Slayer – South Of Heaven (180g)

Following the mighty, epochal Reign In Blood was never going to be easy, but Slayer played it very smart with South Of Heaven. As Tom Araya says: “We went out of our way to make sure we didn’t do another Reign In Blood.” This much was immediately apparent in the album’s opening song, the title track, a slow-building epic that leads into the frenzied thrash of Silent Scream. By mixing slower, Sabbath-style grind with all-out thrash, Slayer achieved a powerful and dramatic effect. And, surprisingly, it’s the slower songs that stand tallest, such as South Of Heaven, Mandatory Suicide and eerie climax Spill The Blood.