Reign in Blood is the third studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer. It was released on October 7, 1986, by Def Jam Recordings. The album was the band's first collaboration with record producer Rick Rubin, whose input helped the band's sound evolve. Reign in Blood was well received by both critics and fans, and was responsible for bringing Slayer to the attention of a mainstream metal audience. Kerrang! magazine described the record as "the heaviest album of all". Alongside Anthrax's Among the Living, Megadeth's Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? and Metallica's Master of Puppets, Reign in Blood helped define the sound of the emerging US thrash metal scene in the mid-1980s, and has remained influential since.
Reign in Blood's release was delayed because of concerns regarding its graphic artwork and lyrical subject matter. The opening track, "Angel of Death", which refers to Josef Mengele and describes acts, such as human experimentation, that Mengele committed at the Auschwitz concentration camp, provoked allegations of Nazism. However, the band stated numerous times that it does not condone Nazism, and are merely interested in the subject. The album was Slayer's first to enter the Billboard 200; the release peaked at #94, and was certified Gold on November 20, 1992.
Reign in Blood was recorded and produced in Los Angeles with Rubin. The album was the label boss' first professional experience with heavy metal, and his fresh perspective led to a drastic makeover of Slayer's sound. Steve Huey of AllMusic believed Rubin drew tighter and faster songs from the band, and delivered a cleanly produced sound that contrasted sharply with their previous recordings. This resulted in drastic changes to Slayer's sound, and changed audiences' perception of the band. Araya has since stated their two previous releases were not up to par production-wise. Guitarist Kerry King later remarked that "[i]t was like, 'Wow—you can hear everything, and those guys aren't just playing fast; those notes are on time.'"
Hanneman later admitted that while the band was listening to Metallica and Megadeth at the time, they were finding the repetition of guitar riffs tiring. He said, "If we do a verse two or three times, we're already bored with it. So we weren't trying to make the songs shorter—that's just what we were into," which resulted in the album's short duration of 29 minutes. King had stated that while hour-long records seem to be the trend, "[y]ou could lose this part; you could cut this song completely, and make a much more intense record, which is what we're all about." When the record was completed, the band met with Rubin, who asked: "Do you realize how short this is?" Slayer members looked at each other, and replied: "So what?" The entire album was on one side of a cassette; King stated it was "neat," as "You could listen to it, flip it over, and play it again." The music is abrasive and faster than previous releases, helping to narrow the gap between thrash metal and its predecessor hardcore punk, and is played at an average of 220 beats per minute.
Def Jam's distributor, Columbia Records, refused to release the album due to its controversial lyrical themes and cover art. Reign in Blood was eventually distributed by Geffen Records; however, due to the controversy it did not appear on Geffen's release schedule.
The artwork was designed by Larry Carroll, who at the time was creating political illustrations for The Progressive, Village Voice, and The New York Times. The cover art was featured in Blender Magazine's 2006 "top ten heavy metal album covers of all time."
Tracklist:
- Angel of Death 04:51
- Piece by Piece 02:02
- Necrophobic 01:41
- Altar of Sacrifice 02:50
- Jesus Saves 02:55
- Criminally Insane 02:22
- Reborn 02:12
- Epidemic 02:23
- Postmortem 03:27
- Raining Blood 04:16
Time: 28:59
Trivia:
- The album peaked at #94 on the Billboard 200.
- On all older versions of the CD and LP, "Postmortem" ends at 2:44 before the fast part. This error was corrected on the Expanded edition CD reissue.
Def Jam/Geffen also released the album on red, purple and green vinyl, limited edition picture vinyl with a different cover (bloody logo) and regular picture vinyl.
Three different versions of the outro to "Raining Blood" exist. On some LP versions, the sound of the storm is created by a locked groove which loops indefinitely until the needle is lifted. On other LP versions, the storm just fades after about 15 seconds. On the CD and cassette version, the storm outro lasts for 50 seconds.
The lyrics here are taken from the booklet of the expanded edition.
Recording information:
Co-Produced by Slayer.
Recorded in L.A.
Mixed at New Fresh, N.Y.C.
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