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Reign in Blood

Reign in Blood is the third album by Slayer. Slayer is an American thrash metal band. Def Jam Recordings released the album on October 7, 1986. Reign in Blood was Slayer's first album with a major record label. Rick Rubin produced the album with the band. He helped the band make better music.

Reign in Blood
Studio album by
Slayer
ReleasedOctober 7, 1986[1]
Recorded1986, Los Angeles, California
GenreThrash metal
Length28:56
34:44 (Remaster)
LabelDef Jam
ProducerRick Rubin, Slayer
Slayer chronology
Hell Awaits
(1985) 		Reign in Blood South of Heaven
(1988)

Many music critics and fans liked Reign in Blood. The album helped Slayer become more popular. The band became important in the heavy metal community. Kerrang! magazine said the record was "the heaviest album of all time," and an important album in thrash metal and speed metal.[2] Reign in Blood is compared to many other important thrash metal albums made in the 1980s, such as Anthrax's Among the Living, Megadeth's Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?, and Metallica's Master of Puppets. Many people think Reign in Blood is one of the most influential thrash metal albums ever made.

Reign in Blood changed how thrash metal music sounded in the 1980s. It was Slayer's first album on the Billboard 200. It was number 94 on the music chart. The RIAA gave the album a gold certification in 1992. In 2013, NME wrote that it was one of the greatest albums of all time.[3]

Background

Slayer released their second album in March 1985. It was named Hell Awaits. Many music critics liked it. The band's producer, Brian Slagel, thought that the band's next album was going to be very popular. Slagel talked to many different record labels. One of them was Def Jam Recordings. At first, Slagel did not want the band to join Def Jam. This is because Def Jam did not have many other thrash metal bands in their record label. Rick Rubin, one of the people who made Def Jam, was interested in Slayer. Dave Lombardo, the band's drummer, learned that Rubin was interested. He tried to talk to Rubin. The other members of Slayer did not want to leave Metal Blade Records. This was the record label they made Show No Mercy (1983) and Hell Awaits with. The band had a contract with Metal Blade.[4]

Lombardo talked to Columbia Records. This was Def Jam's distributor (business that moves products). Columbia helped Lombardo talk to Rubin. Rubin agreed to go to one of Slayer's concerts. He brought Glen E. Friedman with him. Friedman was a music producer. Friedman had produced the first album made by Suicidal Tendencies. Slayer's singer, Tom Araya, was in a music video for a song on the album.[4]

Jeff Hanneman was surprised that Rubin was interested in the band. Hanneman liked the work Rubin did with hip hop music makers, such as Run-DMC and LL Cool J. Rubin later talked to the band, and said that he wanted them to join Def Jam. Slayer joined the record label. The band went to Seattle for two days to take group photos. One of the photos was used on the back of the album South of Heaven (1988).[4]

Making the album

 
Dave Lombardo playing the drums in 2016. Lombardo left Slayer in 1986 because he wanted a job that gave him more money.

The band recorded and produced Reign in Blood at Hit City West (a music studio) in Los Angeles. Rubin produced the album with the band. It was the first time Rubin produced a thrash metal album.[5] Because of this, he made the album sound different from the band's first two albums. A music critic from AllMusic thought that Rubin's work made the songs on the album faster. He also made the music on Reign in Blood sound better than the music on Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits.[6] Because of this, Slayer's music sounded different, and more people listened to it.[4][7]

There is a scream at the start of "Angel of Death". This is the first song on the album. Araya said that Hanneman wanted to put the scream on the album. Araya is the person who screamed. He recorded himself screaming many times.[8]

The album is 29 minutes long. The band realized the album was short once they finished it. The band did not know if they should make more music or not. They asked Rubin what to do. Araya told Metal Hammer that Rubin said "it had 10 songs, verses, choruses and leads", and that it was an album. Rubin did not have a problem with how long the album was.[9] King said that albums that were an hour long were normal at the time. He said that by taking out unneeded songs, "you could make a much more intense record, which is what we're all about".[4] The album fits on one side of a cassette tape.[4]

Slayer did a concert tour after they finished the album. It was named the Reign in Pain tour. In the United States, they played with Overkill. In Europe, they played with Malice. In late 1986, Dave Lombardo left Slayer. The band needed a new drummer so they could keep playing music. They hired Tony Scaglione from Whiplash.[4] Rubin wanted Lombardo to join the band again. He told Lombardo he would give him money to come back. In 1987, Lombardo came back to the band.

Release

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [10]
The Guardian     [11]
Kerrang!     [12]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide     [13]
Stylus MagazineA+[14]
The Village VoiceB+[15]

Slayer released Reign in Blood on October 7, 1986. It was the band's first album to be on the Billboard 200. This is an American music chart. It was number 94 on the music chart.[16] The album was also number 47 on the UK Albums Chart.[17] In 1992, the RIAA gave the album a gold certification.[18]

Reign in Blood got good reviews from many music magazines. Steve Huey, a music critic from AllMusic, wrote that the album was a "classic". He also said that the album helped make death metal.[10] Clay Jarvis from Stylus Magazine said that it was "the greatest metal album of all time".[14] Kerrang! said it was the "heaviest album of all time".[19] The magazine put Reign in Blood on a list of the 100 best heavy metal albums.[20] In 2006, Metal Hammer said it was the "best metal album of the last 20 years".[21] In 2017, Rolling Stone ranked the album number 6 on a list of the "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".[22]

