Where would thrash be without them? Probably in a much more interesting state tbh. I've said this for years and I maintain that opinion to this day, that Slayer and more specifically, Reign in Blood, is not the thrash metal genre at its best. Gun to my head I wouldn't even call it the best Slayer album, I think South of Heaven deserves that spot.

But even with all that said there is still a reason I champion Reign as *one* of the greats of the genre. And that's because while it lacks the technical complexities of a genre I admire to my core, you will not find another album that better defines the raw mission statement of thrash, ie, go fast.

For context, in the mid 80s thrash metal was a fierce competition. Everyone brought something to the table. Anthrax brought the booze and the fun, Metallica the class and technical skill, and of course Megadeth brought the anger and the inferiority complex. Slayer's addition to this mix was speed and atmosphere. Many forget but early Slayer was just as much about sounding *evil* just as much as it was about going fast. It wasn't just lyrics about pentagrams and Satan either, it was dissonant chords and wailing vocals creating truly vile sounding soundscapes.

But for their third album Slayer tossed all that away to razor focus on the speed. It's an artistic move that means one thing: if you're going to focus on speed it better be the fastest damn thing anyone has ever heard. And ya know what? It really is. Reign in Blood is still the thrash metal formula distilled into its bare essentials. Go fast, hammer on that god damn E string, don't stop for even a second, don't think just act go gO GO!!!

The energy is intoxicating. But all that energy would be for naught if the album didn't have good riffs to back it up. Angel of Death is the opener, and it might as well be the best thrash opener ever. No theatrics, no gimmicks just raw, vicious speed and the most vile scream you've ever heard from minute one. Only letting up (as much as this album is able to let up anyway) to style all over you with that absolutely sexy bridge riff. The rest of the tracks all follow a similar formula, not much in the way of structure or style change ups. In fact, the next couple tracks sound like the band wrote a bunch of songs then had an ADHD moment and chopped off the intros and outros just to get to the good parts faster. The one exception being Jesus Saves, my personal favorite track here. It's still one of my favorite intros of all time. I love that chunky dissonance, followed by the marching chug of the dual guitars, then the absolute blast of speed tying it all together. Thrash metal perfection if you ask me. The closer is remembered fondly as well, and why wouldn't it? Again, it's one of the only times the albums eases the brakes, but just a moment as the rainy ambience gives way to the screeching anthemic notes, then the chugging mosh-friendly 2nd leg, only to have your neck absolutely decimated by that main riff. I'm still amazed at how they got that sound. Is it tapping? Is it just tremolo picking? I dunno and I don't care because once it comes on I'm taken away to thrash heaven. It does suck that the song just, you know, ends once it's out of riffs, but I guess for an album that has done nothing but kick your ass for 30 min the last act of ass kicker-y is blue balling you.

So yeah Reign in Blood is good and deserving of praise, but to bring it all back around to my initial point, while Reign in Blood is good, boy did every thrash band take the wrong lessons from it. I hear countless bands worship this album and ONLY this album and all I can do is roll my eyes. We already have the fastest album ever, if you're going to try and out speed it, you won't because at some point you'll just end up writing grindcore. You can't out simplify it cause at some point you'll just end up writing hardcore punk. And you can't out evil it because it's not 1986 anymore and very little is shocking to anyone these days. Hell, Slayer basically tried to remake this album with their post God Hates Us All releases and even they couldn't do it. No, the lessons we learned from Reign is that this is the *starting* point for thrash. This is where you find the ID of the genre. This is what should be in your heart, now show us what's in your brain.