Slayer Album: “Seasons of the Abyss [Single]”

Along with "Show No Mercy" and "Reign in Blood", this is some of Slayer's best material. The overall sound is basically the same as "Reign in Blood," but with more slower parts. Songs like "War Ensemble", "Born of Fire", and "Hallowed Point" would fit perfectly on RIB, but "Expendable Youth," "Blood Red", and "Dead Skin Mask" are much slower, and the title track is downright melodic at times. Wow, that title track is amazing. It builds up for about 2 or 3 minutes, starting with this slow, Sabbath-like riff, and then going into softer parts, and finally bursting into heaviness. There are some great vocals from Tom Araya in there too, he even almost sings softly at times. I'd say his vocals are pretty much at their best here, very hard-edged, yet listenable, and there is none of that weird squealing that seemed to run so rampant on the previous albums. He can sing, by the way, listen to their cover of Sabbath's "Hand of Doom" to hear what his "clean vocals" sound like. Besides the title track, another song really stands out here, and that is "Dead Skin Mask", a slow, bone-chilling ode to serial killer Ed Gein. The song begins with a brief monologue (I'm assuming it's Tom that does it), which is supposed to be the voice of Gein, and toward the end you hear the terrified cries of a child, which is effective in its meaning, but the cries don't sound all that believable, it could have been done better. It's still creepy though, I challenge you to listen to this song with the lights off. Those two are the best, but there are no clinkers here. I'm not sure if this is quite as good as the aforementioned Slayer albums, but I'd say that along with the vocals, the drumming is actually better. I don't think I've heard better drumming anywhere. You can go on all you want about Slipknot and their three drummers, but Dave Lombardo could outdo all three of them with one hand tied behind his back. It's just too bad he left, Paul Bostaph comes very close, but no one can match Lombardo's skill. If you are looking to buy a Slayer album, this one (along with the aforementioned ones) is a must-buy, but anything by Slayer (with the exception of "Diabolus in Musica", where they suddenly started sounding like Marilyn Manson) is worth it. Ignore my previous review where I said was not a Slayer fan. Times have changed since then, and I am definitely a fan, and always will be, even if they never stop emulating Manson. Slayer is an extremely talented band, one of the best out there, and I do not see how anyone could not recognize that. Even if you can't handle their lyrics or extreme nature, I would think you could still recognize the talent. But, I don't know. Anyway, if you love great metal, you'll surely find it here.

While I'm more into the death/industrial sound of Fear Factory and other bands that "growl" more, I can't deny that this CD is really great. I can remember hearing "War Ensemble" when I was about 8 years old, and it hasn't left my mind since. It is probably the best song on the album. The rest of the album is good, but "War Ensemble" is what attracted me to these guys. I read the review down below about how the singer can't sing. Listen stupid, it's metal! You're supposed to scream, not sing! And when he does sing, it fits the song perfectly. His vocals sound just fine. I recommend this for anyone who wants to start getting into thrash metal. I also recommend Sepultura's "Arise" for all the thrash fans out there. Overall, this is a good album. Worth it's money.

SEASONS ties up the loose ends from SOUTH OF HEAVEN to arguable produce Slayer's most mature, consistent, and memorable album. Unlike the mostly one-dimensional REIGN IN BLOOD, this album has a good variance in tempos and song-lengths. "War Ensemble" and "Born of Fire" are as speedy and heavy as the Slayer classics of old, but it's the use of melody and slower tempos the makes SEASONS such a well-rounded album. "Dead Skin Mask" and the awesome title track reveal this new direction (if I can call it that) in fine fashion.

As always, Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman do a great job with the guitar work, and the drumming of Dave Lombardo is... well, not much more needs to be said about his skills behind the kit. I would say this is Slayer's best song-for-song. The previous four albums always had a song that seemed out of place or weak when compared to the rest (i.e. "Necrophobic", "Read Between the Lines"). That isn't the case here; each song is solid from start to finish.

If you're a fan of Slayer or other heavy bands and don't own SEASONS, check it out. It's hard to go wrong if this is your style.

Everybody's agreeing about Reign in Blood being excellent (and it is). Seasons in.. and South of.. appear to provoke a lot more YES/NO/BUT/THIS/THAT. And that's exactly what these albums are about. You'll have to listen twice if you're addicted to the speed of Reign in.. But if you're up to HEAVY, if you're looking for the absolute best in trash metal, looking for the best compositions, the best drums (hail to you Dave), Arraya at the top of his voice and riffs that are still being copied but have only seldomly been improved upon, this is the one to buy.

Now I don't want to begrudge those who dig Slayer's earlier classics. "Reign In Blood" is simply a blitzkrieg of fast and furious metal caught on tape. "Hell Awaits" is close to what can be considered "progressive" Slayer. "Show No Mercy" and "South Of Heaven" are also great albums.

"Seasons in The Abyss" takes the best of all those previous albums and results in a highly-nuanced and epic work. It has speed metal when you need it then tones it down to very sinister overtures. It is album that can't be said to be "one-note".

What really catches my ears and brain are the lyrics. The songwriting is top-notch and is more than the typical odes to the horned one. The brutal opener, "War Ensemble", is as close to Slayer penning an anti-war anthem from a solder's viewpoint along the lines of the first half hour of "Saving Private Ryan": It's about survival in the battlefield. "Blood Red" is a continuation of that theme of oppressive rule at gunpoint and, at the time, likening it to the "primitive sickle" (or maybe of Death itself) of the former Soviet Union. "Expendable Youth" totally demythologizes drug-based violence in the ghettos; violence which was only glamorized by "gangsta" rap groups where here you can practically envision the death as another stringer photo in a newspaper with detached matter-of-fact copy accompanying it. "Hallowed Point" goes even deeper into violence by starting out with describing what happens as a bullet hits its target and effectively tells an anecdote from a sniper's perspective. "Dead Skin Mask" effectively captures the horror of Ed Gein while "Skeletons Of Society" is prophetic about the fall of humanity: Think about how messed up humanity was then and look at it now; it's got worse as we're in the midst of WWIII.

"Born Of Fire" and "Spirit In Black" are the usual mythological tales about "Hell" and "Satan" that Slayer does quite well with. Also of note is that for all the tracks on this album these are the only two that I can consider mythological in their subject matter. And yet they are cautionary tales rather than outright worship.

"Temptation" is an interesting track about, what else? Temptation and the resistance thereof. What's more of interest is that the echoed vocal was actually a tracking mistake. Instead of merely being echoed it's as if one is speaking identically to the other, as if one is speaking with themselves. It was an accident which turned into something that brought the track up to another level so Slayer left it the way it is. It's what the late Robert Altman would have considered, "capturing lightning in a bottle".

Then there's the epic closer, "Seasons in The Abyss". The lyrics are deliberately open-ended so one can read into it any way they like though there is an emphasis on insanity, death and of imagery possibly depicting a lobotomy. The music starts with a slow dirge then goes to atmospheric darkness. And, just when the guitar sounds a bit less dark then it all just kicks in. The solos and rhythm leads are perfect! It is a perfect closer to a perfect album that Slayer has failed to reach in regard to its excellence ever since.

I consider it along the lines of 'tallica's

but with no infighting and much better production. This is an album that deserves a place in not just the metal aficionado's library but for everyone elses music library as well. This is well written, produced and played music with functioning brains at the helm.

It is, quite simply, a masterpiece.