Classic Album Review : Slayer - God Hates Us All (2001)
Any metalhead will tell you, it’s almost impossible not to like Slayer. The tech death dweebs and the power metal nerds will agree to a ceasefire in order to attend one of their shows together. Their unwavering musical integrity, inimitable creative idiom and relentless touring habits over four decades granted them godlike status in metal. Slayer is not just another band. They’ve become a symbol of the genre in popular culture. If you scream “Slayeeeeeeeeer” in public, you might as well be screaming “methuuuuuuuuuuul”.
Although Slayer are consensus all-time greats, you can definitely start a fight when exchanging opinions about their career. Outside of Seasons in the Abyss being unquestionably their best record, there isn’t much their fans agree upon in terms of legacy. Conformists will tell you Reign in Blood is their second best record because it has the strongest songs (Angel of Death and Raining Blood). Hipsters will tell you it’s their 1984 EP Haunting the Chapel. Casuals will tell you whichever album they discovered the band with. I’m here to start some shit and tell you it’s neither.
Slayer’s second best album is the 9/11 released masterpiece God Hates Us All.
In order to better appreciate God Hates Us All, you have to understand the context it emerges from. Coming three years on the heels of their failed nu metal rebranding and lone mistake in their discography Diabolus in Musica, it marks the real beginning of their second era. The one where the guitars were tuned the fuck down and lyrics became less formulaic. Gone was the straight Satan worshipping stuff. The lyrics God Hates Us All are much more pissed off and also oddly much more relatable than on their previous records.
Every variable is cranked way-the-fuck-up in God Hates Us All (or tuned way-the-fuck-down, you get the point). The volume, the anger, the uncompromising delivery. There’s a real sense of commitment to this almost therapeutic seething and screaming session. The intro Darkness of Christ’s moody glitches and washed out Tom Araya howls transition straights into one of Slayer’s greatest bangers Disciple, one of the greatest fuck-you jams ever written. It’s all power chords and rage with an obliterating breakdown at the end, but it shines through its fiery and passionate interpretation nonetheless. Discipline is the lyrical and sonic equivalent to a flamethrower and it has a rightful place in contemporary history as a classic bad day anthem.
You’d think God Hates Us All would work itself to another climax somewhere down the line, but it doesn’t. The very next song God Send Death is just as fucking good and jacked with adrenaline. It just ventures into a different creative idiom. Also quite influenced by hardcore punk, it tackles themes of renouncing to your humanity and becoming a monster. It has this wonderful bridge that launched into the final segment of the song, where Tom Araya chants his lyrics almost like an incantation that textures the previous aggression and gives God Send Death an identity of its own.
There is really not a song I dislike on God Hates Us All. They all flow into one another seamlessly. New Faith and Cast Down are perhaps a little overshadowed because they lead into all-timers like Exile, the mercurial and criminally underrated depiction of insanity Seven Faces and Bloodline, but they are still amazing. Deviance is another highlight of the record. It taps into darker textures and more tortured ideas. Tom Araya’s shrieking delivery on the final chorus really sells the venomous intent of the song.
Closing songs War Zone and Here Comes the Pain are the weakest songs on God Hates Us All, but merely because they don’t have a catchy moment for us to remember them by. The closer Payback is more of a conventional Slayer pleasure with a faster pace and fluid riffing. It’s not as heavy as the rest of the record, but it’s still enjoyable.
Now, God Hates Us All stands out for two reasons: 1) The CRUSHING interpretation. It’s heavier and more over-the-top than anything that ever came before or after it. The guitars are heavier, the drum is more bombastic and ill-intentioned and Tom Araya’s voice is burning with an all-consuming fire more viral than any fucking disease you know. The guys wanted to make a mean-ass record and it fucking worked 2) The more personal themes. Although the title of God Hates Us All is extremely Satanic, you can’t really take it at face value. It’s more of a record about violence, self-control and rebelling against the idea of life itself. Satanism in this context means turning yourself into an avatar of destruction.
I don’t care what you say, God Hates Us All is an all-time great Slayer record. Songwriters Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King channeled universal emotions and Tom Araya funneled his inner violence into his interpretation to create this monolithic force of a record. It might not be the most conventional or technical album you’ve ever heard, but God Hates Us All has a quality other albums don’t: it speaks directly to you, like the deviant voice inside your head.
It’s haunted in the best possible way.
