World Painted Blood

World Painted Blood is a work on which SLAYER brought together, with sharp edge, the violent thrash-metal idiom they had cultivated over the years. The explosive power of high-speed songs, awkwardly ominous riffs and piercing vocals surge without a break. It is a work by the golden-era lineup, with the four original members assembled. On “World Painted Blood,” “Hate Worldwide,” “Psychopathy Red” and “Unit 731,” rather than simple nostalgia, there is fine variation in each song’s expression. Songs like “Snuff,” “Americon” and “Not of This God” breathe the band’s full aggression too. Keeping a rough momentum, they sound a tension informed by the band’s long history. Becoming, as it turned out, the last studio album with Jeff Hanneman, it is a powerful record showing the golden-era SLAYER’s underlying strength.