“But is it really Slayer, though?”, asks a man in a cardigan, sipping herbal tea from the comfort of his rocking chair. Of course it's Slayer!
Eleven albums in. Over thirty years under their belts. Have they mellowed with 'Repentless'? Don't be stupid. Tom Araya is the angriest 54-year-old Catholic in Heaven, Hell or between, yelling, “We're killing ourselves a little more every daaaaaay!” on the title-track. It's rabid. It's relentless. It's fuckin' Slayer.
But they've done the thrash thing. Jeff Hanneman – Lemmy bless his soul – was the greatest musician to ever incite circular movement. And he's gone. Gimli stunt double Kerry King handles the bulk of the songwriting and it's not just twelve songs of unadulterated speed. No, really.
There's dollops of mid-tempo stuff going on here, with the gleeful Vices stomping along like a lost 'South Of Heaven' track blasted through a flux-capacitor. Pride In Prejudice follows a similar template and 'Repentless' soon starts sounding like the natural successor to 'Seasons In The Abyss', rather than the two decades of dicking about which actually followed.
The thrashers are still here in full force. The Hanneman-penned Piano Wire starts at an oozing thud before building into an utterly triumphant Gary Holt guitar solo; we already know Paul Bostaph is a king behind the drumkit, but to hear Holt earn his stripes on a Slayer record is glorious. Chasing Death and the abysmally-titled Atrocity Vendor are also sure to get heads a-banging and beers a-chugging.
When The Stillness Comes is a tad complacent compared to the other mid-tempo stuff enveloping it, and Take Control's average refrain is saved by superb Bostaph drum fills and flourishes. Then again, it's Slayer. Their template only enables them to veer so far. This was bound to happen. At just over forty minutes, though, the record never plunges down a particular rabbit hole too long before returning for the thrash attack. The aural drop kick. The sonic evisceration.
A few tracks aside, 'Repentless' is a vicious bastard. King's still tremolo picking like he's been frozen in Carbonite and asked to write his name down, Araya's lost none of his bile-flecked enunciation and the new kids have slotted in seamlessly. This isn't the perfect Slayer record but it's proven that, while they are the Satanic equivalent to AC/DC and Motörhead, they are a band far from spent.
Slayer Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows
Sat November 21 2015 - NEWPORT Newport Centre
Sun November 22 2015 - PLYMOUTH Plymouth Pavilions
Tue November 24 2015 - MANCHESTER O2 Apollo
Wed November 25 2015 - GLASGOW O2 Academy Glasgow
Fri November 27 2015 - BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy Birmingham
Sat November 28 2015 - LEEDS O2 Academy Leeds
Mon November 30 2015 - LONDON O2 Academy Brixton
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