Slayer

Hell Awaits (1985)

Hell Awaits in a word: monolithic. Slayer progress past their NWOBHM roots through longer phrasing, and added ambient stylings. They also add an increase in speed and intensity to their palette. They still however maintain the sheer power of the format in some of its purest forms (ie fixating choral arrangements) and are all the better for this fact. Hell Awaits adds an increasing awareness of song architecture, experimentation of tone and texture and an overwhelming encompassing of death in their work to expand their arsenal to almost epic proportions; this is perhaps the biggest step forwards in recorded Metal history. Slayer also incorporate pummelling, but steady percussive work to their array, and use this as a foundation for ambience in their compositions. Chromatism is also a post-heavy metal inclusion, and it is used to breed the chaos necessary to expand and spread the virus of a new era. Their melodic sense is also heightened, and especially noticeable is a new patience, which is very noticeable after back to back listens of Show No Mercy. 

This is basically the start of Metal's quest to (inadvertently) deconstruct past musical theory, apply it in new nihilistic senses and create works celebrating the silent abandon of the night. The rock pretence of heroes (sexual macho-warriors, their swords, bikers and groupies) is abandoned and replaced by blood-sucking creatures of the night. Hail.

Reign in Blood (1986)

Reasons for liking this album could not be, at least for this writer, purely technical or rational. The album excels at creating the intensity of death metal through linking of phrases, frequently suspending momentum at will and maintaining rage within tightly focused structures. At times it is a vivid blur of motion, like a fleeting moment of life before the eyes as death gains a stranglehold. At others it is an orgy of violence and rampant disregard for morality and social taboo. Slayer had an uncanny knack for turning blistering speed metal passages into melodic works of (flesh-like) art. The Will to Power reigns supreme in this carnal version of music.