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Slayer
Christ Illusion
(American/Warner)
You gotta love Slayer. Or you gotta hate them. Those are the only two options. No middle ground.
Either you would happily let them kill you to have sex with your corpse, or you want them banned, jailed and perhaps castrated so their genes cannot be passed on to future generations. Whichever side you're on, their dozenth disc will only reinforce your belief.
Christ Illusion is like virtually all these satanic speed-demons' albums -- including their last set God Hates Us All, which came out, in a suitably evil coincidence, on 9/11.
Which is to say: It's a cacophonous, chaotic and controversial attack on conformity, Christianity, combat and clear hearing. The cover pictures a drugged-up, mutilated Jesus. The lyrics (that we can print) are mostly along the lines of, "Religion is hate, religion is fear, religion is war / Religion is rape, religion's obscene, religion's a whore."
And with the help of returning original drummer Dave Lombardo, the band unfailingly delivers its anti-war, anti-religious, hail-Satan tirades with the usual intense cocktail of whiplash speed and bloodthirsty aggression.
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Lombardo's bass drums gallop like the thundering hooves of apocalyptic horsemen. Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman's guitars gnash, slash and grind like the teeth of the beast. Tom Araya bays like a hellhound, barks like a drill sergeant and rattles your ribcage with his bass.
If that sounds familiar, it oughta -- Slayer haven't changed their tune or watered down their message in 20 years, and they sure aren't gonna start now.
And you gotta respect that. Whether you love 'em or hate 'em.
Track Listing:
1. Flesh Storm
2. Catalyst
3. Eyes Of The Insane
4. Jihad
5. Skeleton Christ
6. Consfearacy
7. Catatonic
8. Black Serenade
9. Cult
10. Supremist