History Music / SLAYER

* HorribleHistoryMetal: "Angel Of Death" (about horrible medical "experiments" conducted by [[ThoseWackyNazis the titular]] [[CompleteMonster Josef]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele "Angel of Death"]] [[KarmaHoudini Mengele]] during WorldWarTwo) and "Unit 731" (about horrible medical "experiments" conducted by the Japanese during the SecondSinoJapaneseWar).

** ''Diabolus In Musica'' and ''God Hates Us All'' are mostly a solid 8, while ''Christ Illusion'' is basically half 8 songs and half 9 songs.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness : Unlike [[Music/{{Metallica}} some]] [[Music/{{Megadeth}} other]] thrash metal bands of the time, they usually settle on Level 9, with ''South Of Heaven'' and ''Show No Mercy'' typically staying in the 7-8 range.

* {{Gorn}}: Some of their lyrics fall into this category, most notably "Angel of Death" and "Piece by Piece".
** As does "Unit 731".

** [[WildMassGuessing Wouldn't take make "Unit 731" a sequel to "Angel Of Death"?]]

** However, their next album, ''Seasons In The Abyss,'' [[AndTheFandomRejoiced combined the best of both worlds]].

* AnimatedMusicVideo: "World Painted Blood", which was apparently [[HomestarRunner financed with monopoly money.]]

* UpTo11: ''Inverted'' with their fourth album, ''South Of Heaven.'' The band ''knew'' that they couldn't possibly top ''Reign In Blood'', so they consciously decided to ''slow down'', stripping away lightning-fast riffs in favor of a more melodic sound.

* VillainSong: "Face the Slayer"
** ''You think you can destroy me, you better think again, I'm eternal terror, my curse will never end!''
** There are a ''lot'' of Villain Songs in Slayer's song catalog. One of the band's trademarks is that they frequently sing from the bad guy's perspective, be it Nazis, Serial Killers, or even Satan himself.

Not to be confused with the {{Anime}} ''{{Slayers}}'' or the TV series ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' (Joss Whedon himself prefers for it to be shortened as ''Buffy'').

* HorribleHistoryMetal: "Angel Of Death" (about horrible medical "experiments" conducted by ThoseWackyNazis during WorldWarTwo) and "Unit 731" (about horrible medical "experiments" conducted by the Japanese during the SecondSinoJapaneseWar).

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness : Unlike [[Music/{{Metallica}} some]] [[Music/{{Megadeth}} other]] thrash metal bands of the time, they usually settle on Level 9, with ''South Of Heaven'' typically staying in the 7-8 range.

* AlbumTitleDrop: The closing line for "Raining Blood" (the last song from ''Reign in Blood'') is, "Now I shall reign in blood!"
** Also ''God Hates Us All'' as the last line of the intro "Darkness Of Christ" and part of the chorus in "Disciple," and ''Christ Illusion'' in second-to-last song "Cult." Most other albums have a title track, but ''Diabolus In Musica'' is the only one to not have a title drop at all.
* AnimatedMusicVideo: World Painted Blood, which was apparently [[HomestarRunner financed with monopoly money.]]
* AuthorAppeal: Frontman Tom Araya has an interest in serial killers, as noted in the songs "213" (Jeffrey Dahmer) and "Dead Skin Mask" (Ed Gein). Jeff Hanneman is interested in World War II, since his relatives served in the military, and of Nazi history, despite the fact that in various interviews, he doesn't support nor condone Nazism itself. Kerry King *really* doesn't like organized religion. (the last being ironic as Tom Araya is a devout Christian but is willing to sing anything that King comes up with)
* CoverAlbum: ''Undisputed Attitude''
** Though one of the songs is a parody instead of a straight cover (TheStooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" becomes the straight-up IntercourseWithYou "I'm Gonna Be Your God").

* MetalScream: The opening of "Angel of Death", most notably.
** Also, the way some fans like to refer to the band: they don't simply say the name, they [[NoIndoorVoice just belt out]] '''[[NoIndoorVoice SSSSSSSSSSSSLAAAAAAAAAYEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]]'''
*** Tom Araya was quite fond of doing this on the early Slayer albums, suddenly turning a single word into a high-pitched drawn-out scream, as seen in "Black Magic", "Chemical Warfare", and "Necrophobic".

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness : Unlike [[{{Metallica}} some]] [[Music/{{Megadeth}} other]] thrash metal bands of the time, they usually settle on Level 9.
** South Of Heaven, however, typically stays in the 7-8 range.

