The release of a new Slayer is one of those moments when grown up men turn into a bunch of complaining kids. One guy says it is not fast enough, another one finds it a disgrace to the band that delivered “Reign in Blood”, someone else finds the guitar sound to be too thin, and there is always the dude who digs up the names of bands that “play thrash metal that is way more adequate of the times” whatever this might mean… Oh, God, he who listens to Slayer!
“World Painted Blood” is as good of a Slayer record as you’d get by this band in this day and age. The dudes have taken the skeleton of “Christ Illusion” and combined it with their not so bad idea from back in 88 that there are other playing speeds than insanely fast, that later resulted in “South of Heaven”. And the result is, at least for me, their most exiting offering since “Seasons in the Abyss”.
For example, the opening title track is not the fastest thing ever to come out of this band. But what happens around the 3:20 mark as surprising for Slayer as it is, is one of those musical moments that get stuck in your head for good. The punching slow moments come again in the middle of “Beauty through Order” when some mid-tempo riffing kicks in and you remember classics like “Ghosts of War”.
Before the album was available, Slayer had said (like every other band on the face of the Earth!) that their new album will be a combination of everything they have done so far. And so, we also have some insanely fast songs like “Public Display of Dismemberment” and the already well known “Psychopathy Red”.
The album is produced by Greg Fidelman and Rick Rubin. So – it sounds like Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” and this means a lot of people will complain about the sound. Some of the songs this time around have been finished in the studio, instead of being completely ready before the band stepped in, and this is a first for Slayer.
Spontaneity often is a good thing, but maybe it is also the reason that moments when things don’t really work out are present here. For example, “Americon” that just fails at grabbing your attention, or “Playing with Dolls” which is like an attempt to make something like “Jihad” with the only difference that it goes nowhere.
Even so this is an album that is going to be listened to quite a lot because it does offer some really cool songs. And is one hell of a Slayer album! So the almost perfect rate I put suits it perfectly!
Verdict: 5.75 / 6
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