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Ah, Hell Awaits. Slayer’s Second album, and diffidently one of there more “horror themed” releases. Released in 1985, Hell Awaits was something else compared to mainstream metal (such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest). From the demonic sounding voices at the beginning of the title track to the riffs of “At Dawn They Sleep” to the Chorus of “The Crypts of Eternity” to the Outro of “The Hardening of the Arteries”, this album really packs a punch with a fistful of good old fashion THRASH METAL!
Ok, enough chat. Let’s get into a track-by-track review of the album.
1. Hell Awaits
The albums opening track, “Hell Awaits”, is probably one of my personal favorites from this album. It starts out with an awesome intro, with demonic voices chanting “join us” backwards, and the always inviting “WELCOME BACK!” And that’s just the first minute! Then, it goes into a really heavy riff and drum beat, which slowly changes until it speeds up, and Tom Araya’s iconic vocals kick in, along with the demonic voice from the intro. All together, this forms what is to this day one of Slayer’s best songs and is still performed when the band plays live. Possibly the best song on the album, although in my opinion it isn’t.
2. Kill Again
The second track on the album, “Kill Again”, starts off with a kickass guitar solo and some amazing riffs, then goes into the main part of the song. The song is a little less fast paced then “Hell Awaits”, but doesn’t lack any of the elements Slayer is known for. Its thrash, its fast, and its possibly the most aggressive track on the album. In my opinion, its one of the best tracks off the album.
3. At Dawn They Sleep
This next track also happens to be my personal favorite song off the album. “At Dawn They Sleep” is the most progressive track on the album. Its slower than the rest of the songs, but still manages to pack a punch with its heavy riffs, demonic vocals and absolutely amazing riff towards the end. That riff is my favorite riff on the album BY FAR! This is also my favorite song lyrically on this album.
4. Praise of Death
This is my LEAST favorite song off this album. There’s not much I can say about it except it lacks any really good riffs, is very, very repetitive, and is just a little too fast.
5. Necrophiliac
This song is rather disturbed lyrically, but musically, its genius. Just the opening riff just screams “WE ARE SLAYER AND WE ARE METAL!” It gets even better when the 1st verse begins. It’s intense, heavy, and ready to kick some ass! And the fun doesn’t stop there! The ending has an even BETTER riff, along with always creepy Tom Araya screaming “Down to the fiery depths of HELLLLLLLLLLLLLL!” Amazing song!
6. Crypts of Eternity
This song is good, but after a while of listening to it, it manages to get boring. It lacks that real “thrash metal” feeling, most likely because it makes very little use of Dave Lombardo’s amazing drumming skills. Other than that, it has a nice chorus and some good riffs, but just doesn’t really take the cake for me.
7. Hardening of the Arteries
Now for the final track, “The Hardening of The Arteries”. This song is ok, it’s a lot like Praise of Death, but has a good chorus, and the Outro is AWESOME! It’s basically the intro to “Hell Awaits”, and I couldn’t think of a better way to end the album then that!
Overall, Hell Awaits by Slayer is an amazing album, and a must buy for any Slayer fan! 5/5 Stars!
Ok, enough chat. Let’s get into a track-by-track review of the album.
1. Hell Awaits
The albums opening track, “Hell Awaits”, is probably one of my personal favorites from this album. It starts out with an awesome intro, with demonic voices chanting “join us” backwards, and the always inviting “WELCOME BACK!” And that’s just the first minute! Then, it goes into a really heavy riff and drum beat, which slowly changes until it speeds up, and Tom Araya’s iconic vocals kick in, along with the demonic voice from the intro. All together, this forms what is to this day one of Slayer’s best songs and is still performed when the band plays live. Possibly the best song on the album, although in my opinion it isn’t.
2. Kill Again
The second track on the album, “Kill Again”, starts off with a kickass guitar solo and some amazing riffs, then goes into the main part of the song. The song is a little less fast paced then “Hell Awaits”, but doesn’t lack any of the elements Slayer is known for. Its thrash, its fast, and its possibly the most aggressive track on the album. In my opinion, its one of the best tracks off the album.
3. At Dawn They Sleep
This next track also happens to be my personal favorite song off the album. “At Dawn They Sleep” is the most progressive track on the album. Its slower than the rest of the songs, but still manages to pack a punch with its heavy riffs, demonic vocals and absolutely amazing riff towards the end. That riff is my favorite riff on the album BY FAR! This is also my favorite song lyrically on this album.