* NotChristianRock: Yes, '''''Slayer''''' of all bands has an example here--the song "Silent Scream" on ''South of Heaven'' is not only an anti-abortion song but is explicitly based on a rather obscure anti-abortion video entitled "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silent_Scream The Silent Scream]]". [[spoiler:The movie--most well known in evangelical Christian and Catholic anti-abortion circles where it is still used as a "scared straight" film--purports to depict a first-trimester D&X (dilation and extraction) abortion via ultrasound, and includes [[NightmareFuel rather graphic descriptions of the dismemberment of the fetus and the "terror" of it trying to get away from the instruments of abortion including "screaming"]] (lending the film its name).]]
* PrecisionFStrike: From ''Show No Mercy'', the song "Fight 'Till Death" (There is no future, no fucking world to be saved). From ''Haunting the Chapel'', the song "Chemical Warfare" (Artificial fucking peace / Line up in a death row). From ''Reign in Blood'', the song "Criminally Insane" (I have yet only just begun / TO TAKE YOUR FUCKING LIVES!). From ''Seasons in the Abyss'', the song "Expendable Youth" (TRY AND TAKE ME, YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!).
** ClusterFBomb: Several songs on ''God Hates Us All'', but "Payback" takes the cake.

* SympatheticPOV: Averted in songs like "Angel of Death", "Dead Skin Mask", "213", and "Jihad". Not that it stopped MoralGuardians from getting worked up, but the band's general point of view seems to be that they shouldn't have to tell anyone [[AndThatsTerrible how awful the subjects really were.]]

However, Slayer hit gold in 1986 with the release of ''Reign in Blood'' (their first album produced by longtime collaborator Rick Rubin), which demonstrated the signature sound for which they have become known and featured their best-known songs, "Angel of Death" and "Raining Blood". The album has been recognized as one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time. A couple years later, they released ''South of Heaven''. This was met with mixed reviews. While some enjoyed the slower, sludgier style, others decried them for being Music/BlackSabbath wannabes. However, they combined the best of both worlds with the 1990 release ''Seasons in the Abyss''. Most fans tend to look down on the eleven year period when ''Divine Intervention'' and ''Diabolus in Musica'' were released. However, they gained mass controversy with the release of ''God Hates us All'' (coincidentally released on Sept. 11th, 2001). With their 2006 release, ''Christ Illusion'', more fans seem to be warming up with them since they are returning to their thrash metal roots, a trend that continued with ''World Painted Blood'' three years later.

* CriticalResearchFailure: Many examples:
** Religious groups have constantly accused Slayer of being Satanists. However, Tom Araya is Catholic and Kerry King is an atheist, stating repeatedly that he doesn't believe either God or Satan exist.
*** Which is ''really'' hilarious if you consider the aforementioned Tom Araya wrote a song ''based on a rather infamous anti-abortion film most widely known in the very evangelical Christian circles condemning Slayer as a bunch of devil worshippers''.
** They have been accused of supporting Nazism, thanks to the songs "Angel of Death" and "SS-3" and their cover of Minor Threat's "Guilty of Being White" (which changed the phrase to "guilty of being right" at the end), and the fact that guitarist Jeff Hanneman collects Nazi medals and other war paraphernalia. The band has stated that they don't condone Nazism. Also overlooked is the fact that both Tom Araya (a Chilean) and Dave Lombardo (a Cuban) are of Hispanic descent.
** Slayer is generally thrash metal! It is not DeathMetal! Can't you get it right, [[SouthPark Mr. "Hippies Can't Stand Death Metal"]]?

* CriticalResearchFaillure: Many examples:

* DidNotDoTheResearch: Many examples:

* EpicRiff: "Raining Blood"

* {{Flanderization}}: While their earlier albums had some Satanic themes, they were often mixed with other topics. As Kerry King has gradually begun writing more lyrics, their main theme seemed to become hatred against Christianity, as the titles of ''God Hates us All'' and ''Christ Illusion'' suggest. ''World Painted Blood'' appears to have turned this around, however.

* SympatheticPOV: Averted in songs like "Angel of Death", "Dead Skin Mask", "213", and "Jihad".

** YMMV. Their debut album, "Show No Mercy", mentions Satan by name at least once every single song. And their second album, "Hell Awaits", largely still focuses on Satanic themes or related evil themes (vampires, undead).
*** The difference is the form both cases take. It's like comparing "Hell is a great subject" to "Christianity is a lie," since a lot of the earlier songs mentioned fell more under RefugeInAudacity or RockMeAsmodeus, but the more recent pack of "Satanic" songs are a lot more of an AuthorFilibuster... Just see AuthorAppeal above.