Call me a purist, but compared to the early catalogue this is just isn't good enough although it's possibly the best of a bad bunch, Slayer, my one-time heroes making the biggest mistake of their once domineering career by getting rid of Dave Lombardo. Sure, his replacement Paul Bostaph is a very good drummer, but no-one creates the same rolls of thunder like Lombardo, and on 'Divine...' it shows. After being lazy since '90 (okay, the superb live album 'Decade Of Aggression' was made in-between) the band dared return with a record that's a million miles away from the thrashing menace of 'Seasons...' and the black hate of 'South..', in fact, they should be thankful I've included all their albums on this blog, failures and all, but by no means are they essential heavy metal, despite the title of this website.
'Divine Intervention', like every Slayer studio record after '90, is an attempt at recycling old 'Reign In Blood' riffs, attempting to regurgitate those blood-soaked days, and for a moment the grim, war-torn chug of 'Killing Fields' almost revives that period, Bostaph's drum roles are impressive, and the twin attack of Hanneman and King is a serpentine advance, and it's nice that Slayer can always rely on Araya's dark poetics, often most impressive when the words are slowed down. In fact, looking back on their career, it seems that after the early '90s Slayer bombed big time when Araya wasn't involved in the lyrics. Kerry King has, over time become predictable at his attempts at three minutes of satanic fury, but it gets boring, his anthems something akin to an American Wrestling soundtrack mixed with the fake pretend hate of Slipknot. 'Sex. Murder. Art.' flashes by with no real punch, but it takes five tracks before something of real terror kicks in, that being the title cut, Slayer always having a penchant for that sneering title track, and in 'Divine...' there is a real creeping monster waiting in the wings, and despite saving the record from being all filler, it still, when compared to the bands greatest songs, limps on by, but Araya excels himself here, screaming into the zenith. Other album saviours are the Hanneman groomed 'SS-3' and 'Serenity In Murder', but after all the bloodshed you won't be feeling guilty, dirty or sadistic, and in my book that's a failure on the part of Slayer.
Like any good fan you should snap this record up, but after the first decade of evil treasure, do we really need Slayer in the afterlife ?
7/10
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