Hell Awaits is a Metal album by Slayer, originally released in 1985. On Gatefold: 179 pressings tracked, owned by 31 collectors.
About
<i>Hell Awaits</i> is a huge leap forward from Slayer’s debut album, <i>Show No Mercy</i>. It's fully immersed in the band’s signature style of hellish thrash. The opening song begins as a descent into Hades: deranged guitar fades in as the listener is greeted with a backwards recording of a demonic voice repeating the phrase “join us.” Like a locomotive picking up steam, “Hell Awaits” starts out as a steady punching riff before exploding into a torrent of bliztkrieg guitar. Brian Slagel’s production style is deeper and sludgier than <i>Show No Mercy</i>. “At Dawn They Sleep” and “Praise of Death” shift between chugging rhythms and breakneck assaults, while the punishing “Crypts of Eternity” culminates in a torrent of guitar and a blood-curdling scream from Tom Araya. The album goes out as it came in. “Hardening of the Arteries” fades out on the tribal pounding of Dave Lombardo’s drums, as the guitar writhes and claws like a body submerged in lava. For a moment it feels like the listener is being pulled back from a scene of carnage — or else being completed overtaken by the band’s violent onslaught.
via Apple Music
The Clerk says
The Clerk knows this whole record — the pressing quirks, the credits, the take.
Tracklist
Side A
- A1Hell Awaits6:12
- A2Kill Again4:52
- A3At Dawn They Sleep6:16
Side B
- B1Praise Of Death5:17
- B2Necrophiliac3:43
- B3Crypts Of Eternity6:37
- B4Hardening Of The Arteries3:57
Sound DNA
- Metal
- Thrash Metal
- heavy
- menacing
- occult
Originally released March 1985.
This time the album was financed by Brian Slagel (Show No Mercy was paid by band members) and recruited several experienced producers to help in the studio like: producer Ron Fair, who worked for Chrysalis Records, Bernie Grundman provided audio mastering, Eddy Schreyer worked on remastering, and Bill Metoyer, as sound engineer.
The lyrical theme again include hell and Satan, the repeating demonic-sounding voice in the intro of the title track played backwards reveals the repeated phrase "join us", ending with "Welcome back"
"Hardening of the Arteries" on the album ends with a very similar section that makes up the beginning of the song "Hell Awaits" and is also one of the only Slayer songs to fade out on a continuous riff.
Artwork contains elements from "Approaching Centauri" by Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) and "Crossroads of the Universe" by Enki Bilal, both featured in the July 1977 number 4 issue of the fantasy illustration magazine entitled "Heavy Metal".
To promote Hell Awaits, Slayer embarked on the Combat Tour with Venom and Exodus.
Rivadavia awarded the album four out of five stars, saying that it was "incredibly ahead of its time" and referred to it as "a mandatory item in the band's remarkable discography".
It has sold over 1,000,000 records worldwide according to Brian Slagel.
1985
US white labels (opens in a new tab) I misprint (opens in a new tab) I test (opens in a new tab)
US green labels (opens in a new tab)
US chain labels (opens in a new tab) I variant (opens in a new tab)
US picture disc (opens in a new tab) I numbered (opens in a new tab)
Canada (opens in a new tab)
EU (opens in a new tab) I misprint (opens in a new tab)
EU & UK (opens in a new tab)
Japan (opens in a new tab) I promo (opens in a new tab)
1987 Brazil (opens in a new tab)
1988
UK (2LP) (opens in a new tab)
US (opens in a new tab)
1989 EU (opens in a new tab)
1992 South Korea (opens in a new tab)
2004 500 white (opens in a new tab)
2005 500 red translucent (opens in a new tab)
2008 gold / blood spltatter (opens in a new tab)
2009
red (opens in a new tab)
orange (opens in a new tab)
clear (opens in a new tab)
black (opens in a new tab)
2013 red / orange bi-color (opens in a new tab)
2015
green transparent (opens in a new tab)
orange transparent (opens in a new tab)
orange (opens in a new tab)
2016
500 ocher / black marble (opens in a new tab)
500 green olive / black marble (opens in a new tab)
500 white (opens in a new tab)
black (opens in a new tab)
clear (opens in a new tab)
2021
750 transparent orange / black splatter (opens in a new tab)
1000 orange / red splatter (opens in a new tab)
orange translucent (opens in a new tab)
Credits
The people behind it.
Performers
- Dave LombardoBAND , DRUMS DRUM DRUMS
- Jeff HannemanBAND , LEAD GUITAR GUITAR LEAD GUITAR
- Kerry KingBAND , LEAD GUITAR GUITAR LEAD GUITAR
- Tom ArayaBAND , BASS, VOCALS BASS BASS, VOCALS
31 collectors on Gatefold own this · 179 pressings tracked on Gatefold
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