There are truly few acts in metal — hell, let’s say popular music in general — that have remained as iconic as Slayer. More than 40 years after seemingly erupting out of Baphomet’s lair to spread a particularly speedy brand of unholy darkness, the thrash forefathers remain as revered, influential and most importantly evil-sounding as ever.
Unsurprisingly, the most menacing faction of the Big 4 also have one of the most immaculately imposing and horns-raising catalogs of all time — just classic after classic of rampaging, thrash-manic assaults steered by vocalist-bassist Tom Araya’s positively demonic rasp, and featuring unpredictably chaotic guitar licks that spiral out like a rollercoaster falling into the world’s biggest garburator.
But what are the ultimate songs of theirs to see performed live onstage — the classics that possess you to shout out not just “Slayer,” but “SLAAAAAYERRRRRRR”? We asked Revolver readers to pick their Slaytanic concert favorite, and these were the five biggest vote-getters.
“Dead Skin Mask”
Slayer’s lyrics often see-saw between hellaciously fantastic, satanic wordplay and perversely grotesque, but all-too-real horrors. “Dead Skin Mask” sludges towards the latter approach, being based on American serial killer Ed Gein’s psychotic, skin-stealing tendencies.
The song itself is a depraved pounder sporting a truncated, “South of Heaven”-styled intro riff, slow-menace pacing and an absolutely gutting round of snuff-film screams in its finale. And as Slayer plumb the “depths of a mind insane” in a live setting, the crowd accordingly goes bonkers for it.
“Disciple”
Even across their multiple decades of aggression, “Disciple” stands as one of Slayer’s most furiously, and pessimistically, thrashing attacks. Araya (by way of lyricist-guitarist Kerry King) brings the heat as he rasps out his utter contempt for religion, terrorism, hedonism and the global virus that is Humanity. And while he despises this fucking place, the fans love this fucking song!
The Grammy-nominated God Hates Us All stand-out is likewise full of hate-filled grooves, torso-piercing thrash riffs and a brilliantly murky back-end breakdown that leans into the creepy-crawl aesthetics of early Eighties West Coast hardcore arguably even better than anything on Slayer’s Undisputed Attitude covers album.
“Raining Blood”
There is perhaps no thrash album as pure and punishing as 1986’s Reign in Blood. And sure enough, the record’s closing, thunder-rumbling pseudo-title track has become a thing of legend in its own right.
Hearing those familiar triplet tom thuds in the intro is the veritable Pavlovian trigger to set an arena of metal fans into a blood-thirsty frenzy. And then once the full band kicks in, the riffs are razor-sharp and eerie as hell. That one-note mosh section is a thing of beauty. And the extra-energized thrash outro showcases King ripping out one of his most bat-shit zany, bar-bending solos.
Whether you end up drenched in adrenaline sweat, or come out dripping in pure mosh-pit gore, one thing’s for sure: “Raining Blood” is bound to be one of a Slayer set’s most visceral moments.
“Angel of Death”
For the most part, Araya had abandoned his classically metal yellin’ falsetto by the time Slayer recorded this Reign in Blood classic — one of metal’s most unparalleled album openers. But damn… it remains wild as hell to hear him hit that high note in the “Angel of Death” intro with such balls-on-an-open-flame urgency.
You’d be hard-pressed to find any other legacy-cementing songs based on Josef Mengele, the “infamous butcher” behind a series of Nazi war atrocities, but then again, most bands aren’t Slayer. The anti-war rager, however, famously also distills Slayer’s bombastic approach perfectly: devastatingly speedy rhythms, off-the-rails lead-guitar chaos, and the most memorable double-kick drum solo in all of metal.
Forever punishing, no matter how you slice it.
“War Ensemble”
Among Slayer’s surplus of fully-raging battle anthems, few can top the frenzied intensity of Seasons of the Abyss’ eternally monstrous opening cut. It’s a furiously doled-out terrorizer of max-efficient metal riffery and scathingly sociopolitical growls, and it’s become a lasting classic for Slayer fans worldwide. That can be confirmed by the thousands of metalheads who have cathartically screamed along to one of Araya’s greatest on-the-mic moments ever: that forceful, mid-song cry of “WAAAAAAARRRRRR!”
34 years after its release, it’s a Slayer song that forever remains in season. If there’s one “War” to support, it’s this one.