I can picture myself in Best Buy as a teenager seeing World Painted Blood and thinking “Oh, I've heard of this Slayer band. Let's give it a whirl.” I'd probably really enjoy it. But that's not what happened. Instead, I was a teenager at Best Buy and bought Diabolus In Musica. I didn't think it was horrible, but I didn't listen to it often either. I would mostly just shuffle between the four fastest songs on the album. I thought that this Slayer band was grossly overrated and at best had a potential that they hadn't reached yet. Obviously at that time I had no idea who Slayer were or that they had established their more successful musical stylings before I could even walk. It took a few more years for me to purchase the Decade of Aggression live CDs and realize that they used to make whole albums of songs thrashier than “Bitter Peace.” I was a little surprised to see that they are still putting out new material, not to mention still touring.
For those who haven’t heard them, Slayer not only practice aggressive speed metal technique, they match it with powerfully 'aggressive' language. For their newest release, the first track easily wins the vocab trophy. Here's the list: Disease, death, dies, dead, suicide, genocide, homicide, extermination, poison, slaughter, apocalypse, pain, blood, mindless hate, bleed, crucified, terrorizing, burn, perish, destroy, hell, flaming corpse, destruction, insane, plague and includes the awesome line “Children's blood feed the dead sea of flesh.” Below are some lyrical favorites from a few of the other songs:
Track 2: Hard one, either “Infant's flesh on the walls” or “Bacterial target, eyes exploding”
Track 3: “The internet's an open door.”
Track 4: “Heated iron bar I will insert inside your cunt.”
Track 7: “Illness, infected born mutilated strain.”
Track 8: “It's all about the motherfuckin' oil.”
Track 9: “Flow of blood, warm taste brings me pleasure.”
Track 10: “I never thought the taste of you would be the only thing to make me bleed.”
Track 11: “I piss on any object of virtue.”
I'm amused by the recurring subjects in Slayers songs. Mutilation, killing, death of all kinds. As a curious way to kill some time, I decided to count how many times the word 'blood' or 'bleed' was used in each song, thinking it would be hilariously a lot. I was disappointing in finding out that tracks 3, 5, 6, and 11 don't have a single instance of any variation of the word 'blood'! Track 3 might not use 'blood' but gorges on the line “murder is my future, killing is my future,” perhaps as a portentous preface to the whopping nine 'blood's in the song that follows it. The rest of the songs average at three uses. Die, dying, or died, however, DO appear in every song – damnit, not track 5 or 8.
As you can see, Kerry King controls himself much better than the others, indicating that maybe the album title wasn't his idea. Maybe the album wasn't his idea - perhaps that would explain the sloppy solos and half-hearted bends.
So Slayer has always had a limited imagination in the lyrics department. I've never listened to them to relate to their ideas, and I pity the mind that takes their words to heart. When I think about Slayer I appreciate their speedy, thrashy sensibilities and long beautiful hair. I've never seen them live, but from pictures I've viewed I don't think they would benefit from singing(shouting) about anything other than war, disease, satan, torture...(see list in paragraph 2). The closest they come to a love song is allusions to rape. They sometimes discuss spirituality(“Succumb to Christ or they will watch you fuckin' burn!”). Then there's the occasional wince-worthy diatribe(“Americon!”). But like I said, I appreciate them for the music, not necessarily the message.
About the music, World Painted Blood brings Slayer back to their '80's roots(minus the memorable sweet licks). The songs are simple, driven, and kind of similar to each other. I still can't decide if I like the sound of this album. It's not very dense or full sounding; each instrument can easily be singularly heard while the music's going on. The vocals are especially clear. The guitars sound weak in quality, or maybe just distant. Something about it isn't terrible, just worse. I need help with this.
I went two decades back and pulled out Seasons in the Abyss. Immediately, 'War Ensemble' sounds fantastic. SITA sounds far more alive and bi-curious than WPB. Two things I noticed right away were the better drumming and guitar work. The two guitars have their own identity, even during parts where they are pretty much playing the same thing. The drum parts are filled with far more satisfying fills and rhythms, often robbing your attention from the melodies. The new album has two guitars – panned right and left – playing the same thing on what I swear is the same distorted timbre. They seem dead and automatic(both guitars and drums), doing what is expected rather than arresting you with talent. Along with the mediocre progressions, the solos confuse me more than amuse me. You see them coming, and yet challenge them to surprise you – you invest a hope that Slayer will vindicate your listening to them and provide you with reasons to still buy their music. So it was disappointing to also witness the declined quality in solos, which end up being composed of strange string bending and schizophrenic chromatic nonjourneys. Kerry King has always been erratic, but this is just lazy.
The only thing that remains constant is Araya's vocals. Amazingly, his voice has not changed since Slayer's inception. So that's why I dwell on the lyrics! With no other musically impressive distractions that's all I have to concentrate on. And when I said that Araya's voice hasn't changed I meant in both style and content. Seasons in the Abyss tells the familiar tales of war and bloodlust and creepy violence that you hear on all Slayer albums. I even gave it the 'blood test' and all but two songs contained some form of the word(however, World Painted Blood smashes it when you compare overall usage of 'blood'. SITA contains 18 instances album throughout, while WPB doubles it with 36). The words to Slayer's music become jokingly ridiculous when given the forefront, especially when the instruments start to lack and sag. The guitars and drums are like the breasts and bottom of an advanced age metal chick. I used to be able to sit and listen to her talk insensibly for hours, but now she's all kinds of disgusting.
Alright cool. Glad I worked all that out. What else. The album art is acceptable, but indifference is not a good mark. I'm lost in this metal world I've been handed by Slayer. This blood painted world. Blood spattered album. They know how to make fast metal music, and I’m pissed at how complacent I am with this newest offering. My mind’s telling me it’s bad, that it’s the same thing Slayer’s been doing for almost three decades but now performs on auto-pilot. But my fingers drum along, my head bobs, and my feet simulate doublebass. This is terrible. Toe-tappingly terrible.
