SLAYER

WORLD PAINTED BLOOD

AMERICA/SONY MUSIC

How do you really write a Slayer review? Seriously, how do you go about writing a review for a new Slayer album? You don’t want to be disrespectful because after all it is Slayer, however in all honesty Slayer hasn’t really done anything exceptional in many years and I don’t want to lie. This was this conundrum I was faced with while listening to the new Slayer album “World Painted Blood”. How was I going to write an honest review about Slayer, the band that has defined thrash metal for years? After listening to the new album it became much easier to answer this question. So, how is World Painted Blood? 

It’s a Slayer record. 

That’s pretty much all I can say about it because that’s all it is. The Slayer that wrote Reign In Blood, South Of Heaven and Seasons In The Abyss just isn’t here anymore so expecting that level of greatness serves no purpose. World Painted Blood isn’t as great as some of Slayer’s work and it isn’t as bad as some of Slayer’s work. At some point in time Slayer learned how to write a Slayer album and that’s what they do with each record. 

The riffs on this album are fast and thrashy, Dave Lombardo throws in crazy drum fills and Tom Araya barks his vocals out with the same cadence he always has. Nothing on World Painted Blood is particularly awful but then again nothing is particularly good. 

The songs here follow the same formula as most Slayer songs. Intro riff either alone or with drum fills; bang it goes into the main part of the song, Tom barks, solo, breakdown and then out. Every so often a song deviates from that but not enough for them not to start bleeding together. The lyrics here seem to have more of a political angle than other Slayer albums but in a very basic heavy metal shake-your-fist-with-anger kind of way. 

The entire World Painted Blood record could have come off an assembly line or been built from left over riffs of the last Slayer studio outing. There are some bright spots on the album such as “Americon” and “Human Strain” but even those don’t slap you across the face the way old Slayer did. 

The funny part in all of this is that none of that makes World Painted Blood a bad record. The riffs are really thrash-catchy (a word I invented because catchy sounds lame for a metal band) and Dave Lombardo just crushes the drums. Compared to a lot of the metal out there World Painted Blood is a great record and if this had been any band but Slayer I might’ve even said an amazing album. 

The problem is that coming from Slayer this is really lackluster and kind of boring. World Painted Blood feels like the product of a band that looks at music as a job instead of a passion and when that happens it’s time to call it a day. If you’re a die-hard Slayer fan who loves everything they do then by all mean check out World Painted Blood. For everybody else just stay home and play Reign In Blood over again, you’ll be much happier.