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Slayer Are Back!

Posted by Luminator (A) on October 23, 2006 at 11:19:49

I am of the age where I was lucky to be in high school, when Slayer were in their prime. One of the highlights of my sophomore year was Slayer's Reign In Blood. A lot of my classmates were into modern rock, and the wannabe tuff dudes were into Run DMC and the Beastie Boys. Though I liked all metal, I did wear my Reign In Blood t-shirt with pride. I loved the back, which read, "Do You Want To Die?"

I hated jamming my headphones against my ear, trying to hear through hiss and distortion, in order to get at the music. Now you see where my audiophile seeds were planted.

Slayer tackled subjects others simply would not touch. They took punk, added aggression and a horrifying vision, and really brought the apocalypse to the fore. Those in the know have long recognized drummer Dave Lombardo as elite. He was the horse that kept it all together. While other guitarists sounded no scarier than cats in heat, Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman's deadly screams made horror flicks sound like new age spa music.

I've been to more than my fair share of concerts, but one that stands on its own is Slayer's 1990 (Testament opened) show at Oakland's Henry J. Kaiser auditorium. It's no use, trying to put into words what that experience was like. You just had to be there.

Well, this weekend, my friend Donald came over. If you've read my posts on Amp/Preamp Asylum about the NuForce 9SE, you know about Donald. He's the audiophile's audiophile. He's the same guy who heard the Wright Sound WPC3.5, and called it "glorified solid state." No matter how audiophilesque something is, it's never enough for Donald.

But, bless his soul, he brought over Slayer's new album, "Christ Illusion." I had no idea that Dave Lombardo is back. He still has his Tama drums and Paiste cymbals. And his drumming is even more precise than it was! Even if you ignore everything else, Lombardo's drumming alone will keep you enthralled.

Reign In Blood is a classic, but it's kind of disjointed. Put it this way. Let's say you and I were on a reality TV show. There's a pile of weapons and ammo, and we will win a million dollars, if we can use up all the ammunition in 30 minutes. Now, we'd never finish in time, because we wouldn't know how to use all that weaponry. Nor would we have the strength and skill needed to fire off so many rounds. Hell, in our klutz, we'd probably point the shit at each other!

On Christ Illusion, Slayer know what the weapons are, know what to do with them, and bitch that they're not plentiful and powerful enough! The tempos and riffs change without warning, but do so with a focus and unified purpose not heard on Reign In Blood. Rick Rubin is listed as "Executive Producer," whatever that means. All we know is, there's no soundstage depth per se, but there's enough clarity to keep the instruments separate from each other. King and Hanneman now endorse ESP Guitars (I think they used to play BC Rich), and maybe that's the cause for their clear solos. While most death metal drummers use Sonor percussion, Lombardo somehow makes the powerful Tama drumkit sound lightning fast. How does he do it?

For 6 long years, the Bush propaganda machine has controlled the media, which include record companies. We heard peeps of protest from Steely Dan, Dixie Chicks, Green Day, and maybe the Rolling Stones. The Bush machine must be slipping. How the heck did the Bushies allow Christ Illusion to escape the censors? Christ Illusion matches the neocons blow for blow and then some. I hate to say this, but the fat Michael Moore looks like a buffoon, and is thus an easy target. But not Slayer. They've got more than enough ammo to riddle Karl Rove with bullets, and everyone's lovin' it!

Christ Illusion is not an easy listen. Your CD player [I'm not sure if it is available on vinyl] better have the time remaining function! It's going to take time to digest the whole. I doubt anyone can sit through the whole thing, not on the first few tries. But there is such a focus, such a purpose, such a clarity, which makes even death metal sound like sludge.

After "Supremist" ended, our ears blistered, Donald and I sat in silence. He then flashed a cheshire cat grin, and laughed his evil laugh, "Audiophile[s] can take their real-instruments-in-real-space, and shove it up their ass."

Everybody (mind you, we're all audiophiles) in the room just looked at each other and understood. Forget "rock." Forget "album of the year." Forget "highly recommended." Forget any audiophile parameter you wanna blab about. Christ Illusion transcends all that, and is music in its purest form.

-Lummy The Seahorse

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