Home Read Classic Album Review: Slayer | God Hates Us All

Classic Album Review: Slayer | God Hates Us All

Just listening to the thrash kings' dozenth black mass will probably send you to Hell.

This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):

 


Well, maybe He does — but I’m farily sure God hates Slayer just a little more than the rest of us.

After all, these California speed-demons have spent two decades working to bring about his downfall. And God Hates Us All, their dozenth black mass, finds the fearsome foursome once again committing every musical sin in the Good Book. Sin No. 1: The nail-pierced and blood-spattered Bible on the original uncensored cover. Sin No. 2: Lyrics like “I keep the Bible in a pool of blood so that none of its lies can affect me” — one of the album’s more light-hearted couplets. Sins No. 3 – 2,400: Every second of this hellacious 40-minute musical assault, whose 13 soul-destroying invocations of unquenchable blood-lust lean more toward the psychotic frenzy of Reign in Blood than the bludgeoning trauma of South of Heaven. Add it all up, and just listening to this album will send you to Hell. Actually, if you’ve even read this far, chances are you’re doomed. As far as I’m concerned, though, if Hell’s jukebox is full of Slayer, crank up the lake of fire a few degrees for me.