Metal
“Reign in Blood” turned forty on 7 October — it came out in 1986 — and Slayer have announced a vinyl edition filled with red liquid, out on 20 November. It is a zoetrope LP and Sound Of Vinyl is selling it exclusively.
It is ten tracks in 28 minutes and 58 seconds, opening with “Angel of Death” and closing with “Raining Blood”. It was cut by Tom Araya on vocals and bass, Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman on guitars and Dave Lombardo on drums, and it was the first record Slayer made with Rick Rubin producing: Rubin came from rap rather than metal, and he stripped out the reverb the genre was carrying at the time — “Hell Awaits” had been drenched in it — leaving the guitars, the vocals and the drums dry and up front. The RIAA certified it gold in 1992, six years after it came out.
Neither the run size nor the price of the new pressing has been given.
The band is playing the album in full on a run of shows: 21 October at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City, the 24th at Sick New World in Texas and the 13th and 14th of November at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, both sold out, with Cannibal Corpse, Cavalera and Crowbar. They close the year in Bogotá, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires and São Paulo. Hanneman, who wrote “Angel of Death”, died in 2013; live, Araya and King are joined by Paul Bostaph on drums and Gary Holt on guitar.
Text by Roger Estivill