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Dec 20, 2021 Web Exclusive By Austin Saalman

On their self-funded debut, Slayer hit the ground running, unleashing their innovative rage of punk-inflected metal upon the world. Indeed, 1983’s Show No Mercy introduced the edgy Huntington Park rockers as a force to be reckoned with. Thanks largely, in part, to the album’s limited budget and hardscrabble recording quality, each track feels raw and gritty, the kind of manic sound captured in somebody’s cluttered garage or dingy basement. Central influences, such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, can be discerned throughout. Still, Slayer was able to take the music one step further, exerting a force unique unto themselves and, eventually, a musical movement of which they were prominent architects.

Fan favorite and key track “Black Magic” simultaneously reflects both the group’s aforementioned influences and guitarist Kerry King’s career-long penchant for satanic imagery and controversial content, while allowing the band to define their own collective identity. Frontman Tom Araya, then employed as a respiratory therapist, revealed himself as a leading metal vocalist, alternating between gruff snarls and piercing howls, with guitarists King and the late Jeff Hanneman shredding alongside, creating a crackling wall of sonic flame. Other favorites such as “Die by the Sword” and “The Antichrist” also brim with the sweaty ferocity for which Slayer would become known, showcasing King and Hanneman’s intricate guitar work and drummer Dave Lombardo’s frantic headbanging beats. “Metal Storm/Face the Slayer” remains one of the genre’s most invigorating numbers, with Araya declaring, “I’ll trap you in the pentagram and seal your battered tomb,” cementing Slayer’s legacy of heavy wickedness and hardcore aggression.

Despite its polarized reception, Show No Mercy became Metal Blade’s highest selling album, introducing Slayer to an international audience and, for better or worse, generating critical attention. Detractors have criticized the album’s lo-fi production quality and “amateurish” performances, declaring the effort far inferior to more artful releases such as the subsequent Reign in Blood, and Seasons in the Abyss. Others, however, have praised it as an early thrash and death metal revelation, and retrospective reviews have tended to be kinder. Metal Blade’s vinyl reissue of this solid debut is a necessary addition to any rock fan’s collection, its demonic power admirable in its scope of influence and inspiration. Peer through the hellish window at the grisly roots of the Grammy-winning genre giants and hear them for what they are—versatile, catharsis-inducing harbingers of unadulterated metal, their searing fury even more at home today than it was 38 years ago. (www.slayer.net)

Author rating: 7.5/10