BAND HISTORY
Now this was something special I must say,
Slayer released this album called
''Divine Intervention''. This band was one of four other bands during the mid 80's and that group was called the ''The Big Four'', the bands were called
Megadeth,
Slayer,
Anthrax and
Metallica and they all played thrash-metal. The only thing was that
Slayer was the only band that played a more aggressive and evil thrash-mix compared to the other bands, which also formed their own unique sounds as well. Though I haven't heard so much
Slayer except for their other albums called
''South Of Heaven'' and
God Hates Us All. Both of those albums didn't grabbed my attention so good but this did stuck on my mind, the reasons was that the band still had their evil and sinister sound, the bass was more audiable and the drum work was very good compared to the other albums.
ALBUM INFORMATION
As in their previous work the band has always been focused on the more obscure and evil stuff, the lyrics was directed towards satan, darkness, evil and all sorts of stuff that made people upset but they also get peoples attention through their music. This album has the same style as I said before, thanks to the drumming the material feels more powerful and the guitars has the same unique sound plus that the bass was more audiable which was very good in my opinion. The material is fast on this album, the songs are strong and catchy at some moments but the vocals from
Tom Araya maybe is not a bigger improvement though, but it still make
Slayer into a unique band in the genre.
THE BAND MEMBERS
The band members who made this album was and still are
Tom Araya (bass and vocals),
Kerry King (guitars),
Jeff Hanneman (guitars) and
Paul Bostaph (drums).
Tom's part in this album was very good this time, the band has finally given the bass a little more space, it maybe wasen't much but it did make a difference. There are still no special things about his bass playing but it sounded better and thats the whole point. When it camed to his singing it maybe wasen't so great after all, he has a bit special style of singing or screaming. He basically screams loud in all the songs and people might get bored because of these straight-ahead vocals. The guitars in this album was great, the guitar sound is now a bit thicker, the shredding and riffing is now faster, catchier and the soloing is very enjoyable. The unique haunting sound of the guitars is still with us here and it strengthens the whole sound in general. And now we come to the member that really lifted
Slayer's to another level,
Paul Bostaph. An experienced drummer that has been playing in other famous bands like
Exodus and
Testament and more, the drumming is fast and very catchy. The drumming really helped
Slayer to sound powerful than they did in
''South Of Heaven''.
THINGS THAT I ENJOYED ABOUT THIS ALBUM
The things I liked about in this album was finally many, the thing I enjoyed the most was the drumming made by
Paul. The drums made the songs more catchier and more powerful, and I have started to get used to these drums so this was a very fun surprise than the other albums that I have heard. Some of the best songs with the best drums would be
Dittohead and
Circle Of Beliefs. The second thing I liked was the guitar soloing actually, the solos were better structured and they were played with precision and skill, the basic guitar work was also great. The riffing was classical fast shredding along with catchy rhythm sections plus the unique guitar sound which is typical to [b]Slayer[/i]. And the bass of course was a little thing that I was slightly surprised of, you could hear it pretty good and it made a better sound with the guitars.
THINGS I DISLIKED ABOUT THIS ALBUM
The good thing was that I enjoyed a lot of stuff about this album but a thing that I didn't like so much was
Tom's monotonous vocals. I also believe that this is love-or hate scenario when it comes to vocals, I don't hate them but I think that
Tom could tried out some more different styles of singing. I think it would be cool if he delivered some growls, sudden bursts of well screaming or maybe some raspier singing, but that is just my opinion though.
FINAL JUDGEMENT
There you go, I guess that this is the best I can give and I hope that this was enjoying to read. This is for now my favorite
Slayer album, the biggest thing about this album was the help from
Paul who really lifted up the band with his accurate and fast drumming. The songs on the album were all more or less catchy, though I enjoyed all of them pretty much but the album will not be a classic to me thats for sure. I think that this is a quite underrated album that needs a bit more attention and credit. This album would go home to
Slayer fans in first hand, this would also suit thrashers pretty good because of the fast paces in the songs. Thank you for taking time to read this review and if you have any complaints or praises just let me know.
PROS
+ The faster drumming made the songs a whole lot better
+ The songs were very catchy, the variety was also a plus
+ The guitar work was awesome in this album
+ The sinister and evil sound sure does this band unique
CONS
- I still don't like
Tom Araya's vocals, they are not bad but a little variety wouldn't hurt
RECOMMENDED TRACKS
-- Cicle Of Beliefs
-- Dittohead
-- Ss-3
-- Serenity In Murder
The overall album rating for this album will be a well earned:
4/5
