Slayer Albums – The Best Metal Music

This dark and amazing hardcore metal band was formed in 1981 in Huntington, California. To date, they have released a total of 11 Slayer albums. This has made the band put among the best in hard metal music, not only in the United States, but around the world.

The band is as of this writing being made up of Tom Araya at vocals, Jeff Hanneman at guitar, Kerry King also at guitar, and Dave Lombardo on drums. Back in their early days, they would play while wearing various band merch of their favorite rock bands at that time.

Their debut album was titled ‘Show No Mercy’ and it was released on December 1983. It was recorded and released under Metal Blade Records. Because of their very limited budget, the production quality of the album was very poor. However, it performed well and sold around 20,000 copies which was the highest number that Metal Blade Records had ever made at that time. The band decided to go on a tour but they did not earn much from it because of their lack of a capable manager.

In 1985 they released their second album, ‘Hell Awaits’. It was still under Metal Blade Records but this time it was fully financed by the recording company. Their first album was financed by Tom Araya from his personal earnings and also from some money that they borrowed from Kerry King’s dad.

‘Reign in Blood’ is the third of the Slayer albums and their first ever collaboration with a major record label producer in the person of Rick Rubin of Def Jam Recordings. It was released on October 7, 1986 and their first album to enter the Billboard 200. It was then that demand for their Slayer merch got started.

‘South of Heaven’ was released on July 5, 1988 and was notable for the slowing down in tempo of the band’s songs which was not well received by critics at that time. It also reached the Billboard 200 and eventually became a certified gold record album.

It was followed in October 9, 1990 by the ‘Seasons in the Abyss’ album which they recorded with American Recordings. This time the album got better reviews from the critics as compared to their previous album.

On September 27, 1994 the band released their sixth studio album titled ‘Divine Intervention’. It was the first album that featured Paul Bostaph on drums after their long time drummer, Dave Lombardo, decided to leave.

They released their next album, ‘Undisputed Attitude’, on the 28th of May, 1996 which was a collection of punk cover songs featuring the artists that they claimed to had influenced their style. These include Minor Threat, D.R.I. and Iggy Pop.

‘Diabolus in Musica’ which means ‘The Devil in Music’, it is considered to be the group’s most experimental work. It was released on June 9, 1998 and featured songs written mostly by Jeff Hanneman.

On September 11, 2001, coinciding with the terrorist attacks in the United States, the band released ‘God Hates Us All’. It caused some controversy for the band for the timing of the launch. It was also the last time that Paul Bostaph played with them.

Their next album, ‘Christ Illusion’, was a great success. Not only did it receive good reviews, but it also got the highest ranking for the band in the Billboard 200. It ranked at no. 5.

‘World Painted Blood’ was the tenth and the most recent of the Slayer albums and was released on November 3, 2009 under American Recordings/Sony Music. The album received positive reviews from the critics and again an entrant for the band to the Billboard 200.