These California guys been around since ’81 and they pretty much perfected the art of making your ears bleed in the best possible way. Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman started this beast with Tom Araya on bass/vocals and Dave Lombardo on drums, and man, they knew what they were doing from the get go. Part of the “big four” of thrash alongside Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax, but honestly these dudes might just be the most brutal of the bunch.
Now, Reign in Blood from ’86 is basically the album that showed everyone how fast and heavy you could really go without completely losing your mind. This thing clocks in at just under 29 minutes and it hits you like a freight train full of razor blades. The opener “Angel of Death” is just insane, that riff, Araya’s screams, the whole thing is a complete paradigm shift that still sounds fresh today. Yeah, the lyrics are about nazi doctor Josef Mengele which got them in hot water, but they were just holding up a mirror to some seriously dark shit in history. Then you got “Raining Blood” which is probably their most famous track and for good reason, that harmonic rage will make your neck hurt just thinking about it. The thing builds up with this anathematic intensity that’s just pure thrash perfection.
What makes this album work so well is how it ditched the cartoonish satan stuff from their earlier records and went for real, uncomfortable subjects, serial killers, disease, the worst parts of humanity that most bands wouldn’t touch. Every word coming out of Araya’s mouth is crystal clear even through all that aggressive chaos, which makes the impact hit that much harder. The whole thing is basically 28 minutes of pure, distilled anger that’s been unmatched in metal since. When it’s over, the only thing you can do is play the damn thing again.
If you’re into heavy music at all, this is essential listening. It’s not just an influential album, it’s the blueprint for extreme metal that everyone’s been trying to copy for decades. Pure brutal efficiency that’ll rearrange your face.