Classic Album Review : Slayer - Hell Awaits (1985)
Everyone loves Slayer. They’re the de facto forefathers of extreme metal and a paragon of integrity. Even if they were never the most extreme, there's a strong chance your favorite extreme band was influenced by them. Not everyone loves Slayer the same way, though. It has become trendy in recent years to claim their sophomore album Hell Awaits is the best thing they’ve ever done. Although I love that record, I believe it's an extremely weird claim to make. It’s great, but it’s not very Slayer-y.
Hell Awaits starts with the iconic title song: a whopping six minutes epic that consists in three minutes of marching riffs and three more minutes of a straightforward thrash metal song where frontman Tom Araya ends his choruses with a low, ghoulish "Hell Awaaaits" that gives the song its identity. It's so over-the-top Slayer that it almost feels like a parody. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome. But it’s still Slayer figuring out what they’re good at and speed was never a crucial component of their sound.
What made Slayer so great are the atmospheric and creative riffs of Jeff Hanneman and the metric fuckton of anger in Tom Araya’s voice. They’re featured in the title song, but it's not structured around these elements. It's more of a conventional thrash metal song. Hell Awaits is more of a conventional thrash metal record period. The follow up to the title song Kill Again follows the same exact model, except that the riffs don’t have that crunchy, satisfying unholiness to them at the beginning.
Kill Again is a song about a nondescript serial killer, a recurring theme in Tom Araya's imaginary. He's done it better a couple years down the line on though on songs like Dead Skin Mask and 213. This is an even more conventional eighties thrash metal song than its predecessor with the galloping riffs and Kerry King's high flying solo. It's good, but other bands like Kreator or Destruction have recorded songs like this. What makes Slayer so much fun is that they’re catchy and unique. Kill Again is neither.
The other classic on Hell Awaits is At Dawn They Sleep, which is, in my opinion, the most interesting song on the record. It’s a fast song, but it doesn’t have the breakneck pace of the two former. The riff has more breathing room also and complements Tom Araya’s more dramatic performance well. It’s a proper boogeyman song. One that must’ve kept Tipper Gore awake at night in the PMRC era. Tom Araya was always a teddy bear, but he could turn out the freakiest vocal performances.
Also, At Dawn They Sleep has the coolest drum outro. Who the fuck does a drum outro, hun? Slayer were so quirky and weird.
The fourth song Praise of Death picks up where Kill Again left off with the breakneck pace. It also reminds me of Chemical Warfare from Haunting the Chapel, without the ghastly imagery and the oddly catchy and complicated chorus. It’s a badass, in-your-face thrash metal song that features a whole lot of shredding by Kerry King and a vivid storytelling. There's a lot of cool tempo shifts too. There’s a groovy part in the middle and it almost grinds to a halt before speeding up again for the finale.
Necrophiliac is another quintessential cut from Hell Awaits. It’s a ghastly song about fucking the dead and I mean that in the best possible way. Slayer weren’t really promoting having intercourse with the deceased. This song is a call to rebellion. To trace a line in the sand and make a statement about what kind of person you are and, more important, what kind of person you want to be. Not necessarily become the titular necrophiliac, but make people forever look at you different.
Crypts of Eternity is another song from Hell Awaits I really enjoy. It’s the longest song of the record at close to seven minutes. It has a killer, super literate chorus that acts as a call to arms. Tom Araya might’ve not had the literary reference of Bruce Dickinson, but that guy could tell an elaborate story with the best of them. Jeff Hanneman’s crunchy, groovy riffs give Crypts of Eternity and identity that other songs on Hell Awaits simply don’t have. Kerry King’s solo is more attuned to the atmosphere.
It’s one blasphemous, weirdo proto-proggy banger.
The closer Hardening of the Arteries stands out for one simple reason: the absolute killer instrumental outro that starts 90 seconds from the ending. I don’t care for the first part of the song, really. I would’ve put just that and maybe would’ve skipped giving it a title. That’s how badass this outro is. Mid-tempo, with Dave Lombardo’s ritual drumming taking over Tom Araya as the main storytelling device. It’s a perfect, terrifying ending to a record that was meant to scare the well-thinking.
*
Hell Awaits is very good, but it’s not quite a Slayer record. Kerry King himself said in interview that it was a Mercyful Fate ripoff. It’s the sound of a band figuring out their place as pop culture boogeymen. In my opinion it’s where they honed their atmospheric and storytelling chops. It’s a grimy, scary record full of horror movie scares. Slayer would do it better in the following decade. It’s not a knock on Hell Awaits. It’s a testimony of how good and ridiculously versatile they were as a thrash metal unit.
