• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Slayer broke up about 5 years ago in the aftermath of Jeff Hanneman's death, and we all breathed a sigh of relief, as it had been ages since the band was actually worth a shit. I expected some solo projects to crop up, but I did not expect any of them to be actually good. I could tell this was a Reigning Phoenix release just from the shitty AI cover art, but I could not tell that this was going to kick my ass.

King has recruited a pretty good lineup, including longtime Slayer/Forbidden drummer Paul Bostoph and Death Angel frontman Mark Osegueda. More importantly, he remembered how to write killer fucking Thrash riffs and decided to just do that. This jettisons the shitty groove sounds of late Slayer and makes no nods to anything arty or melodic, it just rips and pounds right through the whole running time. I initially wasn't sure about Osegueda, but after a few listens, it dawned on me that he sounds like a dead ringer for Mille Petrozza on this album, and it fucking rules. The production is glossy and heavy, sounding huge with the riffs hitting like bricks through your window. Anybody who has enjoyed later-period Exodus, Kreator, or Sodom with definitely want to check this out.