RIP Jeff Hanneman: His 5 Greatest Slayer Songs

2. Angel Of Death

http://youtu.be/XNnaRHqtrDQ Taken from the album Reign In Blood (1986) Another song that Hanneman's has professed as a favourite to perform live, Angel of Death is the track that resulted in accusations of Nazi Sympathising. The song re-tells the horrifying experiments performed by Joseph Mengele, the Angel of Death, at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. Graphic and offensive, it is no surprise that Hannemans lyrics garnered such animosity but extreme music calls for extreme subject matter. Lyrics aside, Angel of Death is first and foremost an astonishing Thrash Metal song that slashes and stabs its way through furious drumming, intense unforgiving speed, insane solos and Tom Araya's feral, unhinged screams. Add the most morbid, unsettling lyrics outside of a Cannibal Corpse record (who incidentally are forever indebted to Slayer and particularly Jeff Hanneman's fearless approach) to the mix and a potent cocktail of extremity is mixed to perfection. Hanneman went for the jugular on this one and succeeded in writing a Thrash Metal classic intent on whipping up a storm of controversy; obscenely brave and one of the greatest opening tracks in extreme metal.
Contributor
Contributor

I love Heavy Metal, and generally anything that involves a guitar and loud noises, so I figured it was about time I put all the useless information in my head to good use and start writing a few things. Most of the time I'll be writing nonsense but occasionally I may surprise myself and appear half-way knowledgable.....but you can be the judge of that. Thanks for your fleeting attention!