480. Slayer / Hell Awaits. 1985. 4.5/5

When Slayer began its syndicated attempt to take over the metal world, they didn’t leave anything in the tank in their initial foray into the recording side of their existence. Their debut album “Show No Mercy” came out in December of 1983, and was financed entirely by vocalist and bass guitarist Tom Araya who was employed at the time as a respiratory therapist and money borrowed from Kerry King’s father. The success of that album led to the recording and release of an EP “Haunting the Chapel” in June 1984, which contained three new tracks that the band had already been playing live anyway. From here, the band released their first live album, “Live Undead”, recorded in October 1984 and released in November 1984. In the space of just 12 months, Slayer had released a studio album, a follow up EP and a live album. They certainly weren’t allowing the grass to grown under their feet.
With so much initial success - “Show No Mercy” had become Metal Blade Records highest selling release – there was an attitude of wanting to once again strike while the iron was hot. This time around Brian Slagel financed the album, and hired more professional assistance for the studio to capture the true essence of the band. Drummer Dave Lombardo in particular felt that the sophomore album was done more professionally than the first. "I didn't have to overdub the cymbals, and we had a really good engineer”, he was quoted as saying later on. However, Tom Araya was not of the same opinion. In an interview some years later he was quoted as "Nowadays, production-wise, it's so under par. But for what it was at the time, those are amazing records to me. I guess we could go in and redo it. But why ruin it?"
Coming off 12 months of recording and gigging, Slayer had a lot of influences that they could take on when it came to composing songs for their sophomore effort. And as amazing as their first album had been, and as influential and foundation building their next album would become, what was laid down here at Eldorado Studio in Los Angeles in early 1985 saw a progression that would be as important to the thrash metal genre as any other release in that year. Arguably, in any year.

With only seven tracks and a little over 37 minutes long, expecting a long review of this album here is probably not something that is going to happen. But making a study of the opening title track is absolutely something that is worthwhile, because the triumph of the track is that it contains everything that is great about the era of the band. That opening fade in of squealing guitars, almost making you think of screaming souls in hell, with the backwards masking spoken word of “join us” which to me has always sounded like “sell your heart”, is a terrific opening, before the final growl of “welcome back” heralds the opening tom hit followed by that opening riff and rolling drum beat that builds and flows like a well-oiled machine. The entire three minutes that starts the album gives you no idea as to what is going to follow, the tempo steady and not overpowering, allowing the music to drag you in. And then, the break, and then, the cascading over the falls into the pure speed metal adrenaline that follows, with Tom Araya barely able to keep up in singing Kerry King’s lyrics as the band tears it up. The speed does not relent in the back half of the song, crashing into the solo guitar break as well which drives to the close of the song. This is the opening track of Slayer’s sophomore album, and yet it remains one of their best, most popular and most iconic songs. It captures the essence of the band, the speed at which they were at their best, the aggression and power, and yet the amazing technicality with which they played. Just an awesome song, and it never fails to deliver.
The speed and aggression continue into “Kill Again”, picking up from the end of the previous track and starting in overdrive. There is no let up throughout as the band rifle through another wonderfully paced song that again showcases those excellent riffing guitars and Lombardo’s crazed drumming. Tom Araya’s scream towards the end of the track is like hell unleashed, a forerunner to how the opening song of the next album would be introduced. That high pitched scream that follows the supersonic guitar solos is insane and adds greatly to the enjoyment of the song. Deranged psychotic killer is replaced by vampiric tendencies in “At Dawn They Sleep”. The progressive nature of some of these songs is an elemental piece of this album, and this song is one of those examples. It has been quoted as coming from the love of the band Mercyful Fate by both Hannemann and King. Mercyful Fate had by this time released their first two albums, and you can hear where parts of this album could easily have been influenced by them. “At Dawn They Sleep” in particular has those elements that King Diamond and his merry bands of mercenaries incorporated into their music. It closes out the first side of the album, all three songs of it, in a terrific conjuring of the dark and satanic.
“Praise of Death” treads a more traditional path of Slayer song, if you consider ‘traditional’ coming from a similar style as to what they produced on their only other studio album to this date. Fast to the point of overkill, with screaming guitar solos from Hanemann and King that shatter out of the speakers, and a terrific rumbling sound of Araya’s bass guitar holding fort underneath. Then the breakdown in the middle, before Lombardo’s drums drive the song to the peak of the movie Spaceball’s ‘ludicrous speed’ once again to play out to the end of the track. Another terrific track. “Necrophiliac” follows this, and though the lyrics conjuring up the satanic rituals and sinful lusting of the protagonist of the song may not be everyone’s cup of tea, the song itself is another encapsulating of the best parts of the band. Those satanic rituals continue in the lyrics of “Crypts of Eternity”, along with the ripping solo breaks from King and Hanneman which are the real highlight of this track. The album concludes with “Hardening of the Arteries”, an almost mirror reverse of the opening track, starting off at top speed of riff and drums and vocals, blazing through the first half of the song, before hitting the wall and coming in with the opening riff and rum roll of the opening title track, which then plays us to a fade out to complete the album. It is the perfect bookend and even allows you to turn the album over and continue that on once again into the start of the opening track without missing a beat. And the never-ending loop begins again.

