And then something happened.

After the release of "Undisputed Attitude", the inherit level of ass-kicking contained on the average Slayer record saw a sharp drop. "Diabolus In Musica", while containing a few tracks that seemed conductive to horn-throwing, mostly produced a kind of bemused surprise. Gone were the straight ahead thrash numbers, and in their place, some clunky groove-laden numbers that seemed all too reminiscent of the dreaded "nu" faction of metal. The backlash from this change of direction was somewhat circumvented by kick-ass live shows and an unbelievable amount of fan goodwill built from years of great thrash, but fans still exchanged worried looks.

So they released a mediocre record, everyone is entitled to one, right?

With 1998 came "God Hates Us All". Expectation and result are seldom good bedfellows, and again we were faced with a record that seemed to find the band confused as to who they were. The horn-throw reaction of old was still there, but now more firmly based on the band's past achievements and owing very little to the last few records. And while the good-song to is-this-slayer? song qotient was more skewed towards the former, the record still reminded us that they were Ozzfest headliners and not a seminal thrash band.

And now we have "Christ Illusion". The propaganda preceding the release would have us believe that this is the return to form that everyone has been waiting for. Thankfully and surprisingly, that is reasonably close to accurate.

Leading off with "Flesh Storm", we are greeted by an angrier, faster Slayer. The guitar riffs that were abandoned on "Divine Intervention" seem to have found their way back into the fold along with the classic Slayer high-on-the-neck solos. "Catalyst" comes next, and the speed and intensity are still present. Truth in propaganda? "Skeleton Christ" comes lumbering out next riding a midpaced chug that I was not all that fond of, but seemed to work for the song and not against it.

"Eyes Of The Insane" is next, and serves as one of my two least favorite tracks on the album. The first 30 seconds or so are nice enough, but the song really fails to go anywhere, and it seems that the release you are expecting never comes. "Jihad" is next, and fares much better, thrashing about for its 3 minutes convincingly. "Consfearacy" is another straight ahead thrash number, and serves as a good foil for the next track, The doomy sounding "Catatonic". This track is a nice contrast to the faster songs before it, and leads nicely into "Black Serenade", which opens with my favorite riff of the album...

Which brings us to "Cult", which was released as part of the EP "Eternal Pyre". I really wanted to like this song. That isn't to say that it is terrible, because it isn't, it just doesn't work for me. It feels longer than it should be, which dulls the impact and left me wanting to move on.

We close things with "Supremist", a decent number that is par for the album until we reach the section that arrives at 1:35. This break, leading into the solo, carries the song to its conclusion in quite the blaze ass-kicking.

Classic? Not quite, but the best album from Slayer since "Divine Intervention". A return to form? I would say so. Tom Araya is still screaming his head off, only this time to much greater effect. Dave Lombardo makes his presence known, but not so much so that you feel he was the only man for the job, and the production still carries a lesser iteration of the overcompressed work from the last two albums.

Summation? A great album that sits alongside the most recent Destruction and Kreator albums as examples of old-school thrash bands that still know how to do it.

written by Kristoffer Monfort

Playing time: 38.42