1. Reign In Blood
The masterpiece. There aren't too many bands in metal that have produced an album that instantly ripped up the entire script to date. Especially not when that album is under 30 minutes in length. Slayer had already proven themselves to be chaotically fast, unbelievably dark and hideously heavy on their first two releases, and would show greater compositional ability on the two that followed, but the impact of Reign In Blood is absolutely on a completely different level to anything else they have ever produced. It starts with a bang, with the entire band flying out of the traps on the anthemic Angel Of Death. Rapid-fire riffs, pulverising drums and the greatest scream in the history of metal introduce what may well be the best metal album of all time. The album doesn't let up, even for an instant. The rolling riffs of Piece By Piece, the unbelievable shredding in Necrophobic and Jesus Saves, the insane speed of Criminally Insane, the classic-metal-on-steroids sound of Postmortem. King and Hanneman sound possessed, while Lombardo is just on a different level. This album, undoubtedly, features the most incredible and inspirational drumming performances of all time. It all culminates with the ingenious Raining Blood, the almost-title track that is quite probably the greatest metal song of all time. Its slow-building intro is a shock to the system, with sampled thunder rumbles and Lombardo's patient drum countdown clashing with the speed of the rest of the album, but then the track kicks into gear and Slayer drag the listener through one last manic dance into Hell before halting, just as abruptly as the album began. While time has been kind to the album - it doesn't sound dated - it is difficult to fathom how innovative and heavy it sounded on its release. Nothing like this had existed before. This is the album that spawned a million bands, and that changed the direction of practically every form of heavy music that followed. Carcass, Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, Anaal Nathrakh, Kreator, Emperor, Mayhem, Meshuggah... Every extreme band that has come since has worshipped at the altar of Reign In Blood. Go listen to it again now. It's only 30 minutes. Do your penance, and hail Slayer's majesty.