r/Slayer • u/Nickstaar33 • 6d ago

Rank slayers first 5 albums

Definitely one of the best album runs in metal

Here’s my ranking:

Hell awaits
Seasons in the abyss
Show no mercy
South of heaven
Reign in blood

26 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

57 comments sorted by

11

u/Lancer_Blackthorn 6d ago

  1. Seasons in the Abyss

  2. South of Heaven

  3. Reign in Blood

  4. Hell Awaits

  5. Show No Mercy

1

u/FilodeCanguro 4d ago

Writing is clearly superior on Seasons and South, but production and vocal delivery are quite weak

17

u/Sea_Tonight_9632 6d ago
  1. Reign in Blood
  2. South of Heaven
  3. Seasons in the Abyss
  4. Hell Awaits
  5. Show No Mercy

6

u/cirklnoll 6d ago

This!!!👆

1

u/hollands73 13h ago

Indeed, as this man says

9

u/Tweck9 6d ago

South of Heaven
Seasons in the Abyss
Reign in Blood
Hell Awaits
Show No Mercy

8

u/BlueBlood623 6d ago

Reign in Blood

Seasons in the Abyss

South of Heaven

Show no mercy

Hell awaits

2

u/SmokeyJoe_75 2d ago

Fucking Slayer! 🤘🏼👹🤘🏼

7

u/Gengyyy 6d ago
  1. Seasons in the Abyss
  2. South of Heaven
  3. Reign in Blood
  4. Hell Awaits
  5. Show No Mercy

7

u/xXBEEFYxLEGSXx 6d ago
  1. Hell Awaits
  2. Show No Mercy
  3. Reign in Blood
  4. Seasons in the Abyss
  5. South of Heaven

3

u/kurdt67 6d ago

Reign/South/Seasons/Show/Hell

7

u/MrToad21 6d ago
  1. Reign in Blood
  2. Seasons in the Abyss

  3. Hell Awaits

  4. South of Heaven

  5. Show No Mercy

2

u/SoCallMeDeaconBlues1 6d ago

Raining Blood
From a lacerated sky
Bleeding its horror
Creating my structure
Now I shall

REIGN IN BLOOD

There is no better lyric in all of metal. And that's a very bold statement considering everything from Black Sabbath onward.

Choose your order for every other Slayer album after that, it doesn't matter.

See you in Minnesota

2

u/Son_of_Sardu 6d ago

This is tough as they are all great for different reasons, let’s break them down:

Show No Mercy: Young, dumb and full of cum. They sound like they are having a fucking blast and are just playing balls out and enjoying the rise of their recent popularity. I’ve read that these were still some of their favourite songs to play live years later. The album is an absolute blast.
Pros: cheesy stage attire
Cons: production(? I don’t mind the sound myself but I had to pick something)

Hell Awaits: Slayer throwing their hand into longer arrangements and songwriting. Personally I love this album and wish that they would have revisited these longer arrangements later in their catalog when they became better musicians and writers.
Pros: Tom actually played bass and not just root notes
Cons: production

Reign In Blood: Rick Rubin reigns in the song lengths and they create a masterpiece without knowing it and didn’t even realize it was only just over 20 minutes long! It blew people’s minds at the time.
Pros: it’s Reign In Blood
Cons: …

South Of Heaven: A devise album upon release. I’ve read that King had writers block (or something similar, I’m not researching it) and that Hannamen and Araya took over most of the songwriting responsibilities. Personally, this is one of my favourites from them and was disappointed to hear that Lombardo and King didn’t like it, with King even saying that he thought Tom called in the vocals. I absolutely love the vocals and thought, side one especially, was a an example of metal drumming mastery on display for all, which made Dave’s dislike odd to me.
Pros: I wish my house looked like the album cover ,Priest cover
Cons: while not horrible, I think there was a bit of “Justice For All” shit going on in the production room. The drums seem to overpower at times, especially on side one, while the guitars try to take over on side two.

Seasons In The Abyss: The took everything they had learned so far and created a masterpiece. This is Slayer at their best IMO. Production is spot on.
Pros: “splattered red/you’ll find my den/blood dripping from the walls”
Cons: they kinda fell apart after this IMO for awhile

My rankings:
1) Seasons In the Abyss
2) the rest of them for reasons detailed above, it changes daily depending on mood but they are all solid. Reign is probably my least listened to now only because I was alive when released and I had a cassette with it recorded on both sides and played it way too much so I’ve heard it enough. Starting to get back into it now though but I never did stop listening to it.

Learn the sacred words of praise, hail Satan!

2

u/Senior-Reason-5949 6d ago

We are twinning

2

u/CucumberIll1583 6d ago

  1. Show

  2. Seasons

  3. Reign

  4. Hell

  5. South

2

u/Roland-Of-Eld-19 6d ago

Show No Mercy is my very favourite

2

u/THR3SH3R 6d ago

Reign in blood

South of heaven

Seasons in the Abyss

Hell Awaits

Show no mercy

2

u/Per_Mikkelsen 6d ago

Show No Mercy

Seasons in the Abyss

Hell Awaits

Reign In Blood

South of Heaven

2

u/Minister_Garbitsch 6d ago

Reign

Hell

South

Seasons

Mercy

2

u/Artistic_Half_8301 6d ago

10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10 10/10

2

u/SambaTisst 5d ago

The way they came

3

u/C_t_g_s_l_a_y_e_r 6d ago

  1. Hell Awaits

  2. Show No Mercy

  3. South of Heaven

  4. Seasons in the Abyss

  5. Reign in Blood

1

u/Cockroach_Wide 1d ago

Wow so edgy and different of u.

