Review Summary: Raise Your Sword!
Most people associate Slayer with pioneering works such as
Reign in Blood or
Hell Awaits, which set the stage for Death Metal by introducing new riffing styles and song writing techniques, that moved metal further away from the rock music tradition of cyclic song writing and instead let each song unfold naturally through a series of riff variations that mirror the music's content. Or perhaps you think of the sinister
South of Heaven, which traded the violent breakneck speed of Reign in Blood for a more slowed down, controlled and subtle approach. Few, however, are really aware of Slayer's first offering, which doesn't really sound like anything else the band has ever done, or anything that other metal bands were doing at the time. As such,
Show No Mercy retains a distinct character, that separates it from the rest of Slayer's work and might also make the listener view their subsequent albums in a different light.
Typical for young, aspiring artists, Slayer's debut features the band at its most passionate. This music is performed with a youthful energy that is in many ways comparable to Metallica's
Kill 'Em All, but is presented with a more uncompromising attitude. This reflects, for example, in Tom Araya's stellar vocal perfomance or Hanneman's and King's guitar solos, which lie somewhere in between the melodic tradition of NWOBHM bands and Slayer's chaotic noise style, that they utilized on their later records. The songs are played with a confidence that completely overshadows any flaws in instrumental ability or production value. Consequently this isn't the band's most mature and probably not their best album, but it is definitely their most fun album by a large margin.
Taking inspiration from the prior generation of heavy metal and early hardcore punk,
Show No Mercy's songs are composed of basic fragments from pentatonic and diatonic scales, making heavy use of power chord riffing, tremolo picking and occasionally, simple harmonization. However, what sets this release apart from the early efforts of Slayer's contemporaries is how these basic building blocks are arranged to fit the needs of each individual song. While a lot of tracks are based on the rock song formula, this formula is usually bent, extended or shortened in a way that these fast-paced songs never lose their momentum. As a result of this approach, Slayer were able to reach a level of coherence with their music, that let them present their ideas in a much clearer and convincing fashion than other bands at the time. Unfortunately though, a couple of songs don't quite live up to the standard set by the rest of the album. The title track, The Final Command and Fight Till Death aren't bad by any means, but the former two songs are a tad too straight forward while the latter doesn't do anything that other songs on the album don't do better.
At the level of musical content, these songs are essentially like tiny battle hymns. I have seen this music described as 'metal to raise your sword to' and I think that's a pretty accurate interpretation. Themes like war, combat and the nature of evil are examined in short and highly energetic tracks, that make the listener want to be a part of these scenarios and duke it out with the opposing force in the face of death while
showing no mercy.
