Slayer - Christ Illusion (American Recordings)
When I first listened to this I have to be honest and say that I thought
that it was the absolute WORST Slayer release out of their entire
discography. But upon repeated listens to and reading over the lyrics this
album has seemed to grow on me. I'll always deem "Reign In Blood" to be
their overall best album ever but "Christ Illusion" isn't that bad even
though to me in the first couple of listens I thought that they sounded
tired, lacked innovation, and overall 10 boring tracks.
Some people have blatantly uttered that Araya's vocals are their worst ever.
I disagree with that he's 45 and to me still kicking ass with his
vocals/bass efforts. He still utters aggressive vocals to these hate filled
lyrics written mostly by Kerry King as are pretty much all of the songs.
Araya to me will always be a kick ass front-man for Slayer. Not only does he
scream relentlessly there is some variety in the vocals in that there are
some spoken words and less aggressive throat when appropriate.
Both guitarists sound like they slowed down some on their leads. . Hanneman
used to be more technical and I remember reading a Slayer article years ago
that he said he wanted it to be written on the songs whose lead was whose so
that there wouldn't be any confusion as to who to me was better in this
department. Jeff would probably hate to hear that I'm saying this but it
seems that he's slowed down some. Kerry is at about the same that he's been
but a bit slowed down as well.
The fact that Dave Lombardo is still behind the drum set will always be a
great commodity to Slayer because to me he's always seemed to layout the
best drum tracks more so than Paul Bostaph ever has been able to put forth.
On this release the drum tracks are a bit slowed down just to mesh well with
the guitar tracks. He was right though back in the 80's (with a few caveats)
when he said that Slayer will never change their style of music.
The guitars here are tuned down some making the tracks seem a little heavier
even though the tempos are less intense. There are some songs on here that
start off sounding pretty weak which then end up to actually dominate! One
example here is the track "Cult". It starts off with a muddy slow slightly
distorted guitar but ends up being a pretty kick ass song rhythmically. Of
course also Araya utters some anti-Christian lyrics on this song as well.
I think that the future of Slayer writing more than 2-3 albums following
this release are slim. Araya already uttered his age (45) and that Slayer is
going to call it quits soon. "Christ Illusion" is their 9th studio release
so yes they are aging but the legacy of Slayer will always live on. They've
for the most part have stayed true to their thrash Metal roots and
anti-Christian stance on songwriting even though they are not Satanists.
What I'd like to utter lastly would be that with Rick Rubin's help on the
production the songs have been well laid out as in most previous releases as
well. My favorite tracks would have to be: "Flesh Storm", "Skeleton Christ",
"Catatonic" and "Catalyst". Get this release and to hear some kick ass
Thrash Metal!!!
Rating: 7.5/10.