| Reviews for Slayer (US)'s World Painted Blood |
| Slayer - World Painted Blood - 65% |
| Written by ThrashManiacAYD
on November 19th, 2009
|
| I think we've all agreed long ago that reviewing bands like Slayer and Metallica these days based purely on the merits of their newest material is an impossible task, but I will give it my best shot. When bands reach such a size cutting through the hype, the over-exposure and the fanboy idiots is as big a task as listening to the album objectively in itself. Given how long ago Metallica left the realms of 'metal' it has been down to Slayer for a considerable period of time now to manage the space that was vacated by their once thrash-brothers, which given this fact makes it all the more incredible how loved they still are. "Christ Illusion" was no damp squib but it had been 16 long years since Slayer had released anything half-decent, going all the way back to "Seasons in the Abyss". I mean, that's nearly one whole "Chinese Democracy"! And so while Slayer's early back-catalogue is quite simply a hallowed and untouchable spectrum of work, the band have struggled to remain a force to be reckoned with since and it is through this length of time that unavoidable questions have arisen over the band's worth nearly 30 years after they formed. In this respect "World Painted Blood" closes as many questions as it leaves open as on occasion Slayer pull out a riff, or a tempo, that shows some life in the old dog yet but invariably they feel like the dad on a wedding party dance floor, trying to resurrect their moves from their 'prime' while of course being wholly incapable of doing so. The production of "World Painted Blood" feels as much to do with Slayer's negatives on album number 11 as it does the album positives. On the plus side it accentuates the feel of old-school, as occurred too on "Christ Illusion" that I feel is absolutely essential to the making of any great Slayer record, yet in repeated listens I can't help comparing it to the production of "Reign In Blood" and safe to say the comparison is not favourable. Before you start screaming "you can't compare everything to the greatest metal record of all time!! lulz", think about this fact: for much of "World Painted Blood" the riffs and writing feel strongly reminiscent of that 1986 classic yet that songwriting is let down by a vastly inferior and blunter production. "Reign In Blood"'s production was light years ahead of it's time but 23 light years ahead? And it is with this comparison I realise in the 23 intervening years Slayer have lost much of their bite and edge that made them veritable gods of their time, as that realisation is frankly unacceptable if you come here looking for a modern day classic. With Tom Araya's vocals you can always be sure of just whom you are listening to and for that we can be truly thankful. In the riffs too of "Public Display Of Dismemberment", "Psychopathy Red" and "Unit 731" you would accuse the band on your stereo of ripping off Slayer if it weren't for the fact it was Slayer themselves, and that's no bad thing. After all, Slayer fans don't wish for their heroes to transform into a freeform jazz quartet and if they wish to try and repeat what makes "Reign In Blood" the only 11/10 album of all-time that must be admired. But to hear a number of tracks fall short of this standard only confirms what we originally knew: that Slayer are a long, long way past their best. "Playing With Dolls" harks back to the kind of slow-song composition I've heard from bands of 16-year-olds who formed last week while "Americon" returns the kind of headaches I get when just thinking of 2001's "God Hates Us All". This is not to mention on top the number of songs that sit squarely in the middle territory of 'dull', thus making finding anything to say about them difficult - "Beauty Through Order", "Human Strain" and "World Painted Blood". So I’m not going to try. Naturally we are expecting much but then this is SLAYER!, the band that people willingly carve the logo of into their arms. I'm sure you'll get many claiming a change of underwear was in order after their first listen to "World Painted Blood" but ignore them and listen to me instead: there are moments worth shouting about here but if you want to experience these legends at their best do yourself a favour and travel back two decades plus. Originally written for Rockfreaks.net |
| Old Heads Can Still Thrash Your Face Off - 90% |
| Written by DawnoftheShred
on November 12th, 2009
|
