SLAYER Hell Awaits Vinyl LP (1988)

Hell Awaits is the record Slayer made when they were trying to summon something. Not write songs, not tour, summon. Released in 1985 and pressed here with a 1988 date, it sits between the raw hunger of Show No Mercy and the surgical brutality of Reign in Blood, and that middle ground turns out to be a genuinely terrifying place to spend forty minutes.

The title track opens with a reversed vocal that, when played backwards, spells out Join Us, because of course it does. This wasn't a band playing at darkness, this was a band who had moved in. The tempos are slower than what came after, the compositions more labyrinthine, and the whole thing has a suffocating atmosphere that pure speed alone can't manufacture. Tom Araya's bass is buried and mean, the guitars are a wall of controlled chaos, and Dave Lombardo plays like he has a personal grudge against the kit. This 2021 repress on 180g black vinyl at 45rpm is the way to own it.

12" black 180g vinyl, 45rpm. Origin: USA. Genre: thrash metal.

Fans of: POSSESSED, DARK ANGEL, KREATOR, VENOM