The younger fans might be shocked at this but us older more entrenched Metal folk are proud to raise a glass of whatever your drinking this evening to the fact that Slayer’s 1988 opus “South Of Heaven” has reached its quarter century mark. Okay, I will admit that it hits me with some awe as well because I am of the vintage where I remember this stuff being in the “new releases” section of the neighborhood record store. The album was slightly slower than its predecessor “Reign In Blood” and according to interview posts from the late great Jeff Hanneman, this had been done on purpose since the band knew that they could not compete with the previous albums ferocity or impact on the Metal scene of the time. Resultant of this slower pace, the album received widely mixed reviews with some long time fans embracing it and others putting it on the bottom of their Thrash Metal pile. Now I’ve often admitted to being a latecomer to the Slayer scene even though my friends would be blasting it whenever we all convened. I was more a Power Metal guy and supporting that growing scene than the now matured Thrash Metal one. Don’t worry, I have made up for lost time in some sense.
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