Listening to this album in a modern light, against modern heavy metal bands and Slayer albums themselves, and comparing it against modern production techniques and advancements, and you would wonder why people saw this as such a radical employment of musicianship. By today’s standards it sounds quite tame. As Tom Araya suggested in his quote I used in the opening stanza, perhaps the band could have gone in and re-recorded it and utilised a better production sound to enhance its reputation. But is that ultimately true? Perhaps it doesn’t sound as threatening as these songs do when they are played live, but that is the environment where you can ramp things up anyway. “Hell Awaits” was always going to be a song that was a live monster. But isn’t the same thing said about the production sound of “Hell Awaits” as is also said about Iron Maiden’s debut album, of Metallica’s “Kill ‘Em All”, Exodus’s “Bonded by Blood”, Armored Saint’s “March of the Saint” and Megadeth’s “Killing is My Business, and Business is Good!”. All sound less polished than each band’s later albums, but in the long run that is a combination of differing recording techniques being used as technology improves, and also the fact that the band’s themselves improved out of sight. So yes, listening to “Hell Awaits” might not be the same as what you hear from the band on their following albums, but it is still terrific all the same.
I didn’t come onto Slayer until 1989, initially through the two albums that followed this one, “Reign in Blood” and “South of Heaven”, and more fully with the release of “Seasons in the Abyss” in 1990. The centralising of Slayer’s albums into my own collection all occurred during that time, with this one being a part of that. So, the discovery of Slayer’s discography, that being the first five albums that had been released up until that point, all came together in a short space of time, and thus my listening to all of those albums al came as a conglomerate. And in that kind of situation, my enjoyment of this album could have gone two ways. It could have been dragged along with all of the great music that Slayer produced on those albums, and I could have loved it as a part of the whole. Or it could have got buried under albums that have been praised for their legendary status since their release, and perhaps be tarnished by the slightly inferior production or lyrics or songs themselves.
I can guarantee you here that it was definitely the first option and not the second.
“Hell Awaits” is a great album. I have had it running for a little over a week now – a bit longer than has been the case for recent albums – and I haven’t tired of it. Part of that perhaps is its length, but each time I start it again, I am met with the title track, and how can you not want to hear that over and over again?! And on vinyl at home in the Metal Cavern, it has been superb.
Of Slayer’s 12 studio albums, this is really hard to rank, but mainly because so many of their albums are equally as good as the others. It can be as high as four and as low as seven or eight, depending on the mood. As a classic, and as an album I discovered reasonably early on, I think it is probably ranked at #5. But that would be a conversation worth having with other fans.
As terrific as this album is, what came next is legendary. Three albums that defined a genre and a generation at a time when thrash and heavy metal music dominated half a decade and created fans that would last a lifetime. “Hell Awaits” of course is a part of that, but the next three albums created a legend.