#1. Reign in Blood
#2. Hell awaits
#3. Haunting the Chapel

NO! Hell Awaits is always the answer. And I'm not a big black metal fan.

It's a tie between SNM and RiB for me. Show No Mercy because of the fun juvenile thrash in it and RiB because it was the final evolution of Slayer's thrash sound before they started deviating and making mediocre music when it would have been better if they could have either split up or release the same album again for the rest of their careers. Anyway, both albums just define the term "kick in the fucking balls"

As far as full lengths are concerned, I've only listened to the first four and Christ Illusion all the way through. My friend tried to make me listen to Seasons, but it bored the hell out of me and I stopped listening four tracks in. The bits I've heard from Divine Intervention were interesting, but sounded a bit samey... maybe it has potential? Ah well.

Show No Mercy is the most memorable for me, but Hell Awaits is a definite contender. South of Heaven has some great material, but a lot of it melts together. As for Reign in Blood, I only really like four tracks: the "big two", Jesus Saves and Postmortem.

Final verdict: they should've done Live Undead a year later. Tack Hell Awaits, At Dawn They Sleep and Chemical Warfare onto that setlist and you have a winner.

Well, seems stupid or common but I love Reign in Blood because in my humble opinion, despite the length of the songs, it has memorable riffs and the almost always fast paced style drives me crazy! Anyway, Show No Mercy is another great album as Divine Intervention was a big surprise for me but I don't like the mid-paced songs in it, a thing I like in albums like Season in the Abyss or the great South of Heaven.

Very underrated album, for sure. I like it.

I'll say Reign In Blood because I cannot count any album with both Angel of Death and Raining Blood on it as anything less than my favorite.

That song and "Criminally Insane" are probably my favorite tracks (other than the bookends).....

Seasons in the Abyss and Hell Awaits, but I don't really listen to Slayer anymore. Reign In Blood is mostly fail though. Definitely a highly overrated album if I ever saw one.

Cheese_Priced's thing is dumb. Show No Mercy is my favorite.

It has one or two others, but it's mostly boring filler, like half of their discography.

Actually I only find Reborn and Epidemic to be the filler songs on RiB. The rest are cool, especially Criminally Insane and Altar. I love singing Altar, the lyrics have an amazing ring to them, just roll off the tongue. Scares other college students too, but that's a bit attention seeking.

For me, it's either South of Heaven or Seasons in the Abyss, both over the title tracks. I love fast, aggressive Slayer songs as much as the next guy, but when I hear a slow Slayer song, like SitA or SoH, something just comes over me. Those songs are so heavy, it's just amazing.

Well said.

Hell Awaits, South of Heaven and Divine Intervention were always my favourites. Occasionally Reign in Blood also, though once the intitial "OH MY FCUKING GOD" of when you first hear it wears off (my first time hearing slayer was Angel of Death probably like many others) then it doesn't come across as too amazing, simply cause so much of that album is about impact. There's some sick riffs on it though.

Show No Mercy for me.
Although Haunting The Chapel comes very close.

Show No Mercy is incredibly overrated and mediocre. I ll take Haunting the Chapel anyday. Reign in Blood after that.

I can't decide between Hell Awaits and Reign In Blood...

I second this....a totally under rated LP!!!
Although Seasons does take the BIG prize for faves!

I don't see how songs like Evil Has No Boundaries, Die by the Sword, and Fight Till Death could ever be overrated.

And Araya is more diverse vocally on Show No Mercy.

There was another Slayer post not that long ago. This is what I said back then...

To be honest, most of their albums have at least one weak track.

Hell Awaits - Hardening of the Arteries - Just a couple of minutes of uninspired speed with the Hell Awaits intro tagged on the end.

Reign in Blood - Reborn - Every other song on the album has at least one classic stand out riff, except this track.

South of Heaven - The only tracks I really like are South of Heaven, Mandatory Suicide, Ghosts of War and Spill the Blood. Silent Scream is ok. Behind the Crooked Cross is way too jolly - just listen to the beat and how Tom sings "Time melts away in the living inferno". He's too happy! Stop it Tom! NOW!

Seasons in the Abyss - Again, the only tracks I really like are War Ensemble, Spirit in Black, Dead Skin Mask and Seasons in the Abyss. Hallowed Point and Skeletons of Society are ok. Temptation is DREADFUL.

As for the rest of 'em, they're all a bit hit and miss. I think Show No Mercy is the most consistent quality wise.

Agreed on all points, except Hardening of the Arteries is cool, esp. how they end the song with the beginning of Hell Awaits...simple, but classic and original....I do wish Slayer would change up their live set lists from time to time....



ps....the most dreadful LP is diabolus in musica

agreed. that is terrible.

Nah, Reign in Blood kicks ass. The band makes double the aggression in half the time, and it's great.

