10 Greatest Headbanging Metal Songs
4. Raining Blood - Slayer
Once the '70s drew to a close, metal was about to enter its golden age. Whereas bands like Black Sabbath were taking music in a much heavier direction, it wasn't until the next decade where the genre truly exploded, with everything from power metal to thrash to glam metal finding their respective niches. While many bands wanted to compete to see who was better, it's no contest when you have something like Raining Blood in your arsenal.
After already getting savagely beaten for the length of Slayer's Reign in Blood, the (sorta?) title track comes in like you're about to enter a thunderstorm. Just before things really take off, the initial galloping riff from Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman kicks things into high gear, with each beat hitting at the exact right time for fans to bang along to.
However, that was only the appetizer...the main course comes when the speed goes up a few BPM, as King delivers riffs so fast they could almost be considered incoherent. Even though it's a bit of a mess, this audible assault of chaos is exactly what metalheads needed, as the song becomes a perfect backdrop for the slow descent into Hell. Despite Metallica's reign over the thrash community in the '80s, Raining Blood is the foundation that all extreme metal was built upon going forward.