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Class 6(66)
Slayer: Seasons in the abyss
18/08/11 || Smalley
Introduction
Regardless of certain metalheads protesting to the contrary, Slayer hasn’t made a single record worth listening to in the past 20 years, and everyone should admit it. Not even that covers collection was interesting. However, their work from 86-90 is good enough for me to count them among my favorites, and of all their worthwhile albums, “Seasons in my abyss” is their best. Yes, “Reign in blood” is the fastest/heaviest, but had some overly simplistic songwriting, and while “South of heaven” upped the songwriting intricacy, it still had some duds due to an occasional lack of aggression, as well as misguided attempts by Araya at “singing”.
So, as far as I’m concerned, “Seasons” combines the best of both Slayer-worlds, with the naked aggression of “Reign” and the increased songwriting intricacy of “South”, but without the simplicity of the former or the lukewarm tracks of the latter. It’s been a long time since this one hit the shelves, but it still remains a helluva way to say goodbye to the old, good Slayer, and was also the record that turned me from a hater to a lover, so here I am to repay the debt I owe it. Pray I do so before my legs get broken.
Songwriting
8.5. All the hype over the aggression of “Reign” can often make people forget that Slayer actually wrote some very smart songs once upon a time, and “Seasons” is the finest all-around example of that; you get a nice mix of fast riff assaults ala “Reign” with tracks like “Spirit in black”, “Hallowed point”, and the relentless “War ensemble” (my favorite Slayer song), and more mid-tempo material ala “heaven” like “Expendable youth”, “Skeletons of society”, and the title track, which add some much-needed groove and variety here. Slayer actually does a good job of stretching things out on the eerie, atmospheric 6 & 1/2 minute title track, surprising, considering most of the songs they got famous for on “Reign” were less than half that length; makes me wonder if they could’ve been good at writing songs at the scope of Metallica’s “Orion”, but I guess we’ll never know now.
In addition to the fast/mid-tempo mix here and the all-around involved songwriting with both the fast and the slower stuff, Slayer makes the mid-tempo tracks generally catchier then the ones on “South” (which sometimes tended to drone), so again, fucken best of both worlds situation with this one. “Blood red” and “Dead skin mask” are somewhat disappointing, but still beat “Behind the crooked cross” any day.
Production
8.5. Hanneman’s rhythm guitar has that Slayer-signature dry, sharp sound that sounds like you could cut yourself on it just from hearing, Lombardo’s snare drum has a pretty nice dryness to it (not that shitty “…And justice for all”-dry, thankfully), the double bass sound is at the perfect spot between too low in the mix and too high, Kerry’s lead has the perfect “wail” to it, and I think I can keep track of the bass guitar underneath the rhythm, but I’m not 100% about that. Can’t say I’m a fan of how Slayer de-emphasized the bass on this one when compared to their previous two. To put it another way; it wasn’t until I was listening to the drums ‘n bass intro of “Skeletons of society” on my headphones that I realized there was a bass there. Besides that part though, a very good production.
Guitars
8. Jeff Hanneman puts in his best rhythm guitar work to date with his balance of frantic, chug-a-chug, hyperspeed riffs, slower, thicker playing, and groovy, mid-tempo work, pulling off every style with an equal amount of finesse, and keeps things interesting with a good amount of flourishes. As for Kerry’s infamously chaotic, wailing solos, he has enough energy fo sho, and has an occasional good moment, but still doesn’t demonstrate enough control over his instrument often enough to please me. It sounds like he spit out too much of his soloing completely on the spot, an approach that worked better for the messier “Reign” than the much more organized “Seasons”, so he costs this section about half a point-ish. I never really thought he was a good guitarist anyway, so it isn’t like I wasn’t expecting this. If you don’t like that, get the fuck gone.
Vocals
6. Tom Araya’s aggressive, abrasive, punk-inspired shouting certainly suits Slayer’s sensibilities (try saying that 5 times fast), but I still can’t say I’m a fan of it; he had this obnoxious, snotty edge to his vox, like a bratty kid trying to piss you off, that, well, pisses me off a little bit. I also have to lament the complete lack of falsetto shrieks here, which he did a nice job of on the previous 2 records (shut yer dirty face, Altmer), and seems at a bit of a loss when he has to slow down for the mid-tempo material.
