Midlife Metal Crisis - Top Ten Heavy Metal Albums of the 1980's #3 Slayer - Reign In Blood
In 1986 Slayer signed to Def Jam records. Def Jam at the time were almost exclusively a Hip Hop label and the band swapped from their Metal Blade record label mostly due to Rick Rubin's enthusiasm for the band.
Rubin had previous success with heavy metal stalwarts Run DMC and LL Cool J so Slayer were naturally the next step for the talented producer. What he and Slayer produced is probably the most exciting 29 minutes in recorded history. It fitted onto one side of C60 cassette perfectly, mine had it recorded twice on the same tape so when I finished I could turn it over and listen again.
People listening to reign in blood now would think it was good but maybe miss how momentous this release was. There was nothing like this out at the time and it blew our tiny teenage minds, listening in 1986/7, sharing the tape out to your mates to try and convince them they needed this in their lives. Europe were number 1 in the UK charts and long shaggy hair was on top of the pops. Your mum was singing along to the final countdown and Bon Jovi hits and it turned out she quite liked some of your Iron Maiden records too. She would secretly sing along downstairs as you played them in your bedroom. Not this though. Your Mum didn't like this. She fucking hated this. She also thought you were becoming a Satanist and told you not to leave it out or play it when your Nana was round.
Probably one of the most influential Metal albums of it's time, it's legacy can be heard from Tori Amos (honestly) to the Grindcore/Death Metal bands that followed. I never heard anything else by Slayer that I found as exciting, the follow up South of Heaven was a deliberately slower album. They are still going strong although like all of us they are a little greyer and flabbier.