4. Praise of Death
This is my LEAST favorite song off this album. There’s not much I can say about it except it lacks any really good riffs, is very, very repetitive, and is just a little too fast.
5. Necrophiliac
This song is rather disturbed lyrically, but musically, its genius. Just the opening riff just screams “WE ARE SLAYER AND WE ARE METAL!” It gets even better when the 1st verse begins. It’s intense, heavy, and ready to kick some ass! And the fun doesn’t stop there! The ending has an even BETTER riff, along with always creepy Tom Araya screaming “Down to the fiery depths of HELLLLLLLLLLLLLL!” Amazing song!
6. Crypts of Eternity
This song is good, but after a while of listening to it, it manages to get boring. It lacks that real “thrash metal” feeling, most likely because it makes very little use of Dave Lombardo’s amazing drumming skills. Other than that, it has a nice chorus and some good riffs, but just doesn’t really take the cake for me.
7. Hardening of the Arteries
Now for the final track, “The Hardening of The Arteries”. This song is ok, it’s a lot like Praise of Death, but has a good chorus, and the Outro is AWESOME! It’s basically the intro to “Hell Awaits”, and I couldn’t think of a better way to end the album then that!
Overall, Hell Awaits by Slayer is an amazing album, and a must buy for any Slayer fan! 5/5 Stars!
This has to me favorite Slayer album. I have all of there CDs and this is my best. The demonic growls and dark themes are amazing here. There's all these freakin nuns going around the net saying bad things about slayer because of there lyrics, but this is just how we like em! From the beginning of hell awaits to the demented screams of At Dawn They Sleep to the Crypts of Eternity, this album got it all! It's also by far there most. Vulgar album. I mean songs like necrophiliac? That's pretty badass! They really went above and beyond to make this album great! A must buy for anyone!
Ok I have to say that this is THE WORSTE album I have ever heard.I know it's SLAYER one of the BIG 4! They can't have a "Worste/bad album" Can they? YES THEY CAN. There lyrics are sick and disgusting. There songs are always about Death. Killing in some way. Dying in some way. Sacrifice. Stuff like that. There was even a song that was talking about rape...There was also a song that was called Necrophiliac...Yeah. You look that up if you don't know what that means. I'm not saying it in this review but it is highly disgusting and disturbing. I had no clue a band was able to write about such things and was able to get those things on a song and recorded and published and have people actually LIKE the song. Songs like these on this album are like I said,many times DISGUSTING! I'm not some Christian just going on slayer albums and other Metal albums and giving them bad reviews (I'm far from doing that I love me some Metal) But this album just goes way to far with the lyrics.I knew slayer had some bad songs but I didn't think they could get THIS bad...This is my least favorite Slayer album. I actually hate it. It's terrible. I'm not sorry for saying that either. With knowing the lyrics to songs on this album I don't think I will be buying much from slayer anymore.....I only like a few songs and I guess I will only listen to those few songs that I can actually listen to by them that are not to bad. I'd give this album zero stars but there is no rating for that so I will settle for the least they have.1 star.
Slayer, as we all know, started out as Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman starting a band. They soon hired Dave Lombardo on drums and Tom Araya on bass. The band later recorded their debut album, Show No Mercy, which started the theme of satanic subjects. Their sound soon developed with their first EP, Haunting the Chapel. Here you saw faster riffs, Eb tuning, and overall better songs. The band soon released their follow-up, Hell Awaits, which is not for the faint hearted at all. This album gives you a scary perspective on what Fundamentalist Evangelical Christians’ views on hell are. It is meant to be a place of torture with no anesthesia, scaring, and overall evilness. It is where you go if you do not believe in Jehovah, even though about 70% of the world would be going to hell. I therefore do not believe this bullshit, and I can see that Hell was invented purely for scare tactics. In addition, to scare the hell (pun intended) out of kids, every Halloween, these Fundamentalist churches hold plays and haunted houses known as hell houses. They are literally the epitome of haunted houses not only because they are scary as hell (no shit), but because they are believed to be true. They are fucking scary in almost every right, except for the fact that the voices are not demonic enough, and the extra work taken to make this. They could just as easily make all of the kids in the church listen to a copy of this album. This album is literally all that they need to believe in hell. This album is scary as fuck, but it is very underrated. The beginning of the album, with the ever scary backwards demonic Join Us and forwards Welcome Back make this album start out really fucking scary. This sample is all that is needed, but since the Fundamentalist Evangelical Christians are extremists, they push everything to extremes, and I mean FUCKING EVERYTHING. Overall, this is a good album and scary in every right.