| An artist’s youth is arguably his most fertile creative period. It is here, past the struggles of adolescence but not yet at the point of complete maturity, where he develops experience without yet abandoning his instinctual methodology, often creating his most beloved works in the process. In heavy metal, it is far from uncommon to find the majority of a band’s fans worshipping at the feet of their older albums, many going so far as to deride the band’s later works in order to create a sharper contrast between them and the favored albums of old. But while age comes with decreased ability, physical weakness, blurry vision, obsolescence, and a host of other debilitations, the benefits of maturity can be just as far-reaching. And if this experience is reconnected with the fervor of youth, even an old dog can learn a few very impressive new tricks and remind the pups that he ain’t a hound to be fucked with. With that, we reach World Painted Blood, Slayer’s tenth studio album. This one managed to sneak up on me quite unlike their last album, Christ Illusion, whose development I followed fervently from first announcement to opening day purchase. That album had “comeback” hype branded on it from day one, leaving us fans to nervously cross our fingers until we were (mostly) satisfied with the results. World Painted Blood did not have this hype; after all, once you’re ‘back,’ expectant fans need you to merely keep up the good work. Apparently hype and immediate gratification must be directly proportional, because World Painted Blood didn’t have that going for it either when I finally got my paws on a physical copy. Where Christ Illusion wasted no time demonstrating the renewed vigor of the aging band, World Painted Blood takes time to warm up: its title track, though traditionally in either the opening or closing role on a Slayer album, serves as a less-than-ideal opening cut when compared to some of the album’s other tracks and further exacerbates the patience of those hopeful listeners geared up for the spine-tearing thrash-fest that eventually ensues. But patience is a virtue, as they say, and the virtuous will find that what Slayer has done here is not merely recapture the furiously controlled chaos and vintage riffs of their better days, but the subtlety and unnerving atmosphere of those days as well, all without the throwback vibe that so frequently soils new thrash albums, from young bands and old alike. The first intimation of Slayer doing things how they used to is also the most obvious. Slayer once performed the tightest, most genuinely enjoyable thrash metal on the face of the earth, and on at least half of World Painted Blood’s tracks, they seek to do this once again. “Snuff,” “Psychopathy Red,” “Unit 731” and their brood are direct descendents of the sort of thrash that Slayer used to command in the 80’s, most overtly on Reign in Blood. Not every song has the raging thrash hard-on that these songs have, but most of the rest have abundant fast passages of varying degrees of importance in their respective structures. But more on those later: right now, let us bask in the glow of Slayer’s glorious fucking riffs. If there’s one thing this band has never ceased to execute masterfully, it’s no-nonsense thrash. At first, it’s easy to get the impression that’s it’s simply “new” Slayer playing “old” Slayer, what with some of the lower tuned guitars still making the occasional appearance, but hey, it beats “new” Slayer playing “new” Slayer, right? The impression dulls as the album continues, eventually disappearing completely in wake of the fury of the particularly potent “Psychopathy Red,” which is as fearsome a track as they’ve ever written. The people who'd dislike this stuff are probably the same people that haven’t liked anything since Reign. One nice thing about these faster tracks is that they break Christ Illusion’s annoying habit of going to hell when the tempo drops. You know the feeling: you’re nicely thrashing along when all of a sudden an unsavory groovy bit hits you hard, reminding you of the GHUA days a bit too distinctly. Here slow passages are handled like they used to be handled, as fucking devastating contrast to the main riffage. There’s one such break in “Public Display of Dismemberment,” which plummets to a Hell Awaits-era crawl before racing back into the tempo proper. There also a nonlinear feel to the songs that recalls the old days. Verse riffs will mutate as the songs progress, 4’s will be liberally swapped with 3’s in the meter and arrangements, and there’s just a generally unpredictability to these songs without losing fluidity. These sorts of things happen frequently and the moral seems to be that the band is just doing things the way they should be, the way they used to. Need more proof? A quick breeze through the liner notes reveals that the songs are once again balanced between Hanneman and King compositions, where the last two albums were heavily King-composed and Diabolus was mostly Hanneman’s blunders. Lyrically we have a return to the plainspoken violence of the old days, with lots of Araya serial-killer literature resurfacing and only a few isolated “Kerry King hates