Hell Awaits
| Hell Awaits | ||||
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| Studio album by Slayer | ||||
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Publication |
1985 |
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| Label (s) | Metal Blade Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
7th |
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running time |
37 min 04 s |
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| occupation |
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Slayer and Brian Slagel |
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Studio (s) |
Eldorado Studios, Hollywood , USA |
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Hell Awaits is the second album by the Californian thrash metal band Slayer and was released on Metal Blade Records in 1985 .
Emergence
Slayer's debut album Show No Mercy was Metal Blade Records' best-selling release, prompting producer Brian Slagel to record another album with the band. As the band had evolved since their debut, the Haunting the Chapel EP could stylistically be previewed, although none of the tracks would appear on Hell Awaits . After Slayer self-financed Show No Mercy , Hell Awaits Slagel did so and also hired several experienced staff to help out in the studio. The album was recorded more professionally than the previous ones , and Dave Lombardo's cymbals didn't have to be overdubbed .
In At Dawn They Sleep vocalist took Tom Araya on songwriting and headed for the first time a part in who is also part of the song was. Gene Hoglan , who visited the band in the studio , was involved in the album intro, which sounds like voices are saying the band name . "The strangest noises grunted into the microphone". Then it was played backwards "because it was our second album", a "welcome back". Araya said in an interview that it was "all a great coincidence". In fact, however, “Join us!” Was included as a backward message; If you play the song backwards, you can hear the message for about a minute and more and more quietly.
Style & content
Musically, the album moves between fast Thrash Metal and medium tempo. The title track Hell Awaits, for example, starts with a slow intro that slowly builds up into a fast song, and Necrophiliac, for example, has many tempo changes. The production is rather poor and has a strong reverberation . The songs on Hell Awaits are longer, more “grinding” and faster than on the previous records. The texts deal with occult and blasphemous topics.
Track list
- Hell Awaits - 6:12
- Kill Again - 4:53
- At Dawn They Sleep - 6:16
- Haunting the Chapel - 3:59 *
- Praise of Death - 5:17
- Necrophiliac - 3:43
- Captor of Sin - 3:31 *
- Crypts of Eternity - 6:37
- Hardening of the Arteries - 3:57
- Bonus tracks on the original Metal Blade Records release (taken from the 1984 Haunting the Chapel EP).
reception
The side TheLeftHandPath.com took Hell Awaits in his list of important to thrash metal albums. Todd DePalma describes the album as a "soundtrack to vampires, spiritual disintegration and corpse-fucking madmen". Complaints about the production and the excessive reverberation are secondary, nothing is as sick as this album. In what was then Rock Hard, Götz Kühnemund spoke of the “deadliest vinyl on this planet so far ”. It chases “one killer riff after another, the bass drums fly and the songs literally explode”. He awarded nine out of ten points.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eric German: BEHIND THE SCREAMS - PART 2. INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN SLAGEL. metalupdate.com, accessed September 2, 2010 .
- ^ A b Vadim Rubin: Slayer . In: Braindamage . No. 1 , 1984, p. 10 (English).
- ^ A b J. Bennett: An exclusive oral history of Slayer. Decibel Magazine, 2006, archived from the original on June 2, 2008 ; accessed on September 2, 2010 (English).
- ↑ Mark Eglinton: The Crypts Of 25 Years: Tom Araya On The Anniversary Of Slayer's Hell Awaits. The Quietus, August 16, 2010, accessed September 6, 2010 .
- ↑ a b Slayer: Tom Araya talks about the past. Metal Hammer, archived from the original on August 23, 2010 ; Retrieved September 5, 2010 .
- ↑ a b The LHP Thrash Metal Primer. TheLeftHandPath.com, February 24, 2009, accessed August 18, 2010 .
- ↑ Götz Kühnemund: Slayer - Hell Awaits. In: Rock Hard. Retrieved March 17, 2011 .