There is no into to this one just fast guitar riffing right from the beginning. Of course there's so much variety in the tempos here, the guitar riffs are thick, heavily distorted, with leads that are wickedly fast. Every song you don't know what to expect speed-wise. It goes from fast to moderate to slow. All of the tempos vary depending on which song you choose to pick out. This album is entirely original from every aspect.
Musically the riffs are really catchy and well thought out. An experience here is a good one if your genre is thrash metal. Riff-wise Jeff and Kerry put together some bar chords that are thick sounding, fast tremolo picked outputs as well, and moderate to mild and I mean mild like on "Dead Skin Mask". That song is a great example of exploring the life of a murderer Ed Gein. A child's voice is featured on that one towards the end of the song. Really eerie.
The lead department on here is still good. Hard to hear the difference between which guitar player is which, either Jeff or Kerry. You'd have to look on the insert to finalize who plays which solo. The riffs here are incredible. Fast, furious, ferocious, aggressive, unrelenting, then for varieties purposes, a song about a serial killer like I mentioned. Pure ingenuity on here. Amazing riffs that astonish the listener. The riffs go well with the lyrics too!
There is less focus on Satanism and anti-Christianity lyric-wise on this album. The lyrics talk about more about war that anything else. It seems like they put in an extra effort than just mindless evil, brutal words. More of dealing with like I said war and somewhat to dealing with politics plus anti-Christianity, though not that much. War is what comes out of this abomination than anything else. Very aggressive album.
If you don't own this Slayer album, do yourself a favor: pick it up as soon as possible! Talk about aggression here, hate, and just an overall chilling experience to listen to. Not knowing what to expect here is key, but once you've heard the album a couple or more times, the more it will make sense to you. Slayer totally captivates thrash metal and plays it with vigor. All of the guitars, vocals and drums are an especially violent revolution. Own it now!