religion” dead horse beatings. Now the actual quality of the lyrics is pretty low, as there’s a scrappy, unfocused quality to them that is nowhere near the legitimacy of their old stuff (not to mention the titles….Slayer have apparently entered a crappy song title competition, and I bet any money that they’re winning…) but the effort is there, and I feel like its honest. And that’s what fucking counts. Certainly someone will slag “Snuff” for opening with a guitar solo and someone else will slag “Human Strain” for not having one, and I know someone will shit on Tom Araya’s hectic screeching at the end of “Psychopathy Red” because he doesn’t sound as good as he did, but it’s all in the name of giving a damn, and there’s plenty of young bands you really can’t say the same thing about. Take “Public Display,” with its notorious blast beats (Dave Lombardo, more than his bandmates, is at the top of his game on this album from beginning to almost end. He doesn’t use triggers either, as far as I can tell) and death-metal inspired riffing. Slayer haven’t been at the forefront of extremity for something like a quarter of a decade, but does that bother them? Apparently not; they’re playing whatever the fuck they want. And on World Painted Blood, sometimes what they want is to play a little slower. Though Slayer’s most high-profile relationship was their disastrous affair with groove/mallcore trademarks for Diabolus and GHUA, they’ve always been a band that has openly courted controversy. As such, there were bound to be a few tracks on here that would prove controversial due to the latent numskullery of a certain portion of their fanbase. And it’s when the band kicks the tempo back a bit that this is most likely to happen. For instance, the title track has a lengthy buildup before climaxing into a riffset that’s a few bpm’s less than one might expect, particularly for an opening track on a fucking Slayer album (more like an old Exodus tempo). But it works, and the middle part is as memorable as any they’ve ever crafted. Getting into the meat of the album, the listener will find Slayer willing to go slower still. “Human Strain,” “Playing with Dolls,” and especially “Beauty Though Order” find the emphasis shifting away from speed, immediately calling to mind their unfortunate turn of the millennium experiments. The actual result is a reemergence of the atmospheric emphasis that they introduced on South of Heaven, developed on Seasons in the Abyss, and refined on Divine Intervention. “Beauty Through Order” doesn’t seem too out of the ordinary (though it appears to be about Elizabeth Bathory, which is cool), that is until the bridge suddenly lurks from out of the shadows and strikes the same chord of menace so often utilized by this band (see: “Behind the Crooked Cross,” “Dead Skin Mask,” “Divine Intervention,’ among dozens of others). “Human Strain” has a similar effect, the riffs suddenly evaporate leaving one strange chilling sequence, heightened by Tom’s vocal melody (yes, he uses those again, further reinforcing the Seasons/South of Heaven influence). It is the creepy, disturbing variety of Slayer riffage that has not been properly employed since the old days, and I tell ya, I didn’t even realize that I missed it until this album so eloquently reminded me how well it can be done. It is three of the last four tracks on the album that somehow prove most controversial and, aside from the overall lyrical weakness, are the only detrimental bits on World Painted Blood. “Playing with Dolls” is one of the experimental ones, featuring a “new” Slayer riffset that takes the idea of the intro riff from “Jihad” and expands it into a whole song. It’s not a highlight (Tom’s clean vocals are not as chilling as they were on say, “Serenity in Murder”) but it has some interesting melodic interaction that fits with their resurrected atmospheric intentions. “Not of This God” has Kerry and Jeff dusting off their 7-strings for another go and the results are also mixed. The fast parts are passable; the bridge can’t help but remind you of Disturbed or something. Only one track deserves not to be here, and that’s “Americon.” Not only are the lyrics noticeably worse than anywhere else, its clunky groove riffs stake out a middle ground between the enjoyable thrash and atmospheric bits showcased earlier without being thrash, atmospheric, or enjoyable. Arguably one of the most tedious songs they’ve ever written, up there with “Overt Enemy,” “Wicked,” and the ones they did with Ice T and Atari Teenage Riot. As a final aside, those interested in picking up the album will notice that there are two different versions floating around: the regular and the special edition. The difference? The special edition costs more and features a DVD with a 20-minute “animated graphic novel” based off the music of the album. I’m pretty