10 Greatest Closing Tracks In Metal

4. Raining Blood - Slayer

Most metal fans weren't really prepared for something like Reign in Blood in the '80s. Standing at just under a half hour, Slayer had crafted one of the most savage assaults that your eardrums had ever heard, from the opening shriek behind Angel of Death to the punk by way of death metal on something like Necrophobic. You may have thought you were entering a hellscape, and yet Raining Blood comes on to show that we were just getting started.

Opening with the chilling sounds of rainfall, this song is one of the finest metal masterpieces ever to be put between two speakers, as Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman trade licks so fast that they may as well be on hyperspeed. Just when you think that things can't get any more dark, the mid section grinds to a halt, with the guitars employing a riff so twisted that it could have been written by Satan himself.

Instead of the big resolution that you have been waiting for across this half hour experience, the closing sounds of a thunderclap send you reeling into the depths of the underworld, with no hope to return. Despite the more dark material you'd find in other rock acts, this final death knell from Slayer hit with the blunt force of a sledgehammer.