Another pleasant album cover hides what I feel is the weightiest record of all time, possibly the purest
expression of heavy metal to strafe the airwaves. South Of Heaven is an insane construct of pummeling
power riffs, nary a moment slipping out of the jet stream of Sheer Force One. No shit, every time I
experience this awesome black hole of hate, I come very close to actual heart palpitations, the gravity
of Lombardo's relentless pound drawing all tidal tendencies into a vortex of his own lockstep, building
some of the largest beats in existence on such cranium crushers as Behind The Crooked Cross and
Mandatory Suicide. The very blood-stained crux of death metal, South Of Heaven is a torrential
downpour of what made Reign In Blood such a hurtful piece of machinery. It seems Slayer alone can
pull off such psychotic overdrives, making no apologies for their lyrical hideousness, knowing full well
such verbal slaying is merely the spoken equivalent of the careening death howls emerging bubbled
and festered from the instrumental invasion. These are the kinds of riffs you dream about then can't
remember the next morning, progressions so demonic, you just gotta crack a smile. I don't know, what
more can I say. Slayer is in sole possession of a sound that is about as violent as music gets, and with
each record more people become attuned to the band's legacy. Unstoppable cover: Priest's Dissident
Aggressor.

          Rating 10