Tom was not the first to employ a harsh vocal style (Venom, Black Flag), but he absolutely did it better than anyone else at the time. Tom’s trademark yelling here has become something often imitated, and I daresay it was many people’s introduction to harsher vocal styles. No music sounded this dark and melodic at this time any other bands attempting the evil schtick relied on purely being noisy and chaotic with little technique (Venom, Hellhammer).Īnd then there’s the vocals. Wailing, screaming guitars walked the line between melodic and chaotic, bringing a perfect harmony of very catchy riffs and a dark, harrowing mood. Slayer doesn’t just deliver riffs – they deliver evil riffs. You think Paranoid had great riffs? Number of the Beast? They were all lacking something. I’d guess only some Jazz and the best Prog Rock drummers had the level of chops Dave put on this album back in 1983. The speed and technique of the drumming here had never been seen in metal before. Tremolo guitar picking has never been this fast. Speed? We had Metallica, but they’d only go into overdrive on a couple songs – and even then, it never matched Slayer. Absolutely nothing was this insane – not even close. I’ve always loved Slayer, this album being among my favorite releases by them, but it becomes so much more amazing when compared to the contemporaries at the time.
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