HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: South Of Heaven – Slayer

In 1986, SLAYER released Reign In Blood and changed the extreme metal landscape forever with an album that was a perfect length. It flew by without letting you take a breath and was utterly relentless in its extremity. After the album was released, there was only one question to ask. How do SLAYER follow that? How do you follow up an album as instantly legendary and influential as the metal masterpiece that is Reign In Blood? The simple answer, if you are SLAYER, is you don’t.

In that, you don’t even try to replicate such a perfect album. If fans were expecting a nonstop hyperspeed Reign In Blood part 2 with the band’s long awaited follow up South Of Heaven, then the contrary SLAYER were going to do the opposite and for the most part, deliberately slow things right down which actually amplified the band’s heaviness in spades. The speed aspect of the band’s sound hadn’t completely disappeared of course, with songs like Silent Scream, Ghosts Of War, and Cleanse The Soul in particular. Hyper speed SLAYER classics and easily have slotted into Reign In Blood to be honest or any previous SLAYER album as well. With producer Rick Rubin once again at the helm and giving SLAYER the power to do exactly what they wanted, the band made South Of Heaven. Some fans may have initially been disappointed that South Of Heaven wasn’t Reign In Blood part 2 but it wasn’t for long and they would soon came round when they listened to the album and realised that SLAYER delivered another Metal classic.

South Of Heaven is an album that is packed full of songs they have played live throughout their career which, when looking back, adds another element to their legacy. You couldn’t go to a SLAYER live show and not hear South Of Heaven or Mandatory Suicide just the same as you would expect to hear Angel Of Death, Raining Blood, or Dead Skin Mask.

 

What SLAYER came up with in South Of Heaven was, of course, its own entity. With other tracks such as Behind The Crooked Cross, Live Undead, and Read Between The Lines, they added another layer of dynamic heaviness to their musical arsenal. The band even paid tribute to one of their biggest influences on the record with a cover of JUDAS PRIEST‘s Dissident Aggressor. To date, this is the only cover song to appear on an original SLAYER album and is not a covers album like Undisputed Attitude (1996).

1988 was a pivotal year for thrash metal as it continued to rise in popularity as well as develop in a number of ways. Along with South Of Heaven, 1988 also saw seminal releases from the other three members of the Big 4 with METALLICA‘s And Justice For All…, MEGADETH‘s So Far, So Good, So What and ANTHRAX’s State Of Euphoria, all four of which saw those bands getting bigger across the globe. Those albums contained elements of grandiose hard rock, punk and hardcore respectively and it seemed like it was only SLAYER, of the four, who resolutely stuck to their metal roots.

There was also an influx of newer bands coming up and releasing brilliant Thrash albums and included the likes of TESTAMENT with their second album The New Order, DEATH ANGELS‘ sophomore effort Frolic Through The Park, Vio-Lence‘s debut album Eternal Nightmare and Overkill‘s Under The Influence. There was also great Thrash albums released by bands like NUCLEAR ASSAULT, SODOM and FORBIDDEN among others.  Thrash also had a big influence on bands who wouldn’t be considered Thrash as such but had an influence on aspects of their music released on 1988 and that included hardcore bands like SUICIDAL TENDENCIES and D.R.I and Death Metal bands like DEATH and PESTILENCE, so you can see the reach that Thrash Metal had at this time. Even PANTERA who had released Power Metal in the same year had cited thrash and particularly SLAYER as a big influence on their changing sound.

 

So with thrash at arguably its peak, certainly in terms of exposure, SLAYER gained even more popularity with the release of South Of Heaven and the reaction from fans was one of ecstasy, particularly in the live arena as SLAYER grew into an even more formidable live band whetting their appetites of their increasingly rabid fans.

As SLAYER took South Of Heaven out on the road in support of the album for shows throughout the year with Motörhead, Overkill and Nuclear Assault, the crowds grew even more wild and this was none more evident than 2 gig that were as infamous and they were legendary. The first took place at The Palladium in Hollywood and saw a near riot as two hundred concertgoers were turned away and turned nasty with someone thrown through a plate glass window in the melee and the incident saw SLAYER banned from the venue until 2013.

The second took place at New York’s Felt Forum (now known as The Theater At Madison Square Garden) and saw the manically excited SLAYER fans ripping up and throwing seats and chairs even before the band took the stage and when they did, the crowd went even wilder with the entire crowd leaving bloodied and bruise after seeing a legendary SLAYER performance. These shows (and many others) demonstrate exactly the rabidly devotional ways that make SLAYER fans so passionate and fanatical.

 

The legacy of South Of Heaven is that it influenced so many bands and showed another side to SLAYER and another side of their heaviness, something they continued to do until they called it a day in 2019 but also the growing power of SLAYER as a live band and a band who always did things their own way.

South Of Heaven was originally released on July 5 1988 via American Recordings.

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