Still, Uncle Tom does sound decent when he’s trying to sinister up his delivery, has a good sense of dramatics (i.e. knows exactly when it’s time to raise his volume for a big shout), and he stays away from any half-assed, “South of heaven” style “singing”, so there’s that on the positive end. And again, I don’t think any other vocal style would work for Slayer, so I will give him a half-point just for that fact. I really could have done without the distracting, dual-track vocals on “Temptation”, but that wasn’t a planned thing anyway, so I’ll refrain from docking any more points here.
Bass
5.5. From what I can tell, Tom mostly just follows the rhythm lines, so nothing to write home about here at all. Again, I really wish Slayer hadn’t turned down the bass sound for “Seasons”, as Tom’s playing added a nice, sinister undercurrent to something like “Postmortem”; sure, no one ever listened to Slayer for their awesome bass, but some more clarity would’ve been nice.
Drums
9.5. There’s a good fucken reason why Dave La Bambado came in at #1 on our Best Drummers list, and his drumming on “Seasons” is one of his finest skins-bashing moments; loaded with speedy snare rolls, plenty of bass drum-pummeling, and most importantly of all, tons of highly groovy, fluid drum fills coming in like deranged little tap-dances (sorry, best comparison I could think up), and I know that if this isn’t my fave performance of his, it’s damned fuckin’ close.
Dave just does his own little thing here, and it’s almost like he’s playing miniature drum solos within the overall songs; to plagiarize K himself, you’re as likely to remember his fills as much as you remember the riffs, so much more do they accomplish then simply following the rest of the tune. The slower pacing of the mid-tempo tracks give him even more ample opportunity to vary things up, to the point that I almost wish Slayer had made an entirely mid-tempo album just so I could hear Dave tear shit up some more with those snare-fills. He isn’t the fastest or most consistent drummer in the world, but possibly the most entertaining…? I think so.
Lyrics
5. The lyric topics themselves are certainly worthy: the underlying barbarism of war, the futile cycle of gang violence that destroys inner-city youths, and some traditional Hell & serial killer fodder just for old-time’s sake. However, put into practice, the rhymes are often weird stretches, a lot of the lines just don’t stick in the brain at all, and just what the hell is a “Strafing air blood raid”?? Is it when you drop in paratroopers to raid Medvac units for their blood, and then strafe them while you’re taking back off? Or is it when you strafe the enemy with blood-bullets?
I guess a line like “An accidental death-homicide” makes sense when you analyze the overall context of “Expendable youth”, but it still just sounds clunky and pointlessly strung together when Tom sings it. There are some cool, vivid lines here, like on “Spirit in black” (“Broken glass reflections show your flesh eaten away”), but on the whole, there isn’t a whole lot of good with this section.
Cover art
5.5. I can understand why people dig Slayer’s 86-90 era album covers, but I personally never have; yes, they are chaotic, ugly covers for chaotic, ugly music, but it’s never been one of those ironic, so-ugly-it’s-awesome kind of deals for me. Ugly art is simply ugly, unappealing art to me, call me a pussy for it all you like. The art here could’ve easily done without the coffin-skeletons in the background, or all the crosses cluttering up the big skull’s forehead, and the basic aesthetic quality of the entire thing seems only slightly removed from that of kindergarten finger-paints. And, I think it would’ve been much more disturbing had the big skull been vomiting whole, living people down into the abyss rather than just those little dead skulls. It isn’t quite completely mediocre art to me, but I’m still not a fan.
Logo
N/A. No logo visible.
Booklet
N/A. You know why by now.
Overall and ending rant
I do love “Reign in blood” and “South of heaven”, but as you can see from the reasons listed here, “Seasons in the abyss” is objectively Slayer’s finest moment, and as far as I’m concerned (which should be your concern as well), a great farewell to the band we all loved. Slayer is dead; long live Slayer.
- Information
- Released: 1990
- Label: Def American
- Website: www.slayer.net
- Band
- Tom Araya: vocals, bass
- Jeff Hanneman: guitars
- Dave Lombardo: drums
- Kerry King: guitars
- Tracklist
- 01. War Ensemble
- 02. Blood Red
- 03. Spirit in Black
- 04. Expendable Youth
- 05. Dead Skin Mask
- 06. Hallowed Point
- 07. Skeletons Of Society
- 08. Temptation
- 09. Born Of Fire
- 10. Seasons in the Abyss