ridiculous about having all of Slayer’s extra shit (for instance, I’m one of those saps that bought the Christ Illusion rerelease as well as the original) and even I’m glad I didn’t fall for this shit. The “film” is poorly produced and amateurish, not to mention entirely predictable. After about three minutes in, you know exactly how the other 17 minutes are going to go. It also has very little to do with the album’s music, merely featuring little snippets here and there (including one non-album track which probably rules, if you could hear more of it that is). In short, it’s lame as hell, so get the regular edition if any at all. Anyone needing proof can find the video on Youtube anyway. Those wanting a full return to Reign in Blood aren’t going to get it. Neither are those wanting a return to South of Heaven or Christ Illusion or any other one of their albums. But while it isn’t exactly the new Slayer album you might have wanted, it’s the new Slayer album that you need. World Painted Blood is the sound of an aging band once again operating at the peak potential for where they’re at. Perhaps not as transcendental as the sound of youth, but the sound of age comes with self-assurance in the quality of your material, regardless of whether or not it’s fitting trends or if the fans will dig it. The result here is the most fluid compositions and legitimate intensity we’ve seen from Slayer in a long time. It’s a grower, for certain, but the payoff is more than satisfying. Highlights: “Beauty Through Order,” “Psychopathy Red,” “Public Display of Dismemberment” |
| I'm a Godless heretic, not a God-fearing lunatic! - 82% |
| Written by Empyreal
on November 9th, 2009
|
| Slayer has been around a long time; that much is unquestionable. These guys got popular way back in the 80s, ironically for promoting things that were generally unpopular, like Satanism, bloody crosses, evil demons and everything else that made the soccer moms quiver in their expensive green station wagons. So, with such a history of blasphemous blasphemies, how does Slayer’s latest foray into grimy, hate-filled metallic misery entitled World Painted Blood stand up? Pretty damned well, I say. I mean, okay. It’s not great. It’s not even really that good from an objective point of view, but, damn, it’s fucking Slayer. I didn’t really know what to expect, but they churned out a really thrashy, ballsy album, especially for guys who have been past their prime for the better part of the last twenty years. World Painted Blood is filled with short, angry manifestos that have as much attitude as a boozed up Hell’s Angel on a fourth of July rally. Sure, the solos are messy and barely even sound like solos to begin with, and sure the music is sloppy as all get out, but that’s the charm of the whole thing! At the core, the band exudes primal, pure attitude from every pore. That’s the best thing about Slayer, you see; the attitude. These guys write music that is so cathartic to the angry mind that it made them famous, and it carried them kicking and screaming through whatever trend of the day arose, coming out bruised, but mostly unscathed. And World Painted Blood continues this, without an inch of subtlety or restraint in their blood at all. The title track is a heavy, chugging ball-buster, with Tom Araya belting out brash, hastily written lyrics with enough energy to topple a street full of power lines. The band follows up with ass-kickers like “Snuff,” “Public Display of Dismemberment” and the more calculated “Beauty Through Disorder,” which has some nice build ups for the grinding riffs. Really, the only song I don’t like on this thing is “Playing with Dolls,” which falls victim to some truly ghastly experimentation. Seriously, guys, lose the alt rock guitar strumming. It’s lame as fuck. The only thing truly wrong with this is the production, which sounds like it belongs to some lame nu-metal band or something, not a classic Thrash band like Slayer. Bring back the gritty Reign in Blood guitars and ditch the modern shit. There are also some parts that get pretty Hordes of Chaos-esque embarrassing, like the chorus of “Not of This God” in particular. Yeah, Tom, nice vocals there. You sound about as credible as a kid throwing a temper tantrum, it’s just pitiful. But otherwise, good job, Slayer, you smashed my expectations for this album with an iron-barbed ax. World Painted Blood is heavy, vitriolic, fast and gnarly, with a lot of bite and vinegar added in. And since I know you’re all waiting for the part of the review where I compare it to the recent releases by the other Big 4 bands, yes, I think this is better than Death Magnetic and Endgame. A Thrash band releasing material in 2009 that is in the same ballpark as their 80s material? Fuck me sideways; it finally happened. Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com |
