Slayer’s World Painted Blood is shocking. While their 2006 release Christ Illusion, with drummer Dave Lombardo back in the fold, felt like the Slayer album that fans had been craving for years, World Painted Blood makes Christ Illusion feel like child’s play. As a fan I had no idea this was possible. It’s 2009 and Slayer has produced a record that is every bit the brutal tour de force that South Of Heaven was in 1988. It’s not supposed to work this way.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Slayer, more so than any of their peers, have been systematically and unapologetically producing a steady stream of horrific metal regardless of current trend. Love them or hate them, Slayer have never bent over to appease a wider audience. Never did grunge or hip hop or nu-metal taint their sound. If anything, their output in the early to mid-2000′s incorporated some hardcore, certainly never a cash cow of a musical genre. Slayer have put out a few less than stellar records but not one that’s embarrassing or cringe-worthy. That can’t be said by anyone of their co-conspirators, which brings us to World Painted Blood.

Yes, this record is easily recognizable as Slayer. It has rolling riffs, alternating between the squalling and noisy fretboard work from Kerry King and Jeff Hannenam’s blazing guitar solos, Dave Lombardo’s breakneck double bass, and Tom Arraya’s manic screams. But World Painted Blood also has Slayer’s best slow songs in “Beauty Through Order” and “Playing With Dolls” since South of Heaven. Additionally, it features a few sounds, like the wah wah-fueled riffs and melodic vocals heard on “Americon,” that you may have not heard on a Slayer album before. Most of all, the album utilizes tempo changes better than anything they’ve done in years. And at just over 39 minutes it, like all great Slayer records, never overstays its welcome.

In honor of that last tidbit, I too will not overstay my welcome by analyzing World Painted Blood with a fine tooth comb. At a time when countless other classic metal bands are either aping their former selves to mild success, synthesizing their 90′s output into competent records, or struggling to find anyone to sing for them, Slayer not only keep on keeping on but have sipped from the fountain of youth.

This is a band possessed. They are still only willing to do things on their own terms. You think you’ve heard it all before? Think again. Slayer might be steadfastly Slayer, but World Painted Blood isn’t just Slayer. It’s fucking Slayer.
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Catch Slayer Friday, February 5, at UIC Pavilion as part of the American Carnage tour featuring Megadeth. Tickets are available on Ticketmaster.com right now!
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