Slayer "Christ Illusion"

Christ Illusion is the tenth studio album by the American thrash metal band Slayer. Released on August 8, 2006, the album received generally favorable critical reviews, and it entered the Billboard 200 at number 5—the band's second highest U.S. chart position as of 2015. Christ Illusion includes the Grammy Award-winning songs "Eyes of the Insane" and "Final Six", and is the band's first studio album to feature original drummer Dave Lombardo since Seasons in the Abyss (1990). It is also the first time since Divine Intervention that they recorded songs in D# tuning. The songs "Jihad", "Flesh Storm", "Catalyst" and "Consfearacy" were recorded in D# tuning, while the songs "Catatonic", "Eyes of the Insane", "Skeleton Christ", "Supremist", and "Final Six" (bonus track) were recorded in Drop B tuning. The songs "Black Serenade" and "Cult" were recorded in C# tuning.

Depicting a mutilated Christ painted by longtime collaborator Larry Carroll, the album's graphic artwork courted controversy. An alternative cover was issued to conservative retailers who felt uncomfortable with the original. The band also put out a censored cover which censored out the offensive artwork. Lyrics, particularly in the song "Jihad", describe the September 11 attacks from the perspective of a terrorist. Following protests, all Indian stocks of the album were recalled and destroyed by EMI India.

Several aspects of Christ Illusion's content and promotion generated adverse attention and publicity. In particular the cover art, painted by Larry Carroll and depicting a mutilated, stoned Jesus. Carroll, who had painted the cover artwork to previous Slayer albums such as Reign in Blood, South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss, resumed duties on Christ Illusion. Working solely from track names and formative lyrics, Carroll produced the original on a 4-by-4-foot slab of wood using a combination of media. Having requested an image of Christ in "a sea of despair", King commented that an early version seemed as though Christ was "chilling out in the water". The final image portrays Christ with a missing eye and amputated hands, and standing amidst a sea of blood and severed heads. Araya deemed this version "much better because he looked like a drug addict!", while King admired the artwork enough to purchase the original. Certain album pre-orders gave fans the chance to win one of ten autographed lithographs of the artwork, while an alternative, non-graphic cover was made to appease retailers who had refused to stock the original version.


World Entertainment News Network reported Slayer were attracting controversy through issuing the artwork. Joseph Dias, general secretary of the Mumbai Christian group Catholic Secular Forum, (CSF) took "strong exception" to the original album artwork, and issued a memorandum to Mumbai's police commissioner in protest. Chris Steffen of Rolling Stone magazine commented that "The album art takes it all over the top with an image axeman Kerry King dubs 'Christ in a Sea of Despair'", while KNAC.com's Peter Atkinson deemed the artwork "defiantly sacrilegious".

Christ Illusion is Slayer's first release featuring the original line-up since 1990's Seasons in the Abyss.

Official music video:
- Eyes of the Insane

Recording information:

Recorded at NRG, North Hollywood, and Westlake Studios, Los Angeles.
Mixed at Pulse Recording, Silverlake, CA.

Mastered at Sony Music Studios, New York, NY.