). School sucked, parents sucked, girls were hard to get, alcohol and the occasional herb soothed the pain. And Slayer, of course. Man, how could such a dark time in my life bring back such happy memories?
Lorenzo Cabrini. I'm sorry life was hard for you. But if you come to a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you can have true joy and fulfillment in life.
Slayer is my favourite band along the lines of Samhain and Danzig. Every time I asked my mum for a slayer or Danzig CD she’d say “no I don’t support satanism and satanists.” And it annoyed me because I didn’t really like any other bands so I only had reign in blood and my dad gave me his god hates us all CD. And she would never buy me a slayer shirt because of the pentagram but she’d always get me a Metallica shirt and I’d never wear it cause I wasn’t really a Metallica fan
@@sergiomtz609 Tom Araya is a pretty serious Catholic I think. @Lorenzo Cabrini this is a really special album, I feel like "Hardening of the Arteries" is like soul music for the end of the 20th century / transition to the hell we're currently living in / hoping not to get nuked. die by the sword
Verse 1] Existing on damnation's edge The priest had never known To witness such a violent show Of power overthrown Angels fighting aimlessly Still dying by the sword Our legions killing all in sight To get the one called Lord [Chorus] The gates of Hell lie waiting, as you see There's no price to pay, just follow me I can take your lost soul from the grave Jesus knows your soul cannot be saved [Post-Chorus] Crucify your so-called Lord He soon shall fall to me Your souls are damned, your God has fell To slave for me eternally Hell awaits... [Verse 2] The reaper guards the darkened gates That Satan calls his home The demons feed the furnace where The dead are free to roam Lonely children of the night There's seven ways to go Each leading to the burning hole That Lucifer controls [Chorus] Priests of Hades seek the sacred star Satan sees the answer lies not far Zombies, screaming souls, cry out to you Satanic law prevails, your life is through [Bridge] Pray to the moon... when it is round Death with you shall then abound For what you seek for can't be found In sea or sky or underground [Guitar Solo: Jeff Hanneman] [Verse 3] Now I have you deep inside My everlasting grasp The seven bloody gates of Hell Is where you'll live your last Warriors from Hell's domain Will bring you to your death The flames of Hades burning strong Your soul shall never rest [Chorus] The gates of Hell lie waiting, as you see There's no price to pay, just follow me I can take your lost soul from the grave Jesus knows your soul cannot be saved [Post-Chorus] Sacrifice the lives of all I know they soon shall die Their souls are damned to rot in Hell And keep the fires growing deep inside Hell awaits... [Guitar Solo: Kerry King]
I have said that all my life...i grew up in the 80's have been a metal fan all my life...still believe it's the best "intro" ever...the intro itself has 3 riffs in it...all great thrash riffs...making this intro absolutely awesome!
@@GretzkySanders I grew up mainly on Metallica, Megadeth then Pantera and the Seattle four. Now as my audio palet grew I found this to be one of the baddest intros I've ever heard it's a three in one deal like you said. still makes the hair on the back of neck stand at attention.
I remember when this album came out in 1984 smokin tree in my friends basement blowing our hits out the window hoping her parents didn't smell it. Listening to this album on a loop. Good times. We were 14 just starting our freshman yr in high school.
Can we all just acknowledge once and for all that Tom Araya’s vocal style is essentially just high-speed, high-energy rapping? It shouldn’t even be a bad thing, it just IS!
*_When the song kicks in at the beginning of always reminded me of a freight train haulin ass down the tracks!_* *_when I was a teenager I used to walk the tracks in day or night and I always had my boom box with me. One time I on acid and was Jammin this on cassette and realized it was like a train when all of a sudden one was coming down the tracks!!_* *_Its a miracle I was never killed on those tracks in Newark, Delaware back in the mid 80's!_*
Rick Rubin did not produce this album actually, Brian Slagel did. They signed with Metal Blade Records in the beginning of their career and released their first two albums via them. They signed with Rubins Def Jam label after that, released Reign in Blood and the rest is history :)
@@Rokkoola i think what he was saying that despite Rick Rubin producing some of Slayer's most well known albums, they never came as close as reaching the heights of an album made before he entered the picture.
