Slayer - where to get started?

Some basic things about Slayer: Jeff hanneman was the main songwriter especially for early Slayer. He and Kerry King like to use evil sounding tritones for riff writing, as well as atonal scales for soloing. It makes for a more disturbing than usual sound

 

Time is short. Use it wisely and listen to Peace Sells... or Bonded by Blood instead of any Slayer album. Pantera is only a couple of light beers away from Nickelback.

 

Actually they always opened for someone else (better) when I saw them in concert back in the day. So I'm only familiar with some of their older stuff. But if you want a Slayer CD to sample, I'd say get Reign in Blood.

 

My three favorite albums overall are Hell Awaits, Reign in Blood, and Seasons in the Abyss. And as far as live albums go decade of aggression kicks ass

 

Like them or not, Dimebag was a f'ing riff meister.

 

Slayer : Reign in Blood and Seasons in the Abyss.
Megadeth: Peace sells... and Rust in Piece.
Exodus : Bonded by Blood
Anthrax: Fist Full of Metal

Thrash Metals golden era.

 

Pantera had a very distinct sounding rhythm section too.
Did not care much for Anselmo though...

 

The aforementioned golden-age thrash is great for fun-factor, with a good dash of energy/grit and excellent technical chops all around... but if either of those things are important, why stop at thrash?

Other subgenres of metal exist that reach more extremely in either direction... and other directions.

Explore http://mapofmetal.com/ . It's a great resource for engaging with new subgenres, with examples of some better-known recordings within each one. Metal is way bigger than most people would have you think... Slayer is just the beginning.

Claiming to be a metal expert whilst only listening to Slayer and the big American / British bands of the 70s-90s is like claiming to be a jazz expert while only listening to Frank Sinatra. Slayer and Sinatra are both great entryways into their respective genres, and both showcase masterful musicianship... but it's just so much bigger than that.

 

Agreed. There is no one"holy"(or unholy) metal band. Prog, black metal, Djent, metalcore, mathcore: so many sub-genres.

 

I probably would be too if I wasn't born in 1994.

 

I would go with some of the other advice, Slayer is fine, and it’s Psalm’s meme for now, but Megadeth is better thrash, with Killing is My Business and Rust in Peace being their best efforts. Peace Sells... is also good, though maybe a step down from the other two

I think Rust in Peace is probably the peak of the original thrash movement.

 

This was a good read.

 

Reading this thread, my brain keeps wanting to make Frank Sinatra into a metal band...




In other news, it's not slayer, but for metal, folk metal like Slough Feg and Hammers of Misfortune are a lot of fun and you'll be less likely to become a Chinese toaster.


P.S. Required reading:



N.B. This is an actual book.

 

Seen Slayer 4 times, everything up till 94 is great IMO. Saw them with original lineup 2x, consider myself lucky. RIP Jeff Hanneman

 

What we need is a tardgrind fundamentalist to tell us which DAC is best for listening to that piggy squealing...

 

Hard to beat the Mustaine-Friedman axe combo on Rust in Peace.

 

This map is awesome. Very handy to be able to locate my references in relation to all this other stuff I've never heard.