I'm a right Slayer fanboy, so i'll rate them all and give reasons so I don't just list:

1: Reign In Blood




I was 13 at the time, and having bought Christ Illusion simply for the cover (the one with the opening and closing hand), I was just shocked about how fast the tracks were, and as my eyes peered over the lyrics that talked about Nazis, death, Satan and the sky raining fuckin' blood, I thought 'this the band for me'.

2: Show No Mercy



Having accuired a few Slayer albums by now, I wanted to buy their debut to see 'how it all began', and despite laughing my arse off at Jeff Hanneman's picture, I thought the album was awesome, with 'Evil Has No Boundries', 'Black Magic' and 'The Antichrist' standing out as the best tracks.


3: Haunting The Chapel



Though I got this quite late in my Slayer collection, Haunting teh Chapel is one of my favorite records by them, and the track 'Captor of Sin' remains one of my all time favorite Slayer songs.

4: Seasons In The Abyss



I can't remmeber how I got this one, but I knew In felt that I had to after I saw the 'Seasons...' video. That along with War Ensamble are my favorite tracks, and the latter was the first song I learned on bass.


5: Hell Awaits




Despite how much I like this album, I don't listen to it much. I guess the long intro doesn't make it easy to listen to on my iPod, which I use for the majoirty of my music listening.

6: Christ Illusion



The first Slayer album I bought, I've found that many people dislike it, so I'm a bit biased about it, but I still rather like it. Tom Araya is a bit annoying and Black Serenade is Juvenile, but 'Cult' and 'Flesh Storm' are great tracks.

7: Divine Intervention



The last Slayer album I purchased, Its never really 'clicked' for me, apart from 'Dittohead' and the intro to 'Killing Fields', the tracks just seem to fart out of the speakers.

8: South of Heaven



I should probably like this more, but apart from the title track and 'Ghosts of War', its a bit dull and boring.

9: God Hates Us All



Despite how much I listen to 'Disciple', I can't stand the rest of this album, as it seems like Slipknot wrote all the lyrics, and Tom Araya sounding like he's hurting himself.

10: Diabolicus in Musica



I don't feel that I need to explain myself much for this one, so I'm just going to say: "Nu-metal Slayer? No thanks."

Can't decide between Hell Awaits and South of Heaven, both are musical highlights, but for entirely different reasons.

South of Heaven easily. It's the most varied with the best and most mature song structures.

#1 Reign in Blood
#2 Show No Mercy
#3 South of Heaven

Edit: Wow, that was weird. Sorry for the double post.

For the longest time it was Seasons In The Abyss, mainly because I'm not really into the hyper speed thrash thing, so the generally slower tempos and catchier songs did more for me.

It might be Show No Mercy now, the album is just great start to finish, and it has some of Slayer's coolest solos.

I never could get into Hell Awaits, I own it, but the album was always so unmemorable to me. Something about the production bugs me, it's so hollow sounding.

Seasons in the Abyss was one of the first thrash albums I heard, but some tracks certainly stand out more than others. Show No Mercy is my favorite as a whole, but I would rather just not pay attention to a track or two on Seasons.

#1 Hell Awaits
#2 Haunting The Chapel
#3 Show No Mercy

I listen to both Black & Death Metal but not even half as much as Heavy Metal, Speed/Power and Thrash. What's funny is that even though Infernäl Mäjesty is pretty much of a Slayer clone I like None Shall Defy more than anything Slayer did.

Hell Awaits. song and album are the best. i remember hearing that "HELL AWAITS" at the beginning for the first time when i was about 12 and being "I Must Get This"

1. reign in blood
2. show no mercy
3. christ illusion

Christ Illusion before Hell Awaits?

Christ Illusion wasn't a bad album but what the fuck dude...

From someone who lacks the overall attention span for longer songs, it should be no surprise that RiB is my fav, followed closely by Show No Mercy.

Hell Awaits had its moments, but 6 minute-long songs are a sure fire way to get me switching disks. Especially "Praise Of Death." Kerry drops into that pseudo Raining Blood pickup wankery and you think the tune is over - but no, they still have a few minutes to go. Every album after RiB just lacked the overall speed and intensity that was Slayer. The closest they came, IMO, was War Ensemble, which sadly was only one tune on a rather generic album.

Show No Mercy of course. Followed closely by Hell Awaits and Haunting the Chapel. After that Slayer got a bit iffy for me.

Those first 3 albums are untouchable in thrash standards.

South of Heaven followed by Reign in Blood and then Show No Mercy.

Reign In Blood is just such an incredibly fun listen so that gets my vote. Aggressive as hell, extremely catchy both instrumentally and vocally and overall is just really, really memorable. Absolute classic.

1. Live Undead
2. Reign in Blood
3. South of Heaven

Yar

"Show No Mercy". It's raw as fuck and has some seriously catchy riffs on it.