Slayer
Diabolus In Musica
1998 American
Slayer’s quality of output following the departure of drummer Dave Lombardo in 1992 has been a point of contention for fans for a long time. Some say that 1994’s Divine Intervention was a band treading water, others say it’s an underrated classic. I’m sort of in the latter camp. Some of the songs are forgettable, but there’s nothing bad on the album, and some songs are fucking great – “Divine Intervention,” “Serenity in Murder,” “Killing Fields,” and the blazing “Dittohead.” The production left a little to be desired, but overall, the band’s 6th studio release wasn’t anything too offensive for longtime fans. Their next studio release, however, certainly was.
Undisputed Attitude, a collection of hardcore/punk covers, certainly pissed off a lot of the longtime Slayer faithful. The fact that Slayer, thrash metal legends they were and still are, branched out into a genre like punk really upset a lot of closed-minded metalheads that only wanted to hear the band tackle Venom and Judas Priest songs. Pioneers that they were, though, Slayer went outside the box and tackled a genre that most didn’t expect. The fact that they picked relatively obscure bands to cover also showed that they were nowhere near the edge of selling out. As a one-off, studio project record that it really is, Undisputed Attitude still kind of kicks ass, with the band sounding as vital and fresh as they had in a long time. Fans wondered if they could top the aggression and intensity on their next studio album. What they got for a response was the band’s most experimental record yet.
Diabolus in Musica opens with “Bitter Peace,” which starts off heavier and slower than traditional Slayer fare, but ends up in a thrashing frenzy like the Slayer of old. A great, overlooked opener, the album starts off on a great note. “Death’s Head” simplifies things… a lot. Focusing more on a latter-day Sepultura-like groove, the song has some catchy riffs that might make a 14-year-old want to jump up and down, but it doesn’t make for a Slayer classic by any means. The nu-metal “jumpdafuckup” style continues on “Stain of Mind,” which somehow remains in Slayer’s setlist a lot to this very date. The verse riff is eerily similar to Coal Chamber’s “Loco,” from the same year, and that is far, far from a good thing.
“Overt Enemy,” the 4th track, opens with some slow bass and drums, and spoken word samples about war, death, blah, blah, blah. They’re trying to create a creepy and eerie vibe, but failing miserably, with some guitar harmonies that sound really off key and out of place. The heavy riff that comes in at about 0:55 is decent enough, but then the vocals come in and sing the same stupid melody that the guitars had just been playing, and let’s face it, Tom Araya is not much of a “singer.” This song is too slow and too dumbed-down to really ever pick up. Another miss on an album full of them.
Thankfully, “Perversions of Pain” picks things up next. Opening with a slow, doomy riff, once the drums kick in, the song starts to sound a lot like classic Slayer. The chorus is more subdued, recalling “Seasons in the Abyss.” I forgot how much I really liked this song until I listened to this album again to write this. The thrashy riff at 1:25 is total old school Slayer, and the solos are great. “Love to Hate” follows, with Tom Araya shouting over a pretty basic riff. The dumb lyrics aren’t helped by the vocal delivery in this one. Not a terrible song, but not a winner, either.
“Desire” opens with some echoing clean guitars, sort of like “213” from Divine Intervention, but where that song took the clean guitars and built on it, these riffs here just get repeated with drums and distortion backing them. Not the heaviest way to start a song, but it’s something different, and the song slowly gets better from there. Araya basically whispers the verses in this one, but it works in the context of this song. Sometimes they try to be too creepy or scary for their own good, but this song is catchy enough and dark enough to work. “In the Name of God” features some Machine Head-like starts and stops, with some great double-bass work from Paul Bostaph going on underneath. The refrain near the end, “Antichrist is the name of god!” is stupid, for sure, but for a catchy, blasphemous Slayer chant, it’s pretty good. It’s no “God hates us all!” though; that would come on the next album.
And then there’s the song about rugby. Yes, rugby. “Scrum” is actually a decent track, but the lyrics are about Kerry King’s fascination with the sport from down under. If you can get past the lyrics, this is a decent enough song, but not totally memorable, either. “Screaming from the Sky” is another clunker, with some bouncy riffing that just sounds uninspired and directionless. “Point” ends the album with a not so great intro, sounding too much like the other uninspired, bouncy, jumpy riffs I just mentioned, but the song does pick up once the lyrics come in. Nothing amazing, but at least it doesn’t leave the album on a complete down-note.
Why was it forgotten?
The fad of the day was the early rumblings of the nu-metal scene. KoRn and Deftones had just released their second albums, and bands like Coal Chamber and Soulfly were picking up steam. Older thrash bands like Slayer were either in their experimental phases – Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax – or trying to get too extreme, like Testament and Overkill. Slayer sort of did both. They tried to get heavier by tuning down their guitars and slowing the pace, but they also experimented with different sounds and textures, sometimes to good effect (“Desire,” “Perversions of Pain”) and sometimes, not so much (“Overt Enemy,” “Stain of Mind”).
Should it have been forgotten?
Aside from a few songs, yes, it should have been. Slayer have ignored this album in their live shows, the exception being the sub-par “Stain of Mind” (although, it does get mosh pits moving; then again, mosh pits are for idiots and teenagers). Having listened to it again for the purpose of writing this column, it’s not as bad or forgettable as I remembered it being, but it’s still a pretty mediocre album in a catalogue full of mostly awesome ones. I am glad, though, that I rediscovered the awesomeness of “Perversions of Pain,” a lost, underrated Slayer classic.
Matt Steele
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