Reign in Blood is the third studio album by the thrash metal band Slayer, released on October 07, 1986, by Def Jam Recordings. The album was the band’s first collaboration with producer Rick Rubin, whose input helped the band’s sound evolve.
The release date of the album was delayed because of concerns regarding the lyrical subject matter of the opening track “Angel of Death”, which refers to Josef Mengele and describes acts such as human experimentation that he committed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. The band’s members stated that they did not condone Nazism and were merely interested in the subject.
Reign in Blood was well received by both critics and fans, and was responsible for bringing Slayer to the attention of a mainstream metal audience. Today, it is often mentioned among the greatest heavy metal records ever.
In their 2017 listing of the 100 Greatest Metal albums of all time, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Reign in Blood at #6. Alongside Anthrax‘s Among the Living, Megadeth‘s Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying?, and Metallica‘s Master of Puppets, Reign in Blood helped define the sound of the emerging US thrash metal scene in the mid-1980s, and has remained influential since.
The album was Slayer‘s first to enter the US Billboard 200, peaking at number 94, and was certified Gold on November 20, 1992. The cover artwork was designed by Larry Carroll, who at the time was creating political illustrations for The Progressive, Village Voice, and The New York Times. Despite its warm reception, the band members themselves originally did not like the image.
King said, “Nobody in the band wanted that cover. We were stuck with it.” He even described the artist as a “warped demented freak”, although Carroll went on to make cover arts for their next two albums, South of Heaven (1988) and Seasons in the Abyss (1990), as well as Christ Illusion (2006).
It was believed that Columbia Records initially refused to release Reign in Blood because of the disturbing imagery. Araya refuted this claim in 2016 saying that it was because of the song “Angel of Death” and it had nothing to do with the cover art.
Although the album received no radio airplay, it was the band’s first release to enter the Billboard 200, where it debuted at #127, and attained its peak position of 94 in its sixth week. The album also reached #47 on the UK Album Chart, and on November 20, 1992, it was certified gold in the US.
Tracklist:
SIDE A
- Angel Of Death
- Piece By Piece
- Necrophobic
- Altar Of Sacrifice
- Jesus Saves
SIDE B
- Criminally Insane
- Reborn
- Epidemic
- Postmortem
- Raining Blood
Slayer
Tom Araya: bass, vocals
Kerry King: guitars
Jeff Hanneman: guitars
Dave Lombardo: drums
Production
Larry Carroll: artwork
Rick Rubin: production
Andy Wallace: engineering
Howie Weinberg: mastering
Jeffrey John Hanneman (January 31, 1964 – May 2, 2013)
