¨Slayer¨, one of metals most well-known metal bands and the band that paved the way to many extreme bands that eventually fromed the metal-genre called death-metal among others. The band has released the famous thrash classic ¨Reign In Blood¨ with its high pace and sinister feeling, now it is time for this album called ¨South Of Heaven¨. The tempos began to slow down for the band but they still kept the evil and sinister spirit alive in this album too. Almost every death-metal band focus on the most obscure parts of the 'other side' so to say, alot pain, death, suffering in the pits of hell and other bizarre stuff. ¨Slayer's¨ reflections on the evil part was more well-thought and honest and that is why ¨Slayer¨ has come to where they are today in my opinion.
The band members has always been three curtain members that has played from the very first album in their career, the first member is the vocalist and bass player Tom Araya. His vocals are not so directed towards singing, I think that it sounds more like loud speaking or preaching. Then we have the guitarist Kerry King, a very good guitarist in my opinion and the third member is Jeff Hanneman who is also a guitarist. The drummer in this band is named Dave Lombardo and he is also doing good in this album.
The things that I enjoyed in about this album was the perfect wibe of evil, the lyrics are very good when it comes to describe evil and darkness. There is no exaggeration like the death-metal bands always has in their lyrics where every single thing is about raw death, gore and stuff that comes along, not all bands as that type of style but the genre as whole usually has those kind of lyrics. The second thing that I enjoy about ¨Slayer¨ is the unique guitar sound, it sounds very out-dated to me but they enforce the evil feeling in every song, the guitars sounds haunting and somewhat cruel in my ears and I think that is one thing that makes ¨Slayer¨ unique among other bands. The songs on this album are very good, I enjoyed almost all of them because they had the right tempo and riffing that I personally like. The riffing is not complicated or technical, the riffing sounds quite simple but the cathciness is very heavy to me. The drumming was also a thing that I enjoyed quite much, many thrash-metal bands that I have heard always have these fast drumming or so-called Slayer-drumming. The drum patterns had a good variation, not the same pounding in every song, but some songs could've been a bit faster.
Some things that I didn't enjoy was the vocals from Araya, there was no variation in the vocals in my opinion. Some singer uses sometimes a darker voice or yell, sharp screams for example. Araya just uses his speaking or semi-screaming all the time and that bored me quite much. I said before that I liked the guitars but at the same time I think that the EQ was to flat, I thought that there was no heaviness in the songs. The guitars sounded 'cheap' to me, they were thin and not thick as I prefer. The last thing that disappointed me was the bass, it is hardly heard on the album, if Araya is the front man of the band he could at least give up a bass solo or some bass filler sections. The only intruments that is heard on this is the drums and guitars if you ask me.
There you have my opinion about this album from ¨Slayer¨, I enjoyed it pretty much, I basically liked almost every song but there was a few things that I felt bad about this album as you can see. This album is highly recommended to all Slayer fans and of course thrashers, I think that death-metal fans should get this album. I hope that this review was to any help and if you have and corrections or thoughts about this review please be welcome to send your comments.
PROS
+ The sense of evil is greatly displayed
+ The guitar playing style makes the band unique
+ Most songs are quite catchy and easy to listen through
CONS
- The guitars sounds flat, there is not much heaviness
- The vocals is so dull, the lack of variation may bore people
- The bass is barely audiable
RECOMMENDED TRACKS
-- Cleanse The Soul
-- Behind The Crooked Glass
-- Dissident Aggressor
-- Read Between The Lies
The overall album rating will be: 3.5/5
