'Reign in Blood'

Once considered the “heaviest album of ALL TIME.” As if ANYONE could know that. 

I like metal despite the fact that I hate most metal. Which doesn’t make sense. What I mean is that what metal that I deem good I really like to listen to and that includes only about 10 percent of all heavy metal.

I think metal’s one redeeming quality is – somewhat ironically – is the musicianship. It’s what bands in a lot of current metal groups don’t quite understand and why a lot of 1980s glam metal is severely underrated. Kids today think it’s about anger and disassociation with mainstream culture. At its purest, it’s about playing harder, faster and louder. It’s what Slayer and Metallica perfected in the 1980s.

However, the idea wasn’t just to be fast, but to play with the precision of a concert violinist. I’ve always argued that heavy metal has more roots in classical music (and punk, for that matter) than any other music genre.

Concerning nothing, Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman died recently. It was suspected that it was related to his suffering of necrotizing faciitis, a deep infection of the skin, which basically makes your flesh rot away. He claims to have gotten it from a spider bite.

A week later, we all learned Hanneman died to liver failure and had suffered from cirrhosis. He basically drank himself to death.

How metal.