I totally agree. Reign in Blood is good, in fact it still sounds incredibly well, sonically, despite its age. But Hell Awaits captured the 1980s, there’s something about it that no other record has. I always thought that Haunting the Chapel and Hell Awaits should’ve been one record.
@matthewmartinez3596 You're absolutely right. Everyone thinks of the 80's as this fun party decade, but there was a dark side to that era as well. There's a reason why those early Slayer songs were used in River's Edge. That movie was trying, and fully succeeded, in capturing the bleak nihilistic quality of the 1980's, which very early Slayer captured so well as you say.
I could listen to just the double bass drums and "chugga-chugga" guitar (the sections that come in at 1:35 and 2:27) for hours on end! This stuff was MADE for head-banging! \\m//
This will always be my favorite Slayer album…for the same reason that Justice will probably always be my favorite Metallica album. When a band stretches their legs a bit and explores some new territory (while still in their creative prime), it occasionally ends up being totally next-level. Hendrix, Zeppelin, Stone Temple Pilots, Run DMC, Alice In Chains, Metallica, Slayer…all groups who took risks early in their careers with god-level results.
The most Metal of all! Hard drum lines backed by solid bass and guitar riffs!! This album still hits it hard and fast!!! Jam on this album in your basement or garage!!! Pure metal flowing trough your veins!!! Learn these chords and you have a good foundation for the future of metal!!!
I don't know if anyone else feels it but at 1:22 the riff kicks. until 2:10 here for me has always been the main hook for the entire album. SHit still gives me a chill down my spine and at 58 years old, cleaning house has never been more fun. Ironic that would we destroy housing things back at 18, but now, just good old fashioned, get your ass up and do something music. also, a fantasic motorcycle riding song out in the countryside. choose your poison fellas. Slayer still is the best American metal band of all time. By far. RIP Jeff - we miss you bro!
Christian or not , the beauty of art is in the eye of the beholder!. Slayer in my opinion is 4 young men who have made their mark in the known universe just trying to make it in life! Since 1981 out of Huntington Park, CA. I have been blessed to have known them for their music for they stand out on their own. I believe that for the Band they're a league all by their own. I feel that their is no category for what they created and shared with the World! I am Forever Grateful and Indebted and A Loyal SLAYTANIC Admirer til the day I DIE! THANK YOU FOR ALL THE FUCKING AWESOME YEARS AND THE TIME AHEAD
Just once, I would have loved to have gone to mass and heard this as the opener for the sermon... I might have found Jesus...At which point I'd have asked...well, never-mind that.
I'm an Hispanic Native American, most people would think of me as 😈 listening to music like this, but since I was younger, I liked dark music like this, there can't be good without a dark side.
The first Slayer album I heard was their first, Show No Mercy, way back in 83 when I was 10. Fast forward 2 years. Hell Awaits. Beautiful✊🏻 You really feel like you are being transported to the Nine Circles of Hell in Dante's Inferno.
I remember attending one of the their final tour dates over the summer in 2019 - 'Hell Awaits' starts and everyone is ready to mosh and when it came time for the devastating mosh pit, no one disappointed. It was crazy!
The best music to be at school in my years of the 80s. One could burn classrooms, fight, bully others, and only listen to heavy metal and trash metal ooooooooooo, what wonderful things we have. This generation of now, never compares to those times.
The intro guitar makes me want to run through walls. I remember listening to this in my headphones full blast right before leaving the dressing room for hockey games when I was a kid playing in a really rough league. By the time I hit the ice I felt invincible.
Hell Awaits, sinners. Such a straight up diabolical record. Crank it up and you can smell the sulfur. I imagine Old Scratch, Lucifer Morningstar, at the mixing board, wisps of smoke coming off his fingers, smiling at the band. "Yes, this is acceptable to me. You've done well. Now, gentlemen, if you will just sign here."
