DIVINE INTERVENTION

Slayer: Tom Araya (vocals, bass); Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman (guitar); Paul Bostaph (drums).
Recorded at Oceanway, Los Angeles, California and Sound City, Van Nuys, California.
What can you say about a band that can find, to quote one song title, "Serenity In Murder?" And that can write a poetic, detailed observation on the subject?
Nothing that scores of critics haven't said about this shocking heavy-metal band for years, except that they're quite good at it. While their ultraviolent songs are figments of their overactive imaginations, the rage they give voice to isn't; things just may be going down the tubes. The first-person descriptions of rape ("Sex, Murder, Art") and necrophilia ("213") on DIVINE INTERVENTION are merely a leap of the imagination from the album's third-person attacks on war criminals ("SS-3"). Think of it as a character study of a man watching society crumble and crumbling along with it.
Slayer's superfast, supertight metal, propelled by Paul Bostaph's machine-gun drumming, bottles that crumbling psyche into music that's almost as dangerous as the words are alleged to be. The speed-of-light vocal on "Dittohead," an indictment of the justice system, is sprayed out like lead from an automatic weapon. "Serenity In Murder" slows the singing down over a still-fast beat, creating a psychedelic thrash feel for a song that wallows in the deluded spirituality of a psychotic's act. In the title song, he meets his maker, who may just be the devil. "Who am I to judge thy grace?" he asks. And who are you to judge theirs?

• Released: 12/17/2013
• Format: Vinyl
• Genre: Rock