World Painted Blood
Time for a new Slayer album. After the slightly good Christ Illusion, the band is back with their tenth album, World Painted Blood. As expected, the record is a continuation of that sound but also a mix of different eras, especially from God Hates Us All. If you are a fan of that album, this could be a treat but for the rest, stay as far away from this as possible. There are so many problems with this album that I don't know where to begin but I'll start with the biggest one: songwriting.
The album does not get off to a good start, as I was treated to what I consider the worst Slayer track ever in "World Painted Blood". What makes it so bad is that it recycles one good riff for six minutes, the singing is awful (more on that later) and with a pathetic excuse for a guitar solo (even for Slayer). The next track "Unit 731" isn't quite as terrible but bad nonetheless. From there things get better but that wasn't much of a challenge anyway. From the third track on, Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman are better, mainly because the rest of the songs feature true guitar leads instead of the whammy bar abuse of the first two tracks. The songwriting on the album also lacks the elements of catchiness that made their albums so cool. I am not talking about an infectious chorus but rather about any memorable part that made me remember the song long after it was over.
The rest of the band are OK I guess, although I expected so much from Dave Lombardo – he's good, just not groundbreaking. Tom Araya's bass is audible for the majority of the record (that is the best part of the album); on the other hand, his vocals are the thing that I truly hate about modern Slayer. While he sounds angry and pissed off, his voice is annoying at best, using that yammering style – clearly he has spent way too much time with bands like Hatebreed and their ilk. Another problem that I had with the disc are the lyrics which for the most part are ridiculous to say the least; just read "Snuff" and you'll understand what I am talking about.
World Painted Blood has its moments like the leads on the aforementioned "Snuff", "Playing with Dolls" and "Psycopathy Red". The recording job is outstanding, but to me that is a moot point since most of the songs are bad to begin with. It just means that I'll hear the crappy material better. At the end of the day, I was prepared for this to suck big time and while it is a little better than I expected. it is nothing to be amazed by. After Christ Illusion I was hoping that they would have continued to recapture the vibe of the old days, but after listening to this ten times now, I've come to the realization that whatever magic they had is now gone. If you are a diehard fan of the band, no doubt you'll like this. As for me, there are better ways to spend my money than on this disappointing effort.
