Slayer Album: “Live Undead”

New York City. Plenty of rowdy headbanging fans. One of metal's most influential bands while they were approaching their apex. Take all that, shake, stir sparingly, and you get Slayer's "Live Undead". Yes, the production is shoddy, but the atmosphere of the band and fans more than makes up for it. Musically the band is incredibly tight knit; Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman's dual layered double guitar assault is nothing short of amazing, while Dave Lombardo's insane drum assault must be heard to be believed. Also featured on here is a studio recording of "Chemical Warfare" which sounds much cleaner and crisper than the version featured on the "Haunting the Chapel" EP.

This is probably the most ignored and underrated of all the great Slayer releases. I don't understand why because I think it is among their absolute best. The songs sound even more evil and intense live with the band playing over all the chaotic,drunken crowd noise. I will always believe the best Slayer records ,with an exception of Reign in Blood, are Show No Mercy ,Haunting the Chapel,Live Undead ,and Hell Awaits.However,the extremely muddy sound quality of these recordings prevent them from reaching full potential .Still this record represents Slayer in their truest form. I will take this vesion of Slayer any day over weaker "PG-13ish" water-downed records like South of Heaven and Seasons in the Abyss. LIVE UNDEAD SHOWS NO MERCY -the band sounds simply blood-thirsty and so does the crowd...Enjoy!

For die hard slayer fans .This has to be one of the best live cds by anyone band i have heard so far.Almost like your there in person its that great. Excellent live tracks Evil has no boundaries,aggressive perfector,show no mercy,and black magic..Slayer has to be the best metal band of all times.ALL HAIL SLAYER .THEY RULE !

Unlike their first studio album,the sound is excellent here,only seven tracks opposed to 10 on the debut album,you got that right,but I think my ears would'nt have taken one more of the 24 excrutiating minutes this album clocks in at,that loud,vicious,raw,powerful,@ss kicking this record is.Plus,you get 2 tracks not available on the first album which are real killers,as the rest of the song,which are ferocious and mercilessly played as if the band were trying to kill their audience,literally.Weird fact that this is a live STUDIO recording,with a scarce bunch of fans brought into it to cheer the band,you'll notice that from crowd chanting,they sound like no more than 12 guys,but it is a direct recording indeed,complete with in-between songs banter and all,so what the f*ck,we're talking EARLY SLAYER AT THEIR VERY BEST !!!!!!!!!!

This live album was released in 1984 straight after the Haunting the Chapel EP. As far as I'm aware, it was released by the label without the band's permission. As the band had only released one full-length album and the aforementioned EP before recording this live album, it's rather hard to justify. Yet this is Slayer we're talking about, so when you look at the 7 tracks included, you realise you're in for a treat. "Black Magic", "Die by the Sword" and "The Antichrist" are all fantastic tracks and there really aren't any fillers to speak of. The performance itself is perfectly acceptable with each track being played as well as, if not better than the original. Tom's vocals sound very similar to the albums also, which displays just how great a vocalist he is.

It's worth noting that this was not recorded in a normal live environment. It's simply a rehearsal which appears to have had a rather vocal mob of fans in attendance. They sound as if they're enjoying themselves, yet I find that I don't really get the feeling of a live set when I listen to this album due to this fact. Also, the actual sound is not really that great. Everything is perfectly audible, yet when compared to the fabulous "Decade of Aggression" double live album that would come out some years later, well...there really is no comparison.

When I take these flaws into account, add the fact that the running time is under 25 minutes and "Chemical Warfare" was not included on the remastered version I have, I'd have to suggest that this is certainly not an essential Slayer release. It's one for completists like myself that figure too much Slayer really isn't enough, particularly material from their prime 80s period. You know if you fall into that category!