Slayer - Hell Awaits (1985)

It was one of the records that changed my life and the first Slayer lp I heard. I was lent it from my best mate who got me into metal, but the cover just screamed something much darker than Iron Maiden and the likes. It was then that I noticed the black marker pen blotting out a song title. I asked my mate why the song title was obscured and he mentioned that the track was 'Necrophiliac' a track about copulating with the dead. To my mind at the time, this was shocking stuff and I had to hear such menace.
When the needle dropped on the spinning abomination I eventually purchased for £2.50, I waited with trepidation. The voices began, seemingly backwards, eerie chants from some unknown cavern in the far reaches of Hell. The strange incantations seemed to last for several minutes before the mid-tempo music kicked in, a stark, nightmarish energy that was so much more sinister than Iron Maiden or Ozzy's fresh solo's or clear production, this was an echoing chasm of sound, a ritualistic cacophony from the blackest corner of Hades.
The title cut kicked in, Tom Araya's vocals clear, yet garbled, furious rantings amid a surging guitar riff, then lead astray into some dank corner by swirling, screaming solo's and pounding drum beats. Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman and Dave Lombardo, alongside Tom Araya would become my favourite names, brutal musicians attempting to invoke the very essence of evil from their instruments, in turn spewing out vile, sepulchral lyrics, 'Kill Again' a sheer frenzy of speed and hate, 'At Dawn They Sleep a much slower yet rancid piece of graveyard eeriness, all tacked together masterfully by the searing guitar chords that only Slayer could get away with. Truly immense stuff.
The cover alone was a visual feast for young eye's, demonic entities leaping through the fiery pits and impaling, devouring and mutilating fallen souls, as Slayer's mighty pentangle logo overlooked the grisly scene.
'Necrophiliac' truly was a ghastly journey, with sinful lyrics and doom-laden atmospheres, it was the track that all school friends would fear and propel me into the world of being a 'thrasher', not just a 'metaller', but someone who understood the torment of such music, and from then on, although the effect could never become any more severe, Slayer became the kings of metal, and around the corner was to be their mightiest output of all time, the gargantuan 'Reign In Blood'.
8.5/10