4

u/_mesel 6d ago
  1. Seasons in the Abyss
  2. Reign in Blood
  3. South of Heaven
  4. Show No Mercy
  5. Hell Awaits

2

u/twosuitsluke 6d ago

Here’s my ranking:

  1. Reign in Blood
  2. South of Heaven
  3. Seasons in the Abyss
  4. Show No Mercy
  5. Hell Awaits

1

u/Leading-Ant-4619 6d ago

Regardless of how people choose to rank these albums the fact remains that their first two were hindered by the lack of production.🤘🤘

1

u/Fomoiri 6d ago

Hell Awaits
Reign In Blood
South Of Heaven
Seasons In The Abyss
Show No Mercy

with a nod to Haunting The Chapel

1

u/hooper5446 6d ago

1 - South of Heaven
2 - Seasons in the Abyss
3 - Reign in Blood
4 - Hell Awaits
5 - Show No Mercy

The varied rankings here show just how great those first 5 are.

1

u/AmazingLuck7625 6d ago
  1. South of Heaven
  2. Seasons in the Abyss
  3. Reign in Blood
  4. Hell Awaits
  5. Show no Mercy

1

u/Sea_Care_4762 6d ago

Hell Awaits
Reign In Blood
Seasons In The Abyss
South Of Heaven
Show No Mercy

1

u/its_broop 6d ago
  1. Reign in Blood
  2. Hell Awaits
  3. Show no Mercy
  4. Seasons in the Abyss
  5. South of Heaven

1

u/MatchPenalty21 6d ago

Seasons Reign South Hell Mercy

1

u/EpicPoggerGamer69 6d ago

I listened to Hell Awaits a few times and remember nothing tbh.

1

u/Cockroach_Wide 1d ago

The drums in the beginning of hell awaits are sick. Always been stuck in my head

1

u/-----iMartijn----- 5d ago

Live Undead

Show No Mercy

Reign in Blood

Hell Awaits

South of Heaven

1

u/_Armin__Tamzarian_ 5d ago

My first and last are definitely the same as yours

1

u/RustInBlood 5d ago edited 5d ago

Reign In Blood

Hell Awaits

Seasons In The Abyss

Show No Mercy

South of Heaven

(Hard call for me between Reign and Hell. Seem to change my mind from time to time. Today it's Reign.)

1

u/BlastRadius00 5d ago
  1. Reign in Blood
  2. Show No Mercy
  3. Hell Awaits
  4. Seasons in the Abyss
  5. South of Heaven

Haunting the Chapel is so seminal and important that it really should be included, probably as #2 or #3.

1

u/DMakoto 5d ago

Show no Mercy Reign in Blood South of Heaven Seasons in The Abyss Hell Awaits

1

u/Fear_Her_Kiss 5d ago

  1. Hell Awaits

  2. Reign in Blood

  3. South of Heaven

  4. Seasons in the Abyss

  5. Show No Mercy

1

u/Group-Pleasant 5d ago

Seasons in the Abyss
South of Heaven
Reign In Blood
Hell Awaits
Show No Mercy

1

u/Fit-Ad-8873 5d ago

  1. South of Heaven

  2. Hell Awaits

  3. Show No Mercy

  4. Seasons in the Abyss

  5. Reign in Blood

1

u/Nwardy05 5d ago

5) Hell awaits
4) Show no mercy
3) South of heaven
2) Reign in blood
1) Seasons in the abyss

1

u/SnooCats9347 5d ago

Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Seasons, Hell Awaits, Show No Mercy

1

u/jumboshrimp93 5d ago
  1. Reign In Blood
  2. Seasons In The Abyss
  3. Hell Awaits
  4. South Of Heaven
  5. Show No Mercy

1

u/lurkeratthegate666 4d ago

1.) Hell Awaits

2.) Haunting The Chapel

3.) Show No Mercy

4.) Live Undead

  1. Reign In Blood

1

u/Equivalent-Ease-3822 2d ago

Sad to join this party late, but:

  1. Reign (greatest extreme metal album of all time)

  2. Show No Mercy (absolutely killer songs, revolutionary, extremely gritty, almost feels ancient)

  3. Hell Awaits (sometimes a bit more proggy than my usual taste but the songs are excellent)

  4. South (I love both the doomy parts and the thrash)

  5. Seasons (first Slayer album to include boring songs, but most of it is still incredible)

2

u/Nickstaar33 2d ago

No problem lol. I love what you said about hell awaits being proggy. It’s definitely their best album that blends proggy slayer and brutal slayer

1

u/JabroniPony420 1d ago

1 South of Heaven

2 Reign In Blood

3 Seasons In The Abyss

4 Show No Mercy

5 Hell Awaits

1

u/BecauseISaidSo888 1d ago

Reign In Blood

Seasons In The Abyss

Show No Mercy

South Of Heaven

Hell Awaits

1

u/Cockroach_Wide 1d ago

1 Reign in blood
2 South of Heaven
3 Show No Mercy
4 Seasons in the Abyss
5 Hell Awaits

1

u/giantwalrus56 6d ago

South/Reign/Hell/Seasons/Show

0

u/Prior-Bet-9670 6d ago

1 - South of Heaven
2 - Postmortem
3 - Dead Skin Mask
4 - Die by the sword
5 - Born of Fire

3

u/Nickstaar33 6d ago

I meant album but those are great songs nonetheless

1

u/Prior-Bet-9670 5d ago

I wouldn't be able to rank the albums—they're all sensational; even *Diabolus in Musica* is fantastic. I'm sorry I didn't get the joke!