Welcome to another edition of From My Collection. It’s hard to believe that yesterday marked a decade since the passing of founding Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman. I remember it like it was yesterday. As a then 8th grade metalhead whose listening diet consisted almost exclusively of the VH1 Classic sanctioned big name bands, it hit like a ton of a bricks (Aside from Bathory and a few death metal bands, I didn’t really dive head first down the extreme metal rabbit hole until freshman year.) Fast forward a decade later and Hanneman’s passing hits even harder, especially in a world where Slayer is spoken of in the past tense. Their 80s run was nothing short of groundbreaking, perhaps doing the most for metal’s evolution since Sabbath, Priest, and Motörhead. Today, we look back at one of these earthshattering releases, Hell Awaits. “Join us…join us…join us…”
1983 was a crucial year in the development of heavy metal. The early 80s saw no shortage of high velocity headbangers from the likes of Motörhead, Raven, Tank, Saxon, Accept, and Venom, just to name a few. These bands pushed the speed of riffs and drumming into the stratosphere like never before. Even punk was starting to get faster and filthier, thanks to bands like GBH and Discharge. This perfect storm lead to the establishment of thrash metal, cemented by albums like Exciter’s Heavy Metal Maniac and Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All. Come December of ’83, Slayer would join this emerging fold with their debut, Show No Mercy.
Combining the steely riffage of Judas Priest with the early black metal rage of Venom, Show No Mercy lived up to its name, coming off like only a thrash release from ’83 could. The groundwork for the genre’s future is there, albeit underneath a layer of NWOBHM derived traditionalism. Which is why come the release of the Haunting the Chapel EP just 6 months later, some couldn’t believe this was even the same band. This 3 song, 13 and a half minute display of brutality consisted of arguably the darkest, deadliest, and most extreme metal conjured to date, both musically and lyrically.
Gone were the NWOBHM leanings of Show No Mercy. Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman’s guitars were tuned lower. The riffs were played with bestial rage and solos were unleashed without structure. Dave Lombardo incorporated the double bass into his drumming, thanks in part to Dark Angel drummer Gene Hoglan. Tom Araya’s vocal delivery was even more frenzied and chaotic. The lyrics made struck mortal terror into the hearts of Venom. Hell, even the production was dirtier, darker, and just flat out evil. Within the unholy trinity that was “Chemical Warfare”, “Captor of Sin”, and “Haunting the Chapel” were the seeds for Slayer’s devastating sophomore full length onslaught: Hell Awaits.
As we drop the needle on Hell Awaits, we’re greeted by the infamous opening epic title track. That ominous fade-in of the cacophonous guitars and those eerie chants of, “Su nioj…su nioj…su nioj…” (“Join us” backwards), before the dark one himself greets us: “Welcome back!” We all know what happens from there. Lombardo’s drums explode like cannons and go head to head with the possessed Iommi riff assault of Hanneman and King. Then, it’s down to hell we go. The riffs reach blistering speed, Lombardo blasts away on the double bass drums, and Araya spits forth his wicked sermon with blinding urgency.
I’ve always said that if you pay attention to the core approach of Hell Awaits and put it next to Morbid Angel’s Altars of Madness, they’re damn near identical. The only difference, of course, is that David Vincent’s guttural vocals are far more in line with what we traditionally consider to be death metal than Tom Araya’s unhinged chants. If there were just some more aggression to Araya’s voice, far more would consider Hell Awaits to be the first death metal album, because every other component is there. We hear it on the title track, and we definitely hear it on “Kill Again”.
The death metal cred of “Kill Again” goes far beyond its bloodthirsty lyricism. Yes, the riffs thrash hard, but the arrangement and accompanying atmosphere are grim and dense. This is far from your typical “Let’s get wasted and mosh it up!” album of ’85, akin to what Exodus, Anthrax, and Overkill were releasing at the time. No, this was most certainly a sign of things to come. Closing out side A is the horrific “At Dawn We Sleep”. This ravenous death-thrasher established the zombie lyric trope that became a cornerstone of death metal ever since, being utilized by the likes of fellow pioneers Necrophagia, Death, Impetigo, and more.
As we flip over to side B, “Praise of Death” “runs, hunts, slashes, crushes, searches, sees, stabs, shoots, thrashes, smashes, burns, destroys, kills, and bleeds” the pleasing listener to death. From its gory lyrics to its unrelenting riffs, it is death metal at its absolute purest, and fair competition for the title of “most likely to be the soundtrack of a killing spree”. “Necrophiliac” continues the hellish high speed blitz. Seldom is there a hardcore inspired mosh break for listeners to “throw down”. No, just unrelenting death and violence. Hell (no pun intended), even the so called guitar solos match the chaos and intensity of the compositions. A well-oiled, structured machine akin to Tipton and Downing, King and Hanneman were not (at least not on this album).
The listener is given some what of a “palette cleanser” on the album’s lengthiest cut, “Crypts of Eternity”. Maybe it’s just me, but the arrangement and vocal delivery on this midtempo thrasher always reminded me of Venom’s “Sacrifice”, albeit with a refreshed ethos for the mid 80s. Remember, come ’85, Venom were on the brink of becoming “yesterday’s news”, about to be overtaken by the very bands who’d open for them on the legendary Ultimate Revenge tour. One can’t be too surprised by the outcome. Play Venom’s Welcome to Hell or Black Metal. Then play an ’85 album like Hell Awaits, Possessed’s Seven Churches, Celtic Frost’s To Mega Therion, or Bathory’s The Return……. In just a few short years, metal had taken a quantum leap forward.
Closing it all out is the ferocious “Hardening of the Arteries”. Structurally similar to “Kill Again” and “Praise of Death”, it would’ve been a more than suitable closer for such a deranged release. Yet there’s one detail about it that kills me every time (figuratively and literally), making it the brimstone cherry on top: the outro. The way “Hardening” resolves with the EXACT same intro as “Hell Awaits” is sheer brilliance, and it’s so unexpected too. I remember the first time I heard this in middle school and my jaw just hanging open. “Did they really just do that?” Yes, they did.
What happened next, well, you know. Slayer embarked on the Ultimate Revenge Tour with Venom and Exodus, and subsequently earned a record deal with Rick Rubin’s Def Jam Recordings. On there, they’d release the far more stripped down and hardcore oriented Reign in Blood, which single-handedly established Slayer as America’s premiere extreme metal band. In the years to follow, Slayer continued to tour and record constantly, persevering for a few years after Hanneman’s 2013 passing before ultimately hanging it up in 2019 as a multi-platinum, arena sellout draw. Not bad for a band who spent their entire career terrifying preachers, politicians, and parents alike, many of whom have realized their own fate: “Hell awaits…”