Track listing

No. TitleLyricsMusic Length
1. "Angel of Death"  Jeff HannemanHanneman 4:51
2. "Piece by Piece"  Kerry KingKing 2:03
3. "Necrophobic"  Hanneman, KingHanneman, King 1:40
4. "Altar of Sacrifice"  KingHanneman 2:50
5. "Jesus Saves"  KingHanneman, King 2:54
6. "Criminally Insane"  Hanneman, KingHanneman, King 2:23
7. "Reborn"  KingHanneman 2:12
8. "Epidemic"  KingHanneman, King 2:23
9. "Postmortem"  HannemanHanneman 3:27
10. "Raining Blood"  Hanneman, KingHanneman 4:17
1998 re-issue bonus tracks
No. TitleLyricsMusic Length
11. "Aggressive Perfector[]"  Hanneman, KingHanneman, King 2:30
12. "Criminally Insane" (Remix)"  Hanneman, KingHanneman, King 3:18
^  "Aggressive Perfector" was shorter and had clearer production than the version on the reissue of the EP Haunting the Chapel. The reissue also fixed a problem with some CD pressings which incorrectly set the beginning of "Raining Blood" into the blank pause in "Postmortem".[23]

Charts and certifications

Charts

Chart (1986) Peak
position
US Billboard 200[24] 94
Chart (1987) Peak
position
UK Albums (OCC)[25] 47
Irish Albums (IRMA)[26] 80
Chart (2009) Peak
position
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[27] 264
Chart (2022) Peak
position
Polish Albums (ZPAV)[28] 48

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
United States (RIAA)[29] Gold 500,000^

^shipments figures based on certification alone
xunspecified figures based on certification alone

Reign In Blood Media

  • Lombardo (pictured) on departing Slayer: "I wasn't making any money. I think I had just gotten married, and I figured if we were gonna be doing this professionally—on a major label—I wanted my rent and utilities paid."

  • "Raining Blood" and "Angel of Death" were played at almost every show.

Sources

  1. ↑ Touring Blood, Decibel Magazine, April 2008, Page 57
  2. ↑ "Lostprophets scoop rock honours". BBC News. August 25, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5282780.stm. Retrieved January 10, 2007. 
  3. ↑ Rocklist.net NME: The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time : October 2013
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 "An exclusive oral history of Slayer". Decibel Magazine. Archived from the original on October 20, 2006. Retrieved January 3, 2007.
  5. ↑ Ferris, D.X. (2008). "Recording Blood". Reign in Blood. 33⅓. Continuum. p. 89. ISBN 978-1-4411-3241-3.
  6. ↑ Huey, Steve. "Reign in Blood – Slayer". AllMusic. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
  7. ↑ La Briola, John (July 22, 2004). "Slay Ride". Westword.com. Archived from the original on November 9, 2014. Retrieved April 4, 2007.
  8. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: LoudWire. "Slayer's Tom Araya - Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction?". YouTube. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  9. ↑ Schaffner, Lauryn (October 7, 2019). "Slayer's 'Reign in Blood': 10 Facts Only Superfans Would Know". Loudwire.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Huey, Steve. "Slayer – Reign in Blood". AllMusic. Archived from the original on October 14, 2014. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  11. ↑ Lawson, Dom. "Slayer: Reign in Blood vinyl reissue – review". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 21, 2013. Retrieved December 9, 2013.
  12. ↑ Russell, Xavier (October 2, 1986). "Blood Feast". Kerrang!. Vol. 130. London, UK: United Magazines Ltd. p. 18.
  13. ↑ Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (2004). The Rolling Stone Album Guide. New York City, New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 741–742. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. rolling stone slayer album guide.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Jarvis, Clay (September 1, 2003). "Reign in Blood". Stylus Magazine. http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/slayer/reign-in-blood.htm. Retrieved April 7, 2007. 
  15. ↑ Christgau, Robert (March 31, 1987). Christgau's Consumer Guide. New York. http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv3-87.php. Retrieved April 28, 2013. 
  16. ↑ Illegal name entered slayer/slayer/chart "Artist Chart History". Billboard.com. http://www.billboard.com/artist/Illegal name entered slayer/slayer/chart. Retrieved March 25, 2007. 
  17. ↑ "Slayer's 1985–1986 discography". Rockdetector.com. Archived from the original on March 2, 2007. Retrieved January 1, 2007.
  18. ↑ "RIAA – Artist Slayer". RIAA.com. Archived from the original on June 26, 2007. Retrieved February 14, 2007.
  19. ↑ "Lostprophets scoop rock honours". BBC News. August 25, 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5282780.stm. Retrieved January 10, 2007. 
  20. ↑ Russell, Xavier (January 21, 1989). "Slayer 'Reign in Blood'". Kerrang!. Vol. 222. London, UK: Spotlight Publications Ltd.
  21. ↑ "Golden Gods Awards Winners". Metal Hammer. June 13, 2006. http://www.metalhammer.co.uk/news/article/?id=44410. Retrieved January 10, 2007. 
  22. ↑ Grow, Kory (June 21, 2017). "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone (Wenner Media LLC). https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-100-greatest-metal-albums-of-all-time-w486923/anthrax-among-the-living-1987-w486946?. Retrieved June 22, 2017. 
  23. ↑ "Slayer (US) — Reign in Blood". Metal-archives.com. Retrieved 5 January 2007.
  24. ↑ "Slayer Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard.
  25. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
  26. ↑ "Irish-charts.com – Discography Slayer". Hung Medien. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
  27. ↑ レイン・イン・ブラッド – スレイヤー – Oricon Style. http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/97164/products/830913/1/. 
  28. ↑ "Oficjalna lista sprzedaży :: OLiS - Official Retail Sales Chart". OLiS. Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  29. ↑ "American album certifications – Slayer – Reign in Blood". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH



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