1276. Slayer / Live Undead. 1984. 4/5

In December 1983, Slayer had released their debut album “Show No Mercy”, the episode on which you can find on this podcast in Season 5. On the back of this the band began a short tour to promote the album and begin to expand their audience with the album in tow. Then in February of 1994, guitarist Kerry King joined Dave Mustaine’s new band Megadeth. No one really knew what was going on, not even King himself. The other three members of Slayer, bassist and vocalist Tom Araya, guitarist Jeff Hanneman and drummer Dave Lombardo were somewhat in a state of limbo, not knowing whether or not King was going to return to the band or whether they were going to have to go out and find another guitarist. As it turns out, King lasted five gigs in Megadeth before quitting, saying that it was taken up too much of his time. This created some tension between King and Mustaine for years afterwards.
By mid-1984 Slayer had recorded and released the three track EP “Haunting the Chapel”, with the sound increasing the thrash style that the band was moving towards. More turning followed, and in playing club venues across the US while travelling around in Araya’s Camaro and towing their gear in a rented U-Haul trailer.
On this tour, WBAB Fingers Metal Shop, a radio station, held a contest to meet and hang out with Slayer during a live recording. The album was recorded at Tiki Recording Studios in Glen Cove, NY in front of around a dozen people. The recording was originally intended to be done in front of a live audience, but things didn’t work out as planned. It has been questioned in many areas over the years as to whether the live noise heard on thw album actually took place on the night of the performance. The album’s producer Bill Metoyer was quoted in Joel McIver’s excellent book, “The Bloody Reign of Slayer” when asked about this that, “I don't know if I should tell you [if the crowd noises were faked]! Isn't that one of those great industry secrets? Let's just say that when you're doing a live record, you want live sound — even if perhaps the microphones didn't pick up the audience properly."
In the long run, it is a question that bears little meaning if you enjoy the performance. And given the band had only released one album at this point of their career, it was a perfect way to showcase what the band produced in the live environment, with their first live release “Live Undead”.

“Live Undead” is basically just an EP, with seven tracks in total with the running time a little over 23 minutes, and most of the material comes from the band’s debut album. The exceptions are the excellent “Captor of Sin” which came on the previously mentioned “Haunting the Chapel” EP a few months earlier, and “Aggressive Perfector” which had been on the “Metal Massacre Vol 3” compilation album and was then given a re-release on the future “Reign in Blood” album. Both versions here are absolutely stomping, especially “Captor of Sin” which is a truly fabulous song in the band’s discography.
The album begins with an extended introduction of "Black Magic", which sounds marvellous here as the opener. As with all of the tracks on this album, it is heavier and faster than its studio version, resulting in a much better showing for the song. This segues into the awesome “Die by the Sword” via Tom’s engagement, stating “They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Well, I say fuck the pen, cos you can die by the sword!", and away we go. Another excellent version of a great song. “Captor of Sin” follows, and then into “The Antichrist” which is given its best life by increased tempo. One small thing though – I guess I prefer Tom’s vocals on this track on recordings following this, where he doesn’t go for the high screams in the middle of the chorus, but sticks to the same register throughout. They’re both good but I think it sounds better when he doesn’t overextend the high-pitched screaming. That’s just a personal preference. From here the album moves swiftly through terrific versions of “Evil Has No Boundaries”, “Show No Mercy” and the aforementioned “Aggressive Perfector”, and tops off 23 minutes of velocity and aggression that perfectly encapsulates where Slayer the band was at this stage of their development.

My memory is usually pretty good when it comes to where and when I first heard an album or purchased an album, but I’m not 100% sure of the case with this album. My best guess is that I got this sometime after I first purchased the band’s defining live album “Decade of Aggression” in 1991, because that really blew me away. And I know when I did hear this album, I was trying not to compare versions of songs that appear on both. So that fits with that scenario.
I do know I’ve always enjoyed this album, short as it is. It isn’t as fast and thrashy as “Decade of Aggression” is, and I always thought that that is a great point between 1984 and 1991 with the band, especially considering what the released with “Reign in Blood” in 1986 and how fast the band had progressed in such a short time then. And it only doesn’t get played as often as it could because of its length, that I can go to other lengthened live recordings of the band and get the same experience.
In listening to this again in preparation for this review, I’ve actually listened to it a LOT, because I have been getting to the end of it and thinking “Wow, that’s just too short, I need to listen to that again!” and so I do. And it still holds up to this day, these four kids as they were at the time, still really just starting out, and showing the world (or apparently 12 people in a room) just what they had.
If you are a fan of the band you already own this and know it. If you have not heard it, it is an interesting listen worth 23 minutes of your time. About how long this podcast episode has gone for.