Reign in Blood

Calling Reign in Blood fast can obscure the question of what changes within its short duration. The speed at which one track ends and another arrives is not identical to the pace of performance. If extended metal compositions are the expectation, these compressed units require another kind of attention. Instead of waiting for each song to grow large, notice material appearing, yielding and passing into the next piece. Brief does not necessarily mean light or easy.

Slayer’s 1986 studio album involved producer Rick Rubin and the band of Tom Araya, Jeff Hanneman, Kerry King and Dave Lombardo. The original ten songs occupy approximately twenty-nine minutes. This selection retains that order without expanded-edition additions. The later Still Reigning performance can reproduce the programme while remaining a different recording. Identical titles and order do not establish a studio/live match. This is a distribution of the original studio programme, without a claim of identical original mastering.

Deciding when to stop

The third track, Necrophobic, lasts around one minute forty seconds here. Habits formed around a distant returning refrain may not fit that span. Notice the decision to move onwards rather than explain an idea at length. Brevity need not signify incompletion. What stays and where a piece ends are compositional choices. Distinguishing the ten units reveals endings and neighbouring entrances within the overall pressure.

Separate jobs inside the force

Instruments sounding forceful together need not perform the same task. Consider the guitar’s recurring shape separately from moments when drums redirect movement. Their combined pressure can make individual roles harder to distinguish. There is no need to analyse every note immediately; ask whether one change draws another along. A sense of many sounds differs from evidence that no relationships can be heard.

The proportions of a finale

Postmortem leads into Raining Blood. The last track occupies a broader span than the short central items, after their compression has accumulated. Its time has another position when heard after nine tracks rather than alone. The closing impression depends on the proportions already encountered, not only on the title. Replay the finale alone and then from track nine: the same piece can register differently as an independent scene and as the act of closing an album.