| World Painted Blood - 83% |
| Written by absurder21
on November 8th, 2009
|
| Slayer has been somewhat of a strange entity at this point in time because their name seems to be synonymous with both the worlds godly and shit at the same time. Their 80s work is easily some of the best in the genre of thrash, where as their 90s stuff has been…Well, not so great. Suffice to say, I haven’t been too impressed with their 90s work before as it really played off the whole nu/alternative scene which I always though was quite crass. On Christ Illusion, they sort of bred out some of the nu-metal tendencies, but they were still apparent. What is great about World Painted Blood is that it’s a sign that they’ve almost completely bred the nu-metalness out of their music! Only 4/11 tracks are not total old-school-Slayer thrash metal! The album starts off with the evil title track which is equal sinister sounding as it is catchy, although it does lack a little of the “oomph” that the rest of the album has when it comes to thrashing out. After that, the tracks Unit 731,Snuff and Hate worldwide take you back in Slayer time, putting you through a barrage of Slayer’s signature break-neck thrash riffs, guaranteed to destroy your vertebrae with the balls out, thrashing attitude of old school Slayer. The track afterwards, Public Display of Dismemberment, sounds somewhat like black metal for a bit, especially in the opening riff which is all tremolo picked single notes with some raw distortion, and the drumming is almost purely snare drum smacks and blast beats. On the next track, it slows down into some average (but not horrible considering Slayers previous work) groove metal tracks which aren’t very impressive. After that little break, you’re exposed to another dose of head banging with Psychopathy Red. Afterwards, it’s down into the most bizarre Slayer song I’ve ever heard: Playing with Dolls. One second it sounds like radio rock, and then it sounds like Jihad from the previous record. It then plays into some evil sounding slow riffs, to attract your interest. Finally, the last track, Not of this God, ends the record on a very high note with one of the better Slayer tracks I’ve heard, with their evil tremolo picked notes and violent riffs and drumming leaving you completely bruised. Now, to say this album is totally on par with their 80s work would be a false. It would be near impossible as they are way too old to go all out throughout a record like they used to, as seen here. Despite this, World Painted Blood definitely has some of their strongest work since Seasons in the Abyss, going back to the Reign in Blood style of brief blasts of sinister sounding tremolo picked notes between heavy riffs and chaotic drumming, but not so much that the average song isn’t under 2 minutes long. I must say, World Painted Blood may very well be a future classic. The instrumental work on this album is definitely a notch higher then that of anything since Seasons in the Abyss. It contains Kerry and Jeff’s random, rusty razor soloing that plays as it’s described as well as the aforementioned violent thrash riffs that made them icons of the 80s. It also sees some of the more diverse work such as some use of the Wah pedal and the finger plucked style like on Playing with Dolls. One of the higher points on this album was Dave Lombardo’s use of blast beats. Now, he is no stranger to the use of blast beats, but in my opinion he never used them with the right riffs. This time he did. On the track, Playing with Dolls, it gives a particularly head smashing effect to the other wise, slow riffs and, as I mentioned before, the blast beats stick out particularly on the track Public Display, as the track has a sort of black metal vibe to it. Other then that, Lombardo sticks within his usual comfort zone when it comes to his drumming: fast snare bashes and whirlwind smashing. To asses Tom Araya’s division, the bass guitar doesn’t really make much of an appearance on this album, but when it does stick out it very much adds to the smashing sound of the drums and while the vocals are nothing new for Slayer, Tom still sounds somewhat reminiscent of the 90s, but not bad enough to do any damage to the record. The lyrics on this album are not very new for Slayer. Dwelling more on a sort of genocidal or anarchy theme for a lot of the songs, it’s still Slayer’s dark, evil lyricism that makes them who they are. The mood hangs around a sort of feeling of chaos and violence, a sort of anechoic future where there is only war. The minor clashing of instrumental dominance in the production also adds to this atmosphere, which I think was intelligent of them as all the golden Slayer records had some sort of chaos about them via the production. Whether it was the lack of production on Hell Awaits or the muddled production of Show no Mercy. The only problem I could find with the structure would be in the placement of the slower tracks. You go from straight thrashing to some groove/alt stuff which somewhat kills the vibe until the next thrasher. I think they could have just left those tracks out to be honest, because excluding Playing with dolls; none of them are anything special. I think that based on the amount of time it took to make this, Slayer deserve a pat on the back for what they’ve put out. Tom Araya himself has stated he’s considering calling it quits soon, and to be honest, if this is Slayer’s last record, it would definitely be one hell of a final record and well worth being the final chapter in the book that is Slayer. |
| AWESOME! Kind of. - 85% |
| Written by mankvill
on November 5th, 2009
|
| In my personal experience, it seems acceptable in the metal community to completely dismiss Slayer after "Seasons In The Abyss" in 1990. And for a while, I'd have agreed. Some fans say they haven't been good since South of Heaven, some say they haven't released a good album since "Divine Intervention". Whichever you may think, Slayer definitely has altered their music since the 90's, and the wariness that Slayer fans felt then has carried over into the 2000's. "God Hates Us All" was down-tuned and appealing to the "nu-metal" crowd, whereas "Christ Illusion" in 2006 only partly made amends for the 16 years prior to it, but ultimately failed. As we almost close out the first decade of 2000, Slayer returns once again with their tenth studio album. And Slayer fans should rejoice: they're back. Kind of. First things first: There are some songs on this album that sound like they come right out of their '80s period. The beginning of "Snuff" sounds right at home on "South of Heaven" and "Public Display Of Dismemberment" could be mistaken as an unused track from the "Reign In Blood" sessions. Of course, Slayer still has some faults. There are still unconventional "Slayer songs" which do nothing but harm the band at this stage. "Human Strain" is definitely an odd-sounding song and ultimately sounds like something off of "God Hates Us All". I understand why Slayer wouldn't want to make a straight-up, balls-out thrash record at all times, but they've been like that for the better part of 20 years now. Had they taken the Slayer formula of war and satanic lyrics with speed and solos, this could've easily been album of the year. Another fault that should be mentioned (as I'm sure it's been mentioned about Slayer since 1994): Tom needs to stop yelling. It's sounding too forced these days. "Playing With Dolls" has a creepy vibe throughout and it features Tom actually singing through parts of the song which make it a very interesting song, albeit lacking in the end. Also: "Americon" might just be the stupidest Slayer song ever released, lyrics-wise. Without even looking, I bet that Kerry King penned the lyrics. "It's all about the motherfuckin' oil/Regardless of the flag upon its soil". COME ON. But I digress. "World Painted Blood" injects new life into the worn down thrash machine that is Slayer. "Unit 731" and "Snuff" have enough breakneck speed to satisfy old-school thrash fans, and "Psycopathy Red" might just be the best Slayer song written since 1990. The band still has its chops. The songs are still unmistakably Slayer, but they must have been listening to the myriad of forum posts on the internet about the guitar solos sounding the same. Lots of varied stuff here, but not enough to forget that it's Mr. King and Mr. Hanneman on the axes. The bass break (first ever for Slayer?!) in "Psycopathy Red" shows Mr. Araya has still got it, even if he needs to stop screaming all the time. Trust us, Tom. You sound a lot better when you let the lyrics come naturally. I've always been a huge fan of Mr. Lombardo's skill on the skins, but unfortunately, it doesn't seem like it really shines through on this album. Not to say that it's bad, just nothing too special. The mix is not good on this album. It's not "Death Magnetic" bad, but it's still not that great. You have to really listen to pick up the drumming and the guitars are pretty "tinny" at times as well. It shouldn't make too much of a difference to die-hard Slayer fans, though. At the end of the day, Slayer released a record. As the most consistent of the Big 4 of thrash metal, that should be more than enough reason to pick it up. But if you need more convincing, just know that "World Painted Blood" has Slayer back to being the thrash monster terrorizer that we all know and love. It's not perfect, but as long as you don't compare this album to any of their other albums (which you shouldn't do anyway), you'll find that Slayer is faster, hungrier, and a hell of a lot more evil than they have been in a while. SLAYER!!! Stand-out tracks: Unit 731, Snuff, Psycopathy Red |