Seasons In The Abyss [Explicit Lyrics]

Metal kings Slayer display their musical abilities on this album rather than just their agressive power.This is not to say that the album is not about thrash because it just just exudes thrash metal magic.Probably the most impressive part of the album is the way that Slayer merge dual lead guitars (unique in a band to my knowledge.The drumming is outstanding and this is coming from a bass player who has minimal skill with regard to drums.It sounds like the drummer might take off if he moved his arms any faster.This speed is matched by the other band members but dont think that they are not in control.Beneath the exterior are four very talented musicians who are incredibly skilled with their instruments.The songs themselves are best listened to end to end.Whereas many bands successfully produce a collection of songs on an album, slayer produce a whole album with pauses between the songs.There have been times i've listened to this and had to check whether i was on the next song or the first was still carrying on after a pause.Highlights for me are Blood Red,Expendable youth,Skeletons of society and the title track.The highlight from the guitar side is Blood red in which Hanneman and King bounce solos back and forth between each other until they play a total of six.The whole album though is fantastic and well worth getting.
To any hardcore fans i may have offended by stating this as the best of slayer i apologise.I have yet to get Reign in blood.

Well, I guess I'll have to be the first to review this superb album. If you're reading this, you probably know already that Slayer were one of the pioneering thrash/speed metal bands in the 80's, whose 1986 album Reign in Blood is often seen as one of the best and most influential metal recordings of all time. That album was known for its extreme speed and utter relentlessness. However, for their 1988 follow-up, South of Heaven, Slayer slowed things down a little and put in a bit more melody. This album was met with mixed opinions from fans of their earlier albums, as some were put off by the new slower tempos. However, Seasons in the Abyss was released in 1990 and was well recieved by fans. It basically fuses together the two previous albums as the mid-tempo grooves of the previous album are mixed with bursts of furious speed. This gives the album more variety than previous works and gives the album a great roller-coaster feel as there are very fast songs such as War ensemble, Hallowed Point and Born of Fire and slower, more melodic (but still heavy!) ones including Expendable Youth, Dead Skin Mask and the tite track. Many songs also contain awesome tempo changes in true slayer style. Every song on the album is great in its own way and the true aggression of Slayer is still here.
One thing that marks it out from earlier Slayer releases is the incresed melody of the solos. Instead of playing fast and frantically to create horrific-sounding solos, the lead breaks are more melodic and focused. Apparently, Kerry king took guitar lessons before the release of the album. It shows, as his excellent leads give new life to the songs. The Hanneman - king guitar tag team is more effective than ever here. Not to mention drummer Dave Lombardo, whose drumming here is just incredible.
Also worth mentioning is the lyrics. Instead of focusing on hell or gruesome death, the band focuses on real life issues such as war, corrupt governments, gangs and the apocalypse. This helps make Seasons Slayer's most mature album to date. That's about it really. It may not be as mercilless and downright scary as Reign in Blood, but it has more variation, melody and maturity whilst still sounding brutal. As for the absence of other reviews, that just shows how poor much of Britain's taste in music is. Stop listening to hip-hop, dance music and other garbage like that, and listen to some proper music!! Bye bye.

Seasons In The Abyss is among my top Slayer records, and indeed my top metal records, as for me its just everything good about Slayer. We get the speed and aggression from Reign and we get the melody and slow heavy crunch from South. Great riffs, superlative drumming, brilliant songs and sick lyrics. We even get Slayer go pop with the title track, which some diehards loathed, but is still a cracking live song today!!

The album opener War Ensemble is as ferocious an opening song as you could possibly wish for and one of the best songs Slayer have ever done. Dead Skin Mask was a song I played over and over and over and the creepy riff just never gets old. Blood Red just makes me think of seeing them live years ago and feeling Lombardos drums thundering in my chest. Unbeatable. I could go on but more eloquant than me have already posted great reviews. Suffice to say this is Slayer still on top of the game. Grunge was about to break and then Nu Metal would really destroy my love of heavy music (and just try to mess everything up in general) and it would be another 20 years before I bought a Slayer album worth having. (Decade of Aggression aside)

A must have!