It's safe to say that Slayer have been more of a "miss" since the mid-90s or so (your mileage may vary.) The last couple of albums showed some signs of redemption, but had too much filler and/or stinkers to save the good material. Enters Repentless. I didn't have much hope for this one, so I went in with very low expectations. Well... Damn. I've been playing this over and over since it was released and I'll probably keep cranking it up for a while.
As far as I'm concerned, this is their best album since Seasons in the Abyss. Yeah, it's been that long since Slayer released an album that doesn't make me go "whoa... this song sucks" while listening to it. First off, forget old Slayer. That's long gone. But Repentless does borrow quite a bit from their late 80s/early 90s output and mixing it with a cleaner, more modern style. You get your evil-sounding vibes here and there, plenty of fast guitar work and sometimes insanely pounding drums. The vocals have been better, but again there's a return to basics that's unmistakable.
I've seen several low ratings for this one and I don't know why (I don't read other reviews before I write mine), but whatever it is that those people didn't like, I'm not hearing it. Simply put, this album has had me headbanging, foot-tapping, air-guitaring etc since the first time I listened to it. It's nowhere near their classic work, but it's probably as close as they're going to get going forward. I didn't think they still had one like that in them. Now if you'll excuse me, there's a cool little solo coming up.
