Slayer - World Painted Blood (2009)^{Release ID: 70}

Given that I found a fair bit of enjoyment in 2006's "Christ Illusion" & 2001's "God Hates Us All" I was politely optimistic about Slayer's 2009 release "World Painted Blood". I had heard that Slayer were perhaps steering away from the nu-metal & groove metal influences that had crept into their repertoire in recent times & had put together an album more faithful to the band's legacy & this was music to my ears. "Christ Illusion" had headed further in that direction than the previous couple of albums but also had a habit of heading off course.  

The first thing I notice about "World Painted Blood" is the dry & sloppy production. It's very disappointing & doesn't give the songs a chance to really shine. I honestly think the album may been a much more enticing prospect with a decent production job & it's particularly noticeable on faster numbers where the rhythm guitar sound becomes quite messy. Stylistically there is certainly a lot of the trademark Slayer elements at play however there also seems to be quite a bit of self plagiarism going on with very little new ground being trodden. Kerry & Jeff's guitar solos are a good example of this as they have played these solos a thousand times before & generally much better too. Still... it's good to hear Slayer doing Slayer I guess.  

Unfortunately the quality of the material is also pretty inconsistent. There are a couple of belters in "Psychopathy Red" & album highlight "Beauty Through Order". Given a better production I suspect that these two tracks probably wouldn't have sounded too out of place next to some of Slayer's classic albums. Others like "World Painted Blood", "Hate Worldwide", "Public Display Of Dismemberment" & "Playing With Dolls" have a fair bit to offer as well without quite reaching that level. The remainder of the album is pretty weak with the horrible "Americon" being the low point followed by "Human Strain" & "Not Of This God". There are also some obvious attempts at revisiting the frantic thrashfests of their first few albums but they inevitably end up sounding a bit average in comparison (see "Unit 731" & "Snuff").  

It's really quite a disappointing album due to the fact that the ingredients are all there yet the execution is so poor. Of course there will always be some good stuff on a Slayer record but I simply expect more than this. The quality control seems to have been overlooked & I'm left feeling uncertain as to whether Slayer will ever release something memorable again. With a new album in the works I imagine we will soon see.