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Seasons in the Abyss

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Seasons in the Abyss is the fifth studio album by thrash metal band Slayer. It was recorded in 1989 and released in 1990 through Def American Records, and later through American Recordings after the company changed its name. It was Dave Lombardo's last studio album with Slayer, until his return in 2006 with the release of Christ Illusion.

Recording

"Born of Fire" was for a long time just an instrumental leftover song from South of Heaven with a working title "Stress" due to the fact that Kerry King could not write any good lyrics for it during the South of Heaven sessions. Eventually it was the last song completed for Seasons in the Abyss.

The somewhat strange vocal arrangement on the track "Temptation" was unintentionally done that way. If you listen to the track, you actually hear Tom Araya singing the song twice: once the way he thought it fit and for the second time on the insistence of Kerry King the way he thought it should be sung. The haunting end result came to be because the first vocal track was not erased between the takes. When the producer played the track and heard both vocal renditions simultaneously on the instrumental background, he liked it so much that both vocals were used on the album. Nobody is sure which vocals are the original.[1]

Lyrical themes

War, murder, and human weakness are the major lyrical themes, while rarely turning to the demonic themes of that of Reign in Blood and South of Heaven.

The song "Dead Skin Mask" was inspired on the murders and habits of serial killer Ed Gein. "Blood Red" deals with oppressive communist governments and the way they "Enforce truth through a gun". The song is an allusion, or at least has its inspiration, in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

Reception and significance

Seasons in the Abyss was released on October 9, 1990 and peaked at number 40 on the Billboard 200 album chart, the highest position the band attained at the time.[2] In 1992 the album was certified gold, for sales in excess of 500,000 in the United States.[3]

The album received positive reviews, Steve Huey of All Music Guide described the album as bringing back the "pounding aggression of Reign In Blood, periodically kicking up the mid-tempo grooves of South of Heaven." Huey praised the music as "displaying the full range of their abilities all in one place, with sharp, clean production.," stating the band is refining rather than progressing or experimenting. The album received a rating of four and a half out of five stars, while the title track and "War Ensemble" earned Slayer its heaviest airplay on MTV to date.[4]

Track listing

  1. "War Ensemble" (Lyrics: Jeff Hanneman, Tom Araya) (Music: Hanneman)– 4:54
  2. "Blood Red" (Lyrics: Araya) (Music: Hanneman) – 2:50
  3. "Spirit in Black" (Lyrics: Kerry King) (Music: Hanneman) – 4:07
  4. "Expendable Youth" (Lyrics: Araya) (Music: King) – 4:10
  5. "Dead Skin Mask" (Lyrics: Araya) (Music: Hanneman) – 5:20
  6. "Hallowed Point" (Lyrics: Hanneman, Araya) (Music: Hanneman, King) – 3:24
  7. "Skeletons of Society" (King) – 4:41
  8. "Temptation" (King) – 3:26
  9. "Born of Fire" (Lyrics: King) (Music: Hanneman, King) – 3:07
  10. "Seasons in the Abyss" (Lyrics: Araya) (Music: Hanneman) – 6:42

Personnel

Slayer

Production

References

  1. ^ 1990 issue of Metal Maniacs featuring Slayer and Megadeth talking about their then new LPs (Seasons in The Abyss and Rust In Peace)
  2. ^ "Slayer's album chart history". Billboard.com. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  3. ^ "Recording Industry Association of America Gold & Platinum Searchable Database". RIAA. Retrieved 2007-03-24.
  4. ^ Huey, Steve. "Seasons in the Abyss". All Music Guide.com. Retrieved 2007-05-13.
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