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Class 6(66)

Slayer: Divine intervention

15/04/06  ||  Statik Majik

Released: 1994

Introduction

Discuss Slayer with anyone and you’ll eventually end up arguing over the following question: “What is the best Slayer album?” Unfortunately there’s as many answers for it as there are people debating. In most cases the answer lies in Slayer’s catalogue from the eighties. “Hell awaits”, “Reign in blood”, “South of heaven” or for some even something as “new” as “Seasons in the abyss”. And each person is more than eager to defend his opinion and call others “untrue” or whatever word is “in” at the moment to describe their loathe to others that don’t have the slightest understanding about The True Essence of Metal TM. Well, guess what? I don’t even own any pre-1990’s Slayer albums. And I’m more than happy that I don’t. So what could my favourite Slayer album be..?

Songwriting

10. Top fucking notch. Here’s one of those albums where everything just “clicks”. A textbook-example of perfect composing and arrangement. The best tracks are “Sex. Murder. Art” and “213”. I wonder why I always end up liking songs about serial killers/killing the most.

Production

8. Not anything overwhelmingly special, but I don’t find a single thing to complain about either.

Guitars

10. Fucking Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Really, what else did you expect? ( Note by the Lord: A little sobered-up Statik Majik perhaps? )

Vocals

8. For a very long time I found it very difficult to like Tom Araya’s voice and it’s always been the major reason why I didn’t enjoy listening to Slayer in the 80’s. It wasn’t until they released “Seasons in the abyss” when I got over it and noticed that he actually does more than a good job. At least on “Seasons in the abyss”. Well, that’s how I felt back then. And then they released “Divine intervention” and I was sold. Araya gives his best performance on “Divine intervention”. The “God is dead – I’m alive” -line that ends “Sex. Murder. Art.” is nearly priceless. The emotion Tom manages to get in that single sentence is stunning. And don’t even get me started how fucken well he delivers the moody/creepy feeling in “213”.

Bass

7. It’s there. You can hear it and it’s well played. The thing is, in most cases the bass isn’t even supposed to be the main attention of the listener.

Drums

8. Paul Bostaph does more than a good job delivering pure fucken energy to the album.

Lyrics

8. War, chaos, politics, religion, serial killers… It’s fucking Slayer, you know. They’ve dealt with all these topics before and after “Divine intervention” and do you really think they’ve suddenly changed, just for this album? Exactly. And fortunate to all of us, they write damn well about these issues.

Cover art

10. Skull/skeleton/pentagram -hybrid by no less than Wes Benscoter. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but how much more metal can you get? It’s nice, clean and simple. And I adore it.

Logo

8. Not that it would be the best looking band-logo around but it definitely is one of the most known ones. And they’ve kept the same logo through all these years. Every fucken metalhead can draw it, even in their sleep. Effective branding to say the least.

Booklet

8. Band pics, cut-outs from newspapers and the lyrics. Honestly, there’s not much more to say about it. Looks mighty fine and does the trick more than well.

Overall and ending rant

9. For all the reasons above, and then some, I consider this to be The Best Slayer Album ever. I know there’s probably not many (or any at all) people out there who agree with me, but do you think I care?

Feel free to disagree. You know where you can share your comments: Global Domination forums ( requires registration ).

Class 6(66) -reviews

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