"Fuck this, fuck that...fuck everything"...sorry, but no amount of 'fucks' are gonna make me, or Slayer evil, those days are gone and for me 'Christ Illusion', despite the reinstatement of Dave Lombardo on the kit, should be the final nail in the coffin...a coffin that was rested in the ground when 'Divine Intervention' hit the racks. Guys, let the name of Slayer rest in peace and do not forever tarnish an almost faultless early years back catalogue by writing songs that simply all sound the same. Sure, new fans may join the club, but most of these are teenagers who are seeking something intense which they first discovered in crap like Slipknot. Slayer have become part of that crowd and no longer exist as thrash titans. With 'Christ Illusion' they've dressed it up in the same demented artwork that made 'Reign...', 'South...', and 'seasons...' so hateful, but it doesn't work this time, and Lombardo's once unholy thud is simply obscured by King's monotonous lyrics, and he and Hannemena's now predictable riffs and wild solo's. The songs are formula, Araya has resorted to tuneless shouts because he can no longer reach those once satanic screams, and the songs flit by with no real malice.
I used to enjoy Slayer's mid-tempo experiments, how can we ever forget the depraved trudge of 'Dead Skin Mask', or the titanic 'Seasons...', or the grim tapestry of 'Live Undead', and yet on here we have 'Eyes Of The Insane', leaving you feeling as if you've heard it before, whilst 'Jihad' attempts to provoke images of modern horror such as terrorism, but Araya's relentless yells and preachings are wasted on my ears, and it makes me feel so disappointed to say this, yet time and time again the last handful of records have become poor recycled dirges, often dodgy rehashes of old riffs, structures and topics and I'm tired of it. As a real Slayer fan I've always expected something so special from the guys, and yes, they did peak in the late '80s and I guess those days were a great time never to be equalled or revisited, so, why have the band attempted to revisit something that never needed regurgitating ? Slayer should have downtuned, slowed down, and recorded something even blacker than 'South Of Heaven' but it's clear they haven't got it in them and so will spend forever more as stagnant, yet always attempting to be extreme without making any further impact.
Many fans may not be honest enough to admit that the thrash kings have had their day, so I'll speak on behalf of them. Slayer, the game